Well, yeah the leaves were cooked. I still had trouble doing it. My dad did fine, but between really big hands and lots of practice, that helped.
The other alternative was to line the casserole dish with the leaves, put in the mixture, cover it with more leaves, then put the stewed tomatoes on top, and bake. It kind of made one giant stuffed cabbage.
Hey, that sounds neat - layer it like lasagna...
Cabbage lasagna. Might even try that.