Blog – Page 17

Summery Greek Pasta Salad

July 16, 2014 by Asharae Leave a Comment

Well hello there ol’ bloggy blog. Nice to see you again!

This summer has been a whirlwind so far – I can hardly believe we’re halfway through July already! Tim and I spent most of June traveling to Arizona, Illinois, and Wisconsin to visit friends and family, attend my cousin’s wedding, and do a little sightseeing along the way.

At the end of our trip we totaled 11 different locations that we’d spent the night – ranging from hotels to friend’s guest rooms to pull-out couches in the living room to separate twin beds (and separate bedrooms hah!) at my grandparents’ house to the floor of the airport when our late-night flight was cancelled on the way home.

Needless to say, we’re happy to be home and have our very own bed to sleep in. It’s taken me a couple weeks of being back at home to feel like I (maybe?) have my feet back under me and can get back in the routine of life here. We’re in a wild season right now (see what I did there?) as we figure out our next steps with our business, deal with the looming uncertainty of Tim’s job this coming school year, and as we dream about the possibilities of the next few years of our lives.

We keep reminding ourselves that we don’t have to have it all together right now. We’re nowhere near “having it together,” so that’s a reassuring reminder that we need daily. I’m so guilty of comparing myself and our lives to others and it quickly becomes discouraging. I keep coming back to the thought that my story isn’t the same as theirs and it’s not supposed to be. Tim and I are meant to live our own story – one that is unique to the gifts and the passions that the Lord has given us. Comparing ourselves to others isn’t just unrealistic, it’s comparing two different things that do not compute.

I’m reminded of this pin I came across on Pinterest recently that says, “Sometimes the people around you won’t understand your journey. They don’t need to, it’s not for them.” I see these words as freedom from feeling like I have to fit into someone else’s expectation for my life (or even my skewed perception of what I think someone else’s expectation is for my life.) God does strange things and works in unexpected ways – often we don’t see what He was doing till after the fact.

I also like to turn the tables and see this quote from the other direction – “Sometimes you won’t understand other people’s journeys. You don’t need to, it’s not for you.” In other words – stop comparing, stop setting unrealistic expectations, relax, focