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Slow-Cooker Chai Apple Butter

November 9, 2016 By Joshua Rief 2 Comments

Slow-Cooker Chai Apple Butter is not only easy to make and delicious on almost anything, it makes a great seasonal gift for friends and family!

I have a very faint memory of going apple picking with my family when I was a little kid. Josh likes to make fun of my memories because I can recall them based on what I was wearing (consider it my version of Sherlock's mind palace...). Anyway, I know this is a memory because of what I was wearing (see?) - it was a blue jacket with a cloud and rainbow on it. I have fond memories of this jacket because it was the first jacket I learned how to zip up myself! Also, there are zero pictures of this apple picking event, which my mom lovingly refers to as the apple picking outing from hell!

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Weekly Menu For The Week Of Nov 7th

November 6, 2016 By Chelsia Rief Leave a Comment

I got my hour of sleep back and I don't know about you, but I'm really, really so happy it's back. I love sleep. I miss the days when I was younger and I could sleep in until 11am...kind of.

I don't get into politics here, because my opinion doesn't matter that much or particularly need to be heard, and I want Catz to always be an encouraging, welcoming place to be, but I would urge you that if you're a registered voter to make sure you cast your vote. If nothing else, the local politics and measures that are going on in your community do matter and there your vote does make a difference! [Read more...]

Easy Homemade Hummus

November 4, 2016 By Joshua Rief 5 Comments

The simplest of all beginner's recipes - cheap, made in a single dish, and ready in five minutes! To top it off, this easy homemade hummus is delicious!

As Gracie, our twelve year old, is taking more of an interest in cooking and cuisine (and also becoming more responsible with things like knives and burners!), she's beginning to assemble a list of recipes she wants to make. Every couple of weeks, Chels will add the ingredients for one of Gracie's projects to the weekly menu, and, correspondingly, the grocery list. I suppose it's probably inevitable that she'd pick up a bit of our culinary enthusiasm by osmosis. As I've told her myself, no matter what you do in life, you'll always need to eat! [Read more...]

Pumpkin Spice Scones with Salted Caramel Glaze

November 1, 2016 By Chelsia Rief 4 Comments

Salty and sweet, with rich autumn spices, these Pumpkin Spice Scones are easy to make and drizzled with a yummy salted caramel glaze!

I crave the autumn season like a favorite dessert. Some crave summer, some crave spring, but I crave autumn. I start getting the itch for scarves, pumpkin everything (like pumpkin turkey chili), and crispy air. We live in the country, so sometimes all I have to do is step outside, inhale the air, and it smells a bit frosty, breezy, and with the hint of someone burning dry leaves in a nearby field (I know that sounds weird, but it's part of fall for me!). It's fall and I could just live in this season all year long...but my husband couldn't, which is really too bad because I don't really think he understands how much he's missing out!

One of the things I really look forward to come late August or September is that subtle temperature change in the evenings. The nights suddenly cool off and I'm in a desperate search for a light, long sleeve pull over or a blanket that takes the chill off. The only thing I'm missing is that evening cup of tea.

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Weekly Menu For The Week Of Oct 31st

October 30, 2016 By Chelsia Rief 1 Comment

I've got news for you and I think you're going to really like it. It gives you something awesome to look forward to. Are you ready? Okay. Not only is today Halloween, which means leftover candy, and tomorrow is November 1st, which means it's fair game to start Christmas shopping, but next Sunday is Daylight Savings...which means we get our extra hour of sleep back (Hallelujah)! I, for one, am excited about that!

Are you all ready for Halloween? Yesterday, we ran (actually...we drove) to Costco to pick up some things we were running low on and bought a huge bag of candy for our trick or treaters. I'm officially ready. Our Halloween tradition is always the same. Grace and Eden's best friends come over and I fix chili and cornbread before we head out and start casing the neighborhood. When we get home, the kids are allowed a tiny bit of candy before heading to bed. It's a school night, so I don't imagine the kids will be out late, but it should be fun! And probably wet, because it's forecasted to rain.

Because it's Oregon! [Read more...]

DIY Farmhouse Round Table

October 29, 2016 By Joshua Rief 3 Comments

A simple project that looks simultaneously rustic & refined upon completion, this DIY Farmhouse Round Table is the perfect way to open up your dining space!

