Catching Up With The Kelnhofers-33

This week on Catching up with the Kelnhofers, I’m talking through how our quarantine is going, sharing great family meals to make and some fun stuff we’re watching!

Things have continued to be a challenge, a practice in juggling and uncertainty, as I’m sure is the case with many of you. For a quick smile, check out these pictures of Freddie – more on what’s going on below!

As I’ve mentioned before, I had planned my year of content in advance and have photographed many recipes and have projects in the pipeline. Today, we are living in a different world and environment. So many of you said you enjoyed my recipes and blog as a place to look for creativity, ideas and inspiration for what to make for dinner or meals, now that you’re cooking more at home.I was so touched by all the beautiful responses to last weeks email; thank you for sharing how you’re doing.

I’ve decided to keep posting recipes and content with a lighter note. So if you see me posting a lemon loaf (recipe coming in the next week) please note that I had made that previously. I look forward to writing and working on my blog business, it provides a small sense of normalcy in these crazy times.

Lots of you have been making eggless waffles because you don’t have eggs…and I did too! I made a double batch and froze some, it’s such a good recipe!

I joke that Freddie’s face when trying new food is how I feel right now – check it out! I hope that made you guys giggle just a bit! He actually loves avocados or anything he’s trying, it just his inital faces that are hilarious.

New on the Blog:

With all of the adjustments are busy schedules, my posting schedule has been a little light, but I’m preparing some fun upcoming posts that I think you’ll love!

What to Make:

A lot of you may have your whole family home day in and day out, which is quite the adjustment. I heard from a sweet reader of mine who is taking care of her grandkids so her kids can work. She has suddenly gone from cooking for two people to cooking for 7 people daily! She’s doing the most adorable thing and printing daily menus for everyone – check one of them out below.

Some of my favorite meals for a family are below:

Reader Comments:

What a lovely comment to get in this time. Thank you @thegourmetgourmand for this sweet note! It is exactly my goal to provide these type of recipes!

“I feel like your blog is built for quarantine life! Fast, easy, simple ingredients…but most of all delicious!!”

Reader Re-Creations:

Thanks to @electricsunliz for making hand pies/aka homemade pop tarts from my cookbook. She used my recipe for pie crust and my recipe for hand pies – both featured in my Fast and Easy Five Ingredient Recipes cookbook!

General/stories/things I’m loving:

A friend of mine shared this great story with me. She has a four year old boy who is full of energy, so she is sure to go on neighborhood walks daily just to get him outside a bit. One day, she made a scavenger hunt with seven silly things on it for him to look for. Well the neighbor saw them having fun with this, so the next day, the neighbor (who is a teacher) dropped off a new scavenger hunt with 32 things to find! She went around and took pictures of items throughout their neighborhood and even gave my friend the answer key in case she didn’t know where the things were. How fun and sweet of that neighbor! (I’m not jealous, you’re jealous lol…anyone want to create a scavenger hunt for Ben? lol)

Links from around the web:

In this odd time, I wanted to share some of the things I saw that I loved; it’s inspired me and given me hope to see how businesses have pivoted to keep their doors open:

Cranky Al’s is doing ‘kids quarantine donut kits’ – each kit comes with 6 donuts with frosting and toppings for kids to decorate . We keep trying to order, but they keep being sold out (which is great!)
Milwaukee Food Tours is doing shelter in style’ kits and I love this idea!
Braise (one of our favorite restaurants) doing delivery and doing ‘bundles’ with groceries (breakfast bundle with bacon/eggs/etc.) and they’re doing ‘meal kits’ where you can cook it all at home! We made their root vegetable lasagna and it was so good!
Don’s Diner – pivoted and is now doing groceries and cocktail kits.
OnMilwaukee compiled 101 things to do with kids, which you know I am loving!
I love this image I saw.
This flower bombing that was done in Wausau is so cool!

What I’m Reading:

I haven’t been doing my daily commute so I haven’t had a chance to read/listen to books this week, I miss it dearly.

What I’m Watching:

We’re looking for more lighthearted things to watch, so we watched some rom coms!
- Crazy Stupid Love. I saw this in the movie theaters years ago. Recently it came up so Nick and I rewatched it and I LOVED it even more!
- We also rewatched How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days – one of my all time favorite movies, so so good!
Bravo Top Chef is back on!!!! I love watching the challenges and the crazy talented people. My husband also sent me this video of one of the Judges doing one of the challenges and I loved it, and the host was so good with all her questions and commentary.

Personal Stories:

I got whatever cold the kids had last week (no fevers here thankfully) and our babysitter couldn’t come in any longer…so for the foreseeable future I’ll be working from home, taking shifts with Nick. It’s definitely a juggling act, but I am so grateful we have jobs and the world situation definitely puts everything in perspective. I’m so thankful for all the extra time I get to spend with the kids…but yes, it’s a challenge juggling schedules..and the work doesn’t miraculously disappear, I/we still have lots and lots of work to do. You’ll find me up super early before the kids wake up, and then we take shifts during the day. I hope you’re staying sane with whatever your situation is.
We made a mailbox with Ben, then he saw the packaging of the construction paper and wanted to make an alligator one. So, we made an alligator mail box and it was the cutest thing ever. He wrote a letter to dad and then dad wrote him one back.

Then he wrote a letter to his grandma and grandpa and we put them outside and they came and picked them up, and wrote him back!

His grandparents even wrote him back with stickers inside and once a little package of animal crackers, he was so excited!
He loves getting letters and writing back, so if you’d like to write him a letter-just hit reply and I’ll send you our address. He is so cute, he dictates exactly what to write and I do so. He also asked one of his grandpas for a car…LOL.
It was the twins’ naptime and past the time they would normally have woken up and we heard them laughing. We quietly opened the door and saw Freddie sitting up and Frankie laughing at him and it was the cutest thing ever!!!!
I took Ben on a walk with his trike – he just discovered it has a trunk. He loves picking up sticks and putting them in the trunk…only problem is that he collects sticks and then at the end of the ride comes and dumps them onto our yard, so now our yard is covered in sticks.

Ben really wanted to bake a cake, so we picked a cookbook (Martha Stewart’s Cakes) and he picked a vegan cake and we happened to have all the ingredients, so we baked a little cake, we also put some stenciled snowflakes out of powdered sugar on top

Homeschool is going really well lol, but no, I am finding some great free resources (like Other Goose who is offering their charter-school approved curriculum for 3 weeks for free or the insane amounts of pinterest free resources!)

Ok, so you know how I LOVE meal deliver services, right? Well now they’re even more handy because I don’t want to be going to the grocery store. I had two different companies deliver them. Home Chef and another one. Well, the second company put all ingredients in a box and not in separate bags, and the meat leaked…there were meat juices on everything (think red ground beef juice on a cauliflower) so we had to unfortunately throw it away, and it was really sad!!!! Yet another reason why I LOVE HOME CHEF (Use code 40sweepthi for $40 off your first two orders) – they package their meat in a separate bag!!

Freddie would not nap one day, so I brought him in my office and he played, and then I put him in his carrier and rocked him with my foot as I worked, and he finally napped…whatever works I say, lol

I’ve been trying to get outside each day with the family for family walks

I’m doing a few things with the kids (see the walks and art projects above) but those are things we did on the weekend, which we would normally do. I had to “mute” and stop watching some things I kept seeing about all these beautiful leisurely days with all this ‘extra time’ where people were tackling big projects and doing incredible homeschool education and art projects…I’m just trying to go with the flow and keep it together. So, if you’re in the same boat – just trying to keep it all together – I’m with you!