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Copycat Cranberry Bliss Bars

December 22, 2019 By Chelsia Rief Leave a Comment

Whether you've tried this treat at a certain coffee shop or not, you're sure to love the creamy, citrusy winter goodness of these cranberry bliss bars!

This post originally appeared on Catz in December of 2012. Seven years on, cranberry bliss bars continue to be popular, Starbucks keeps making and selling them, and we keep eating them - both theirs and these ones that we make at home! We've remade and rephotographed this, well, blissful recipe, and updated the recipe and post a bit as well. Enjoy!

When I was four or five months pregnant with my oldest daughter, Grace, I went to Starbucks after work one evening to wait for Josh to pick me up. After sitting there for awhile, I grew hungry...as pregnant women have a tendency to do. I needed a snack! Cause, you know...pregnant! I went up to the pastry counter and looked over all the muffins, cookies, and other desserts before finally settling on a cranberry bliss bar...my very first time trying one. In a word, that first bite was bliss...so it makes sense that they're called cranberry bliss bars.

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Peppermint Fudge

December 21, 2019 By Chelsia Rief 6 Comments

It's festive, fun, and easy! This simple recipe for yummy white chocolate peppermint fudge is a great choice for Christmas desserts or even cookie tins!

This post originally appeared on Catz in December of 2011 - one of our earliest Christmas recipes! Since then, it's been remade, modified a bit, and rephotographed. We're sharing it with you again, eight years later - it's still a great choice for a Christmas treat!

I've never been a fudge person. I think that's because the only fudge I was ever given to try was chocolate fudge with a ton of nuts. Nuts in dessert (unless we're talking macadamia nuts) is kind of like a cooking sin to me...like raisins in cookies and fruit in yogurt. I feel strongly that it just doesn't belong there.

I'm aware that I'm probably alone in this, but hey, it makes me interesting...right...?

Every Christmas, I remember one of my grandmas bringing over a Christmas tin of fudge and I would excitedly open the lid only to discover another year of chocolate fudge with nuts.

Disappointment for me.

Happiness for everyone else.

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Slow Cooker Pot Roast Au Jus

December 18, 2019 By Chelsia Rief Leave a Comment

Special occasion, holiday dinner, family get together? Keep it low stress without sacrificing the wow factor with this slow cooker pot roast au jus recipe!

I can't remember one time in my childhood when my mom made a roast for dinner. Occasionally the exception was made for fast food like Taco Bell or McDonalds, but as a family, we just never cooked with red meat. We ate a lot of fish, chicken, and meatless meals - which was great! Honestly, this isn't complaining because my mom was and is a fantastic cook who rarely got a night off or help in the kitchen, so I commend her cooking the great food she did!

The first time I ever had a roast was when I spent Christmas with Josh's family. It was such a new experience for my taste buds and I loved it...I've been hooked ever since!

For me, a roast cooking in the slow cooker is total comfort food. The house begins to smell warm and cozy, the kids get excited when they know I'm serving it, it's relatively fuss free, and it's a great meal to have people over for. The meat just seems to stretch and stretch - and yet I never seem to have any leftovers! [Read more...]

Snowball Cupcakes

December 13, 2019 By Chelsia Rief Leave a Comment

Light, fluffy, vanilla cake with cream cheese frosting makes up the base of this treat, but it's the shredded coconut that makes them snowball cupcakes!

My daughter Eden is cupcake-obsessed. In fact, one of her favorite series of books is called The Cupcake Diaries! You might remember her last cupcake post - the one about those delicious Devil’s Food Cupcakes over the summer? They were amazing - I’m not the biggest chocolate lover, and even I enjoyed one of those cupcakes.

After we made the Devils’s Food cupcakes, she found another cupcake recipe she wanted to try - these Snowball Cupcakes - and they just seemed so perfect for Christmastime, so we decided that she would make them closer to that time...which is now! [Read more...]

Ham and Cheese Quiche with Fresh Spinach

December 10, 2019 By Joshua Rief 6 Comments

Once you try this classic ham and cheese quiche version of this tasty breakfast pie, you’ll want to make a different one for every morning of the week!

This post originally appeared on Catz in March of 2013. We've continued to make and enjoy this wonderful, simple recipe for homey, rustic quiche, so we thought we'd update the pictures and the recipe card and re-share it with you!

For as long as I can remember, if you asked me what my favorite breakfast dishes were, quiche would be near the top of the list. Ever since I was a small child, I can recall savoring the flakiness of the crust, the cheesiness of the filling, and the way the "pie" would stay warm longer than anything else on my plate. Of course, those memories require a quiche cooked properly. Not traditionally, necessarily, but properly. We've all, I'm sure, had less than stellar quiche experiences where the crust is mushy or hard, the filling isn't appropriately spongy, or, that worst of all quiche sins, it's served cold. Unfortunately, through the first few years of our marriage, I committed a variety of these offenses in an effort to win Chels, Gracie, and Edie over to my vision of quiche-filled Saturday mornings. Suffice to say, it didn't go well. [Read more...]

Weekly Menu for the Week of Dec 9

December 8, 2019 By Chelsia Rief Leave a Comment

Happy second week of December and official last month of 2019! Is it just me or did the year 2019 fly by even faster than 2018? Last week, Josh was on vacation, hence why the menu didn't go out at all. When Josh is home, we tend to be online less and schedule-less!

Guess what! All the work and construction that went into fixing the dry rot on our house is done! That's right, they are done! It was a long three weeks of work, but the guys worked so hard and (I think) really fast and I'm so thankful for all the effort put into it. Truthfully, they did a great job minimizing the impact to our daily life as well. [Read more...]

Sweet Slow Cooker Chai Ham

December 4, 2019 By Chelsia Rief Leave a Comment

This super simple, yummy, and elegant recipe for Sweet Slow Cooker Chai Ham goes in the slow cooker the night before, leaving you to enjoy your holiday!

For years (and I mean years before I met Josh) our usual holiday meals consisted of turkey for Thanksgiving and turkey for Christmas. And that's fine and all, but turkey isn't my favorite. I mean, I like it, but after Thanksgiving I'm a bit over it. Since getting married, my family has been going the ham route for Christmas (YES) and Josh's family usually has a roast - so we're really mixing it up over here!

Lucky for me, I absolutely love ham and roast!

I have to tell you, though, a ham is not something I cook often...or ever. I mean, while I work with bacon, pork, and sausage, I don't usually cook a ham. But I tell you, after I made this tangy and sweet slow cooker chai ham in my crockpot, I feel like I need to throw a ham in the slow cooker more often! I remember my mom cooking a ham fairly frequently when I was still living at home and I always enjoyed it. [Read more...]

Weekly Menu for the Week of Thanksgiving

November 25, 2019 By Chelsia Rief Leave a Comment

I'm going to do something a little bit different here. Instead of giving you dinner ideas for the week, I'm going to share some of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes on our blog.

I will say that if you are hosting Thanksgiving this year, keep the dinners simple - I'm hosting, whether we still have that temporary wall up or not, and I'm keeping my dinners really easy. I'm making a nacho one night, a simple pasta dish, and breakfast, just for starters.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. If you're in a position to, invite a neighbor or a friend to your home if they don't have anywhere to go. Another thought - keep the menu simple. Not everything has to be homemade and over the top. I was going to make two pies and then today when I was at Costco, I decided to grab a pumpkin pie from there. It was the right call, I think.

The point of Thanksgiving is not impressing people with an amazing tablescape and perfect homemade food. It's about being together and being reminded of what you're thankful for, and you guys, we have so much to be thankful for!!

Please try and remember that if you Black Friday shop, too...it's just a sale. Our kids don't need the most on-trend toys or trips or gaming systems. More time together actually is enough. But think about brain activities like books, chess, puzzles, family games, or activities you can do together - bowling or laser tag? I don't know - just trying to think that way!

Okay you guys! Have a great week, I'm going to share my Thanksgiving board in case you need some more ideas for sides, dinners, and desserts.

Happy Thanksgiving! And don't forget to scroll past the Thanksgiving recipes for great Thanksgiving leftover ideas! [Read more...]

Bourbon Coconut Custard Pecan Pie

November 22, 2019 By Chelsia Rief 4 Comments

Looking for a twist on a holiday standby? This bourbon coconut custard pecan pie adds some new textures and flavors to this perennial favorite recipe!

My dad, Josh's dad, and Grace are all in love with pecan pie. It happens to be their favorite Thanksgiving pie, which is kind of sad because you only typically enjoy a pecan pie once a year...at Thanksgiving. Maybe Christmas if they're lucky...but in our family and maybe even yours, pies are generally only enjoyed at Thanksgiving. We do some other sort of dessert at Christmas.

That being said, I also love coconut anything! I think it's kind of hard to reimagine The Classic Pecan Pie - it's got a basic recipe that gets played with here and there, but generally the ingredients for each pecan pie are largely the same across the board. I really wanted to add a pecan pie to our recipe index, but was bored with the same old (even if all my family members weren't), which is why I think this Bourbon Coconut Custard Pecan Pie is a fun variation on a Thanksgiving favorite. [Read more...]

Weekly Menu for the Week of Nov 18

November 17, 2019 By Chelsia Rief Leave a Comment

I'm currently sitting on the couch surrounded by all my kids watching them take turns playing Ocean Horn, which is kind of a video game for the Apple TV. The kids love it and I love watching them play it. I think they want me to take a turn, too, so I'm going to keep the menu short this week so I can get back to spending time with them.

We're on week two of fixing the dry rot situation in our house. At this point, I think it is safe to say that we will "most likely" have it fixed by Thanksgiving - which is good because we're hosting this year. They almost have all the new siding up on the back of the house and the main load bearing wall trimmed up. However all of this means that Josh and I have been faced with the issue of paint color for the house. We know we don't want to keep the existing paint - it's kind of a peachy color (which I do not like). So we spent some time this afternoon looking at "approved" colors our HOA lets us choose from and while the color we wanted wasn't an option, we did find a color and trim color we like. Yay!

I'm still doing a lot of recipe testing here for the holidays - which is not easy when you can't get to all of your baking dishes due to the temporary wall holding your house up...but over the last few weeks I made a (if I do say so myself) delicious cornbread stuffing and potato dish. The recipes weren't quite perfect, so I'm not ready to share them yet, but I'm going to keep working on them for Christmas. [Read more...]