This week on Catching up with the Kelnhofers, I’m sharing a few more sneak peaks into our new house and my new artificial lights for food photography, talking about all things apple and giving you a glimpse into a very exciting website update/feature.
What to snack on next time you have a wine night (no judgement if wine night is every night)?
A slice of Great Midwest Cheese cranberry cheddar on top of a graham cracker, drizzled with honey!
I call it “Oh Honey! Cheescipe” because it’s a cheese, recipe. So, so easy and perfect for serving at any occasion.
New on the blog:
I am loving all of the fun content up on the blog lately – I hope you enjoy it as well!
- 5 Ingredient Skillet Pizza Pot Pie Recipe – a super easy, comforting dish that’s only 5 ingredients.
- Catching up with the Kelnhofers – our weekly family update from last week.
- Sheet Pan Pizza Recipe – a recipe repost of one of our family favorite meals.
- Asian Chicken and Quinoa Bowls Recipe – i love eating in ‘bowls’ packed with protein from the quinoa and chicken.
- Thai Shrimp Cakes with Cucumber Salad – sharing a recipe from one of my friend’s new cookbooks.
- Love List – sharing my favorite weekly love list.
- Mexican chicken and quinoa bowls – another bowl recipe with your favorite Mexican flavors!
What to Make:
Apples! As you head out to the apple orchards, keep these recipes in mind!
- German apple cake – a treat of a cake and absolutely beautiful.
- Upside down apple pear loaf – i loved making this recipe and still love it today.
- Apple butter – made in a slow cooker, with only 5 ingredients!
- Also made this sheet pan pork chops with sweet potatoes and instead of fennel I used apples, so good.
- And don’t forget to pick up some apple cider to make these baked donuts and this cocktail.
What I’m making:
- We made my sourdough pizza crust for the millionth time – no one is complaining about it, lol. I did it the way where I make it and let it rise, and then divide it into 4 and let it sit in the fridge for a few days (directions in the recipe card notes section) AND I made a fun IG video – view it here.
- Ben wanted to make cookies and cookie bars (they were SO good I’m going to share the recipe soon) for our new neighbors. We made freezer chocolate chip cookies and cookie bars and brought plates over. He was so proud of his work and even wore his little mask when we delivered.
- Do I sound like a broken record? I made another batch of my quick pickled eggs! They’re so darn good and I just love having them on hand.
- Because we just moved and I want easy meals – I got Home Chef meal delivery! Use code 40sweetphi for $40 off your first 2 orders ($30 off your first and $10 off your second) – their food is so good and I love their ‘oven ready’ meals and how you can customize the options.
Reader Comments
This is a great recipe to try fennel with! Give it a try; you can find the recipe here: sheet pan pork chops with sweet potato and fennel.
- “Made this tonight. It was really good. First time to try fennel. I was skeptical, but really enjoyed it!”
Reader Recreations
A reader shared their recreation of my Instant Pot lemon chicken risotto and it looks so tasty!
Things I’m Loving:
- This hilarious meme that totally sums up my life right now! You may have seen it mentioned in my latest love list post!
Item from Amazon you didn’t know you needed
- THIS MOP!! One of my employees told me about it, and her friend told her about it, and I just have to tell YOU about it. It’s amazing.
What I’m Reading
- Everyone seems to be reading Just got One To Watch with me. It definitely has me thinking why I’ve never noticed that a “normal-sized” woman, let alone a plus size woman has ever been on a reality dating show. I’m not really into those shows, but the book is really good and making me think of things like that (so far I’m ⅓ way in and loving this summer read).
What I’m Watching
- I have not had time to watch anything – eek!
Personal Stories
- How are parents doing with your back-to-school, whatever that looks like for you?
- I’ve heard from parent friends that are really struggling with their kids being in school and guilt around that, I’ve heard from parent friends whose kids are doing virtual school and are struggling with that because it’s a lot of involvement from them and while the kids are ‘in school’ they have to work, and it’s impossible and there’s a lot of guilt around that. I’ve heard from parent friends that are loving and embracing the homeschool life. How are YOU doing? I know each and everyones’ decision is so different and personal to their situation.
- Ben is one year away from being in pre-K so we haven’t had to make any school related decisions. A friend got him a numbers/learning book, and I got him a learning to read educational thing. I figured I’d try to do a little something with him at home. He came up to me when the babies were napping and I usually do a craft or something with him. Instead he said ‘let’s do numbers’ – it was so cute! And, he can count to 12 by himself. I feel like I’m the parent to a pure GENIUS (lol #proudmom), it’s so special to watch.
- In case you’re wondering, here are some of the educational things we’re using:
- On the other hand – I’m not going to sugar coat it – it’s TOUGH right now juggling everything. The kids are at home all the time, I work a full time job, and I run a business (which is more than full time projects) and we just moved and I don’t have doors on my office yet. Those just arrived and now have to be stained and hung. And we have 2.5 days of childcare and 2 of those days I’m out of the house busy working and playing catch up…so yea, it’s a lot and I’m up late working all the time. But I’m so grateful to have this time with them and for everything I have, so I try to keep it all in perspective and take a deep breath. Onwards!
- Sometimes the smallest things make the biggest difference. I’m working on small updates in the house and one of the things we’re doing is replacing cabinet pulls. There’s lots of beautiful oak, and I don’t want to paint the oak or anything, so I found cabinet pulls. First update was the downstairs bathroom. I’ll share better photos when it’s all done, the room just makes me so happy. It’s beautiful.
- These are the antique brass cabinet knob pulls.
- In other updates to the house, my home studio office is coming along nicely. I still don’t have doors, but we’re getting there…the doors got delivered this week. They were packaged so, so well it was crazy. Now to have them installed.
- Also because of the crazy hours I’m working, I can’t always catch the best natural light. Also, if I’m ever doing a video shoot and I start a slow cooker recipe, the light changes dramatically between when I start filming and when I’m done. So I started incorporating artificial lighting and I’m so happy with the results (and the fact that I can do a photoshoot at any hour if I want…like after the kids go to bed, lol.) I used some of Ben’s toy cars to make sure I got the light color matching down, and it was so funny that they worked so well!
- We took our first walk at the new house and explored our new neighborhood.
Did you Know?
This is a super exciting project that our team has been working on for quite awhile, so I’m very excited to share that we have a fun new page on the site and it’s all about YOU – my readers!
It’s our Reader Recreations. If you make a SweetPhi recipe and share a picture with us, either by emailing it in or tagging me on social media, it will be included on the post of the recipe you’re recreating. See the example below on my recipe for the best pumpkin loaf!
You can also visit our reader recreation page to see all of the recreations sent in by readers!
Popular this week:
- Most visited blog post: My favorite grilled item from this summer – grilled sweet potatoes
- Most liked Instagram post: This picture of my upside down apple and pear loaf with all the fall feels.
- Most pinned image: fall weather has people pinning this chili bar pin.
- Most viewed YouTube video: this video for delicious asian ground turkey bowls
- Most purchased item: This Indoor/outdoor scavenger hunt that we play all the time with Ben.
What is your favorite way to use all of the apples you get at the orchard? Or do you not go apple picking at all? I’d love to hear, so just leave a comment below and let me know!
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