Stephanie's Slice Of Life

Tag: food blogger

• 

  Chocolate Chip Cookies

  Posted at 2:48 pm by StephMo

  Apr 30th

  Years ago I veered away from the classic Nestle Toll House cookie recipe and started trying to find a better chocolate chip cookie recipe. Although I love a good Toll House cookie, I just kept finding they were a little too crispy for my personal liking. This recipe is quite different but they are soft, delicious and have become my new favorite!

  When I realized I was out of the regular size chocolate chips and only had minis, I was initially very disappointed. Well, that turned into such a good thing because I loved them even more with the small chips! Give it a try if you never have and see what you think.

  Ingredients:

  1 cup butter, softened

  1 cup sugar

  1 cup brown sugar

  2 eggs

  2 tsp. vanilla

  1 tsp. baking soda

  2 tsp. hot water

  1/2 tsp. salt

  3 cups flour

  2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

  Cream together the butter and sugars until smooth.

  

  Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla.

  Dissolve the baking soda in the hot water. This is the only recipe I have ever had to do this with.

  Add baking soda water to the batter with the salt and combine well.

  Stir in the flour and chocolate chips ( I used mini chips).

  

  Drop onto ungreased pans. I decided to use the large cookie scoop this time, go big or go home!

  

  Then bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until edges start to brown.

  Cool on a wire rack. Then eat, and repeat!

  
  Posted in cookies, Recipes | Tagged chocolate chip cookie recipe, chocolate chip cookies, cookie recipe, cookies, cookies and milk, food blog, food blogger, foodie, mini chocolate chip cookies, mini chocolate chip recipes, soft cookies
• 

  Pesto Cream Sauce

  Posted at 11:22 am by StephMo

  Apr 24th

  Last night I had intended on just making pasta with pesto for dinner, but then had a craving for something a little more creamy. I decided to add a little cream sauce spin to my homemade pesto and it was absolutely delicious! If you are like me and love cream sauce, you will love this creamy pesto. The addition of the cream is subtle and not as heavy as an alfredo sauce, but satisfies that craving for creaminess you may be having.

  First I will give you the recipe for my pesto, then further down the blog you will see how to make it into a cream sauce.

  Here are the ingredients for my regular pesto:

  4 oz. of fresh basil

  1/2 cup olive oil

  1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

  2 tsp. minced garlic

  Pepper to taste

  Add basil, cheese, garlic, and pepper to a food processor.

  

  Turn on the processor and add the olive oil slowly.

  

  Let it run until the basil is finely chopped and all the ingredients are combined.

  

  Oh that smell, wow!

  Since nothing goes better with basil than tomatoes, I decided to cut up some grape tomatoes to add to the pasta and pesto.

  

  This is where I would usually stop and be so happy with this meal. I love fresh pesto on pasta.

  But I didn’t stop, and this is where things started getting crazy and I decided to bust out the heavy cream.

  Heat 1/2 cup of heavy cream and 2 tbsp. of butter in a saucepan until the butter is melted and the cream is starting to boil while being careful not to let the cream burn. Whisk in a 1/2 cup of grated cheese and simmer for a few minutes until it starts to thicken slightly.

  

  Whisk the pesto into the cream sauce mixture and cook for a few minutes.

  

  Doesn’t that look pretty?

  Pour the sauce over your pasta of choice, add the tomatoes, stir, and serve.

  

  If your family is anything like mine, you will be listening to happy eating sounds and praises through the entire dinner. Yum!

  Posted in Dinners, Recipes, Sauces | Tagged alfredo sauce, basil recipes, cream sauce, food blog, food blogger, nut free pesto, nut free pesto recipe, pasta with pesto, pasta with pesto cream sauce, pesto, pesto cream sauce, pesto cream sauce recipe, pesto recipe, pesto recipe no nuts
• 

  Coconut Raspberry Layer Cake

  Posted at 5:21 pm by StephMo

  Apr 19th

  My daughter and I put our flavor cravings together and came up with this AMAZING cake. We knew we wanted to incorporate coconut and raspberry, and were first thinking of a chocolate cake to go with them which I think will be the next cake we bake. Ultimately we decided on a yellow cake and cream cheese frosting to compliment the two flavors, and were we happy that we did. Wow!

