Stephanie's Slice Of Life

Author Archives: StephMo

• 

  Homemade Flour Tortillas

  Posted at 4:44 pm by StephMo

  Apr 9th

  Now that running to the store for every little thing isn’t an option, I have been making my own tortillas instead of buying them. These are easy to make and you will look very impressive on your next Taco Tuesday. This recipe makes eight good size tortillas, but you can double the recipe if you would like more than that.

  I could say that I intended to make them the shape that they are in, but I will admit I was going for a circle. They tasted just as good regardless of whatever shape that actually is lol.

  You only need four ingredients to make your own tortillas and they are:

  2 cups of flour

  1/2 tsp. salt

  3/4 cup water

  3 tbsp. olive oil

  Combine flour and salt in a medium size mixing bowl. Add the water and oil and mix well.

  

  Put the dough on a floured cutting board and knead for a minute or so.

  

  Cut your dough into eight even portions.

  

  Roll each portion into a very thin circle. Yes, circle. That is the goal anyway. Actually, the one shown below is kind of a circle.

  You will need to keep flouring the board and rolling pin because they tend to get sticky.

  

  Heat your skillet a little higher than medium heat. Make sure your skillet is hot before putting in the tortilla. Cook for only about 1 minute or so, the tortilla should bubble as seen.

  

  What shape is that actually? It’s not even close to a circle lol. I think i need to practice my rolling skills.

  Flip the tortilla and cook the other side.

  

  Keep them warm until serving and fill them with fish, chicken, pork, or whatever. You’ll love them!

  

  Posted in Dinners, Recipes | Tagged flour tortilla, flour tortilla recipe, food blog, food blogger, taco recipe, taco tuesday, tacos, tortilla, tortilla recipe
• 

  Chocolate Chip Cheesecake With Strawberries

  Posted at 1:17 pm by StephMo

  Apr 9th

  This cheesecake was one of those desserts that the entire time my family was eating it there were happy little “mmmm” sounds and constant “this is so good” being said. Is there really any better compliment than that? I might even go so far as saying this is one of the best cheesecakes that I have ever tasted. This cheesecake has just gone to the top of my list of desserts to make for Holidays and the like. If you prefer a plain cheesecake, just eliminate the chocolate chips and the cocoa from the recipe.

  It is quite time consuming in that it takes about five hours from start to finish, but not difficult to make. The only difficult part about it was actually having the restraint to not eat it until it was cool. We were somewhat successful in that regard.

  Ingredients:

  1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs

  1/3 cup melted butter

  1/3 cup cocoa powder

  1/3 cup sugar

  3 – 8oz. packages of cream cheese

  1 – 14oz. can sweetened condensed milk

  2 tsp. vanilla

  3 eggs

  1 cup mini chocolate chips

  1 tsp. flour

  1- 16oz. package of strawberries

  2 tbsp. sugar

  Crush graham crackers to make them into crumbs. You can do this in a food processor, or in a zip lock bag with a rolling pin. I use my little chopper.

  

  Combine the graham cracker crumbs, butter, cocoa, and sugar in a small mixing bowl.

  

  Push the mixture into the bottom and slightly up the sides of a 9 inch springform pan. Make sure it is well packed down.

  

  With an electric mixture, beat the softened cream cheese until smooth. While beating add the sweetened condensed milk and continue beating until well mixed.

  

  Beat in the eggs and vanilla at medium speed until smooth.

  Toss 1/3 cup of the chocolate chips with the teaspoon of flour. This helps the chips not sink to the bottom of the cheesecake while baking.

  

  Fold those chips into the cheesecake mixture, and pour into the springform pan.

  

  Sprinkle the additional 2/3 cup of chocolate chips on top.

  

  I put a baking sheet under the pan just in case there was any leakage.

  Bake at 300 degrees for 1 hour. Do not open the oven. Leave in the oven for an additional hour with the oven turned off.

  Once the cheesecake is out of the oven, place in the refrigerator to cool. Do not remove springform portion of pan until completely cool.

  

  Ta da! Oh my goodness, look at that!

  

  You can serve it as is, or if you would like you can make an easy strawberry topping.

  For the topping, I just macerated strawberries by slicing the strawberries and tossing them with 2 tbsp. of sugar.

  

  After the strawberries sit for a little while, the sugar draws out their juices and makes a syrup.

  

  Now I challenge you to eat a piece of this cheesecake and not make any “mmmm” sounds 😛

  

  Posted in Recipes, cake | Tagged cheesecake, cheesecake recipe, chocolate chip cheesecake, chocolate chip cheesecake recipe, food blog, food blogger, graham cracker crust, macerated strawberries, strawberry cheesecake, strawberry cheesecake recipe
• 

  Just Maybe

  Posted at 10:47 am by StephMo

  Apr 7th

  We are living in a time that many of us never thought we would ever see. Schools are closed, businesses are closed, beaches and parks are closed, there are lines outside of grocery stores with people standing 6 feet apart while wearing masks. A time where we are all asked to stay home and social distance not only to save ourselves, but to save others and stop spreading a virus. All of this seems so unreal, like I am having a bad dream or that I am a character in a movie that I would never agree to watch despite my husband’s pleading.

  As I sit this morning drinking my coffee in my sunroom and listening to quiet that I would not normally hear on a Tuesday morning unless there was a snow storm, I started thinking about how much of what seemed so awful yesterday will be missed tomorrow. Will any of these “new” behaviors and thoughts stay with us when our lives are back to “normal”? Will we still see ourselves and others out walking at a slower pace and really seeing everything around us instead of hurriedly walking and talking about the stresses of the day? Will we still take notice of the daily changes in the trees and flowers outside? Will we miss this time together as a family? I know I will.

  I am embarrassed to say that I have found myself stressed over some of the wrong things during this time. Stressed because we can no longer have everything we want when we want it. I found myself in tears after numerous nights trying at midnight to order groceries with no success because somehow other people’s computers must be faster than mine. Groceries that I want, but not desperately need. Feeling so much pressure that my family might not be able to have their favorite baked french toast on Easter this year unless I can find a way to get French bread while not potentially exposing my asthmatic lungs to this deadly disease. Trying unsuccessfully to order items to put together Easter baskets. All of these things that felt so important at the time, really aren’t that important are they? While it is disappointing to not celebrate Easter with family like we always do, isn’t it more important that we are safe, have a home to be together in, and food to eat regardless of what it is?

  Maybe all of this will help us appreciate what we have more and not take everything for granted. Maybe next year if things are back to “normal” that Easter brunch will be cherished and appreciated more. Maybe we’ll all find we aren’t throwing away as much food. Maybe even when l can go back to running to the store for every little thing, I will decide to continue making my own tortillas, pasta, and pizza dough. Maybe I will still hear my children’s laughter alongside the bouncing sound of a basketball more often.

  Just maybe.

  Posted in Blog Posts | Tagged appreciate life, lifestyle blogger, thankful
• 

  Homemade Pizza

  Posted at 5:10 pm by StephMo

  Apr 1st

  In my opinion pizza is one of the best comfort foods, I absolutely love it and could eat it all the time. The first thing I made when I finally got around to getting a new food processor was pizza dough! I have been craving homemade pizza like crazy, and I decided to go all out and make many different kinds. If you have never made dough, it was super easy to make.

  Here are the ingredients you need:

  1 tbsp. active dry yeast

  1 tsp. sugar

  1 cup of warm water

  3 cups flour

  1 tsp. salt

  Olive Oil

  Dissolve the sugar and yeast in a small bowl with the warm water for about 5 minutes.

  Add the flour and salt to your food processor and pulse a few times to mix together.

  

  Once your yeast and sugar have dissolved, turn on the food processor and add a little bit of the liquid at a time through the top until it is mixed, then continue with a little more, etc.

  Once the dough is formed and is no longer sticking to the sides, mix for another minute or so.

  

  Coat a large mixing bowl with olive oil and add the dough to the bowl.

  

  Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel for an hour and a half and then once it has risen it looks like this.

  

  You are now ready to make pizza! Flour a cutting board and rolling pin and roll out the dough into pizzas. Spray your pans before topping with the dough.

  For the pizzas I made I topped the dough with a little tomato sauce, shredded mozzarella, my toppings, a little more mozzarella, a sprinkle of Italian Seasoning and pepper, then a drizzle of olive oil. Delicious!

  Bake at 450 degrees until the bottom turns slightly brown.

  The pizza shown in the blog header is topped with homemade turkey meatballs.

  

  This pizza has slices of fresh tomato, ricotta (mixed with parmesan, garlic powder, pepper, and parsley), and homemade turkey meatballs on half.

  

  This pizza is half cheese, and half mushroom and onion.

  Yum, yum, yum!

  Posted in Dinners, Recipes | Tagged food blog, food blogger, food processor pizza dough, homemade pizza, homemade pizza dough, homemade pizza dough recipe, pizza, pizza dough, pizza dough recipe, stephanies slice of life
• 

  DIY Sea Shell Shadow Boxes

  Posted at 12:27 pm by StephMo

  Apr 1st

  Searching for shells and sea glass is one of my absolute favorite things to do, and I could not be more thankful that my daughter feels the same way. We are often bundled up in the winter combing our favorite spots for treasures from the sea. Any time we are at the beach you will always see the two of us walking slowly and looking down, and I often have to remind myself to look up and enjoy the ocean.

  We recently visited a beach down the Cape and found so many scallop shells and while I normally fill antique mason jars with my favorite finds, scallop shells are hard to really appreciate in a jar. While I’m sure this idea isn’t new by any means, the thought came to me while rinsing the shells and thinking that I wished they could stay the color they are when they are wet. There may be a product specifically for shells, but without doing any research the first product that came to mind was polyurethane.

  Since I am not typically a crafty person per se and we are on a stay home order because of the virus, I just ordered what I assumed would work from Amazon. I ordered the gloss finish because I wanted the shells to look as glossy as they did when they were fresh out of the ocean.

  I just used a small paintbrush and brushed a thin coat on to the shells and let them dry for a few hours.

  

  

  You can see what a huge difference it made. Whether or not this was the correct product for this craft, I am thrilled with the outcome.

  

  These are what the shells looked like before,

  

  and these are what they looked like after. The colors are just so beautiful!

  

  All I needed now was to order a few shadow box frames with linen backs and a bottle of Gorilla Glue.

  Then it was time to create some wall art!

  

  

  Once I had the shells lined up I used a little bit of Gorilla Glue on the back edges of the shells and held them in place for a few seconds. That glue is very strong so make sure you place it where you want it because it is not going to move. You should also wear some sort of gloves when using this glue which we learned the hard way. I’m pretty sure my daughter no longer has fingerprints on a few of her fingers lol.

  

  Just a quick side note, yes that is my childhood ruler 🥰

  This was one of the pieces I created, and the one shown in the blog header is one my daughter created.

  

  Now we have these beautiful frames filled with our favorite shells to forever make us happy! Our next project is going to be with sand dollars!

  Posted in Blog Posts | Tagged craft, diy craft, diy wall art, lifestyle blogger, scallop shells, sea shell crafts, sea shell shadow box, sea shells, shadow boxes, shells, stephanies slice of life, wall art
• 

  The Best Irish Soda Bread

  Posted at 2:22 pm by StephMo

  Mar 17th

  What better thing to make on St. Patrick’s Day then the absolute BEST Irish Bread! This moist and buttery bread is hands down the best I have ever tasted, and super easy to make. You will definitely be sharing the luck of the Irish with anyone you make this for 🍀

  Ingredients:

  3 cups flour

  1/3 cup sugar

  1 tbsp. baking powder

  1 tsp. baking soda

  1 tsp. salt

  1 egg lightly beaten

  2 cups buttermilk

  1/4 cup butter, melted

  1/4 cup raisins

  Sift all dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.

  

  ** I make buttermilk by adding 1 tbsp. of lemon juice to the 2 cups of milk and letting it sit until it begins to curdle.

  Combine the beaten egg with the buttermilk.

  

  Add egg and buttermilk mixture to dry ingredients and mix only until just moistened.

  

  Stir in the melted butter.

  

  Fold in raisins. For this batch I didn’t add that many raisins because my family doesn’t like them and picks them out. When I make the bread for others I add more.

  

  Bake at 325 degrees in a greased loaf pan for 45-50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the bread comes out clean.

  Cool on a wire rack. The bread tastes even better when it has been wrapped in aluminum foil for several hours.

  So good!!!!🍀🍀🍀

  

  Posted in Breads, Recipes | Tagged food blog, food blogger, irish bread, irish bread recipe, irish soda bread recipe, Recipes
• 

  Simple Homemade Pasta

  Posted at 10:40 am by StephMo

  Mar 15th

  Making pasta is simple, but making it by hand without a pasta maker is quite a workout. Wow. This was my first time making pasta, and even though I just purchased a pasta maker and can’t wait to try it, I wanted to try it the old fashioned way first. All I can say is those little Italian grandmothers must be strong enough to lift a car!

  To make pasta all you need are four ingredients; flour, eggs, salt, and water.

  Mix 2 cups of flour with a tsp. of salt in a bowl, or on a board, and make a little well in the center. Add two eggs into the well.

  

  Start mixing the eggs into the flour with a fork by stirring only in the center and gradually taking more flour from the sides into the center.

  

  Add small amounts of water until it becomes a manageable dough. Use your hands while it is in the bowl to do this.

  Then put the dough onto a board and start kneading.

  

  Knead the dough for quite some time until it really starts to look and feel like the right consistency. I think I kneaded for about 10 minutes.

  

  Cover the dough lightly with plastic wrap and let it rest for about 30 minutes.

  Now if your arms aren’t already tired from kneading, they are going to get tired now. I cut the dough into three parts because I was rolling on a cutting board and only had so much room.

  Roll the pasta out as thin as you can get it. If your dough is springing back when you roll it, it needs to rest more. As you can see, I wasn’t able to get it all that thin. I did my best.

  

  I decided to gently roll the flattened dough, and cut it with a knife into thin strips. I know it isn’t perfect, but not bad for my first try!

  

  I then let the pasta dry on cooling racks for about an hour until I was ready to cook it.

  

  And that was it! Homemade pasta! I added some of my homemade pesto and it was delicious!

  Here is the link to my pesto recipe:

  https://stephaniessliceoflife.com/2020/03/05/homemade-pesto/

  

  Posted in Dinners, Recipes | Tagged food blog, food blogger, homemade pasta, nut free pesto, pasta, pasta from scratch, pasta making, pasta recipe, pesto, pesto recipe
• 

  Spinach and Cheese Arancini

  Posted at 5:57 pm by StephMo

  Mar 13th

  Every now and again when I am in the North End of Boston I will treat myself to an arancini. If you are not familiar with arancini, it is an Italian stuffed rice ball coated in bread crumbs and fried. It is always served with a little bit of red sauce. The most common types of arancini are spinach and cheese, and hamburger and peas. My favorite kind is spinach and cheese, so of course that is the kind I make.

  I am not going to lie, these are very time consuming and take hours from start to finish. They are completely worth it and these taste like you ordered them in a restaurant. I use my own homemade sauce with them, and you can find my sauce recipe by following this link:

  https://stephaniessliceoflife.com/2019/12/30/feeling-saucy/

  

  Yes, my sauce tastes as good as it looks!

  Ingredients for Arancini:

  1 1/2 cups arborio rice

  1 cup white wine

  Pinch of salt

  4 cups chicken broth

  2 cups chopped fresh spinach

  1 cup grated parmesan cheese

  2 tbsp. butter

  Pepper

  2 eggs beaten

  1 cup seasoned bread crumbs

  1 cup flour

  Mozzarella cheese

  Canola or vegetable oil

  One thing that makes these arancini so delicious is you cook the rice like risotto, so you need to keep adding, and stirring, etc. The creaminess of the rice is well worth the extra effort.

  Cook white wine, salt, and rice over medium heat for 5-10 minutes while stirring often.

  Once you get the rice started, heat the chicken broth in a pan on low/medium heat and keep it heated until you need to use it.

  

  After the 5-10 minutes, add 2 cups of the heated chicken broth and stir into the rice. Cook for 10 minutes.

  Then add the remaining 2 cups of broth, stir into the rice and cook for another 10 minutes while stirring often. Turn off the heat.

  Add the 2 cups of chopped spinach, grated cheese, butter, and pepper to taste. Stir well.

  

  Spread the rice mixture on to a parchment lined cookie sheet and refrigerate until the rice is cool. This while take some time.

  

  Once the rice is cool, cut it into squares. Put either a cube of mozzarella, or a little shredded mozzarella in the center of each square and use your hands to form the rice into a ball around the cheese.

  

  Use three separate bowls for the flour, beaten eggs, and bread crumbs.

  Roll the rice ball into the flour, then in the eggs, then in the bread crumbs.

  Drop the balls into a pan of oil that is heated to 350 degrees. Use a slotted spoon to keep moving them around in the oil and remove to a paper towel lined plate once they are brown.

  Serve warm with red sauce. Mangia!

  Posted in Dinners, Recipes
• 

  Homemade Hummus and Pita Chips

  Posted at 2:37 pm by StephMo

  Mar 13th

  If you are looking to make a little healthy homemade snack, try making hummus. I made a batch today for my family, and it was delicious! A little too delicious as I had a hard time stopping myself from eating it. This recipe makes a lot, which was great because I was able to freeze half of it for another time. If you would rather make less, just divide the recipe in half.

  I also decided to make my own pita chips, which was very easy. Today I used eight grain pita pockets to be a little healthier and that recipe follows the hummus recipe.

  Here is what you need to make hummus:

  2 – 15oz. cans of chick peas (save the liquid)

  1/2 cup tahini

  Juice of two lemons

  1/4 cup olive oil

  2 tsp. minced garlic

  1 tsp. cumin

  

  The best way to make a creamy hummus is to peel the skin off of the chicken peas, which I just didn’t feel like doing. You can tell the difference because the hummus is a little chunkier with the skins, but still just as delicious.

  Make sure to keep the liquid from the chick peas when you drain them as you will need to add some if your hummus is too thick.

  Today I realized my Cumin had expired quite some time ago so I decided to go without. It was delicious as is, so if you don’t have any Cumin, don’t fret.

  One of these days I must accept the fact that I can’t find my food processor and buy another one. Hummus was not easy to make in my little chopper. It took multiple batches and much longer than necessary.

  

  If you have a food processor, just add all of the ingredients and really let it mix until it is smooth. If the hummus is too thick, which it most likely will be, add a little bit of the liquid from the chick peas until you get it to the consistency you desire.

  If you would also like to make your own pita chips you only need pita bread, olive oil, and some salt. As I mentioned I used eight grain pita bread, but you can use whichever kind of pita bread you prefer.

  To make pita chips, cut the bread into eight triangular pieces.

  

  Then separate the triangles into two pieces and place on a parchment lined baking sheet.

  Brush each piece with a little olive oil and sprinkle with salt. You can also season with other spices if you would like.

  

  Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes or until crispy.

  

  Posted in Dips, Recipes | Tagged food blog, food blogger, healthy snacks, hummus, hummus and pita chips, hummus recipe, hummus with tahini recipe, pita chip recipe, pita chips
• 

  Oatmeal Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

  Posted at 10:53 am by StephMo

  Mar 6th

  Oatmeal cookies are one of my favorite types of cookies. I love them with raisins, but since my family would probably throw them at me if they contained raisins, I started making them with chocolate chips. Years ago an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe was on the Quaker Oats container and I haven’t seen it there since, thankfully I kept it because they are just the best cookies.

  Whenever I make these cookies I add whatever I’m in the mood for, or what I have in the house. Sometimes I go with Craisins with white and milk chocolate chips, sometimes coconut and dark chocolate chips, and sometimes everything together. Today I went with coconut, milk chocolate chips, and dark chocolate chunks. Yum, yum, yum. And you can add as much chocolate or coconut as you want.

  I also like that this recipe makes a lot of cookies, that way no one notices when you eat 12 of them while baking. Well, maybe not 12, but close 😬

  Ingredients:

  1 3/4 cups flour

  1 tsp. baking soda

  1/2 tsp. salt

  1 cup (2 sticks) of butter, softened

  1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar

  1/2 cup sugar

  2 eggs

  2 tsp. vanilla

  2 tbsp. milk

  1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

  3/4 cup milk chocolate chips

  1/2 cup coconut

  Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl and set aside.

  Cream softened butter.

  

  Add sugars to butter and cream together well.

  

  Add eggs, vanilla, and milk and beat well.

  

  Add flour mixture and combine well. Then add oats, coconut, and chocolate chips.

  

  

  I was definitely using my arm muscles today! 💪🏻

  I like to use a cookie scoop, but if you do not have one then drop by tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet.

  

  Bake for 9-10 minutes at 375 degrees until the centers are pretty much set. Let them cool for 1 minute on the cookie sheet before transferring to the wire rack.

  

  Even though you won’t want to, make sure to share with family and friends!

  Posted in cookies, Recipes | Tagged cookie recipe, food blog, food blogger, oatmeal chocolate chip cookie recipe, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal coconut chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal cookie recipe, oatmeal cookies

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