When we bought our house about a year and half ago, Chels and I had very different visions for the informal dining space between the kitchen and the living room. I saw a practical, useful hangout space with a bar height table and lots of chairs - a place for the kids to do schoolwork, she and I to write, for the family to play games or watch a movie and eat pizza on a Friday night. The funny thing is...Chels saw the same thing, but with a very different table. She wanted something smaller and lighter, that wouldn't crowd the space, something round to encourage interaction and conversation. She wanted this DIY farmhouse round table.

I won, sadly.

As usually happens when Chels is right and I'm wrong, time proved her point. The massive bar height table I purchased for the space lived in our informal dining space for about a year, and as we scooted around the edges of it to get by, and I began to realize how small it made a fairly large space feel, and how far apart we all were when we were sitting at it! We already had a large formal dining table that I built last year - there was no need for two gigantic flat spaces one room apart! So...the bar height table went on Craigslist, and we began many trips to Lowe's, Home Depot, Goodwill, and our local secondhand furniture store. Why the last two? Well...I'm not quite ready to tackle building chairs yet, so I'll share with you how we acquired and refinished four chairs and four bar stools as part of this little makeover for our informal dining space.

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Beer Batter Fish & Chips

October 25, 2016 By Joshua Rief 2 Comments

After experimenting with different beers and recipes, we've found a recipe for beer batter fish & chips that we're just crazy about!

Okay, so let's get this out of the way right at the beginning. As you'll notice in the photo (and the recipe that follows)...no chips. No chips, no fries, no potatoes of any kind. But, you say, the title clearly says "Fish AND Chips"! True enough. The "chips" are coming (no, really they are - this isn't like that one time I promised you a three-part blog...). We've been testing a copycat recipe for McMenamins' amazing cajun tots, and that's what we're planning to offer as an alternate "chip" here - the recipe's been made twice, tasted, tested, and photographed - just give us a week or two to get it typed up, and you'll be all set! If you really can't wait to make yourself some super-yummy beer batter fish, nothing wrong with grabbing a bag of frozen Ore-Idas and taking the easy way! So, chips to come.

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Tuesday's Tidings: The Treatsie Box!

October 24, 2016 By Joshua Rief 5 Comments

Well, instead of our typical newsy Tuesday's Tidings, we thought we'd share a fun Tuesday's Treat with you! The folks at Treatsie Artisan Sweets sent us a box of their goodies to try out, and though they didn't ask us to write a review or post say anything in particular, we wanted to - we were impressed! [Read more...]

Weekly Menu For the Week of Oct 24th

October 23, 2016 By Chelsia Rief Leave a Comment

I was a little bit MIA last week - sorry about that! I don't get them very often, but I did get a migraine last week...and it lasted all week long. I have quite a few family members who suffer from them more regularly, so being unable to think properly and function like a normal person really gave me a more appreciation what they go through on a regular basis. Do any of you suffer from migraines? What helps you?

So guess what, we still haven't gone to the pumpkin patch yet! I think Tuesday is our last day of dry weather before it starts raining again, so it's then or store bought pumpkins for us...or maybe we won't buy any this year. One less thing that rots that I guess I won't have to throw away, lol! [Read more...]

Loaded Sweet Potato Tacos

October 19, 2016 By Chelsia Rief 4 Comments

Loaded sweet potato tacos - not only served in a super food, but one filling meal that's easy to prepare, easy on the wallet, and full of flavor!

Over the summer, Josh's grandparents came all the way from their home in southeast Africa to spend a couple of weeks visiting with all of our family over 4th of July. This trip was such a blessing for all of us - over Christmas, Grammy got really sick on a visit back to Liberia and had to life-flighted to South Africa for emergency surgery. It was hard to believe she would make it through. But she did! God's obviously not done with her yet, and Grammy is a fighter - not only is she 90 years old and continually kicking my rear during our Scrabble games on our iPhones, but she is also a writer, world traveler, and an inspiration to all of us that age really can be just a number!

One of the things Grammy has to be careful with is the food she eats. She avoids food with a lot of sodium. During one of our evenings together, my mother-in-love made her infamous trainwreck taco salad and none of us thought about the tortilla chips (which contain a lot of sodium, of course) being part of the meal until it was nearly time for dinner. Grammy just calmly sat there while the rest of us scratched our heads trying to think of what we could substitute for the chips so she could eat the meal. After a moment, she spoke up and said, "Well if you've got a sweet potato, I can just use that. That's what I do at home!"

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