  Most yellow cakes have so much butter and eggs in them that you can feel your arteries clogging from just reading the recipe. Since I didn’t really want to use 100 eggs for one cake, I went to the Betty Crocker yellow cake recipe I have been using for years. Simple, moist, delicious, and it only uses one bowl. You really can’t get better than that.

  We only had about a half of a bag of coconut so we decided not to put any in the cake batter, only in the middle and on top. I’m sure a little extra in the batter would have been delicious. Here is how to make this yummy cake.

  Cake Ingredients:

  2 1/4 cups flour

  1 1/2 cups sugar

  1/2 cup shortening

  1 1/4 cups milk

  3 1/2 tsp. baking powder

  1 tsp. salt

  1 tsp. vanilla

  3 large eggs

  Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9″ round cake pans.

  Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer for 30 seconds on low speed, and 3 minutes on high speed.

  

  Pour into prepared pans.

  

  Bake for 25 – 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

  Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool completely.

  

  Once the cakes are cool you can make the cream cheese frosting. If you have read some of my other blogs you know that this frosting is my absolute favorite. It will be yours too, trust me.

  Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:

  1/2 cup butter, softened

  8 oz. block cream cheese, softened

  3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

  1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

  Combine the butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer until smooth.

  

  Add the vanilla and beat until combined. Then add the powdered sugar and continue beating until smooth and completely mixed.

  

  If it doesn’t taste sweet enough for your liking, add a little more powdered sugar.

  To frost the cakes, place one of the cakes upside down onto a plate or platter.

  

  Spread some of the frosting on the top of the layer.

  

  Spread a thick layer of Raspberry Preserves, try not to get too close to the edge so it doesn’t ooze out when you place the next layer on top.

  

  Sprinkle some coconut on top of the raspberry layer, we used Baker’s Sweetened Coconut.

  

  Top with the next layer with the round side facing up. Then start to frost the top and sides of the cake. When finished frosting sprinkle some coconut on the top.

  

  Refrigerate for a little while before eating, it tastes better slightly cold. Then dig in! So good!!!!

  

  Posted in cake, Recipes | Tagged coconut cake, coconut cake recipe, coconut raspberry cake recipe, cream cheese frosting, cream cheese frosting recipe, food blog, food blogger, yellow cake, yellow cake recipe
• 

  Baked French Toast

  Posted at 11:31 am by StephMo

  Apr 13th

  This baked french toast will be your “go to” brunch recipe from the moment you taste it. I started making this years ago for Easter brunch, and it has become a dish that my family looks forward to all year. It has become such an awaited favorite that I am pretty sure I would be disowned if I ever were to decide to make something else. No joke, it’s that good.

  This recipe makes enough for a large and a small glass baking dish of french toast. Since this year it was only the four of us, I started to just prepare one dish and the evil stares I received from my children made me quickly realize that was a bad idea. I guess if you wait 365 days for something, you want as much as you can get. A few days extra of this yummy treat for breakfast was a small price to pay for my children’s happiness.

  To make your new brunch favorite you need:

  2 large French breads

  8 eggs

  2 cups of milk

  1 1/2 cups half and half

  2 tsp. vanilla

  1/4 tsp. cinnamon

  3/4 cup butter

  1 1/3 cups brown sugar

  3 tbsp. light corn syrup

  Butter a large and a small glass baking dish. Cut the french bread into 1″ – 1/2 ” pieces and arrange in the baking dishes.

  

  

  Whisk together eggs, milk, half and half, cinnamon and vanilla in a mixing bowl.

  

  Ladle over the bread ensuring that every piece is covered.

  

  

  Cover and refrigerate overnight so the egg mixture can absorb into the bread.

  The next day combine the brown sugar, butter, and corn syrup in a saucepan over low/medium heat until everything is melted.

  

  

  Spread the mixture on the french toast until evenly coated. I never use it all, but that is up to you.

  

  Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes, sometimes longer, until the egg is fully cooked. You may need to cover with aluminum foil near the end to prevent excessive browining.

  

  Absolutely delicious! You will see why my family counts down the days until I make this french toast again.

  Posted in brunch, Recipes, Uncategorized | Tagged baked french toast, baked french toast recipe, brunch, brunch recipes, food blog, food blogger, french toast, french toast recipe, make ahead french toast, make ahead meals
• 

  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 cake, Recipes | 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
• 

  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
• 

  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
• 

  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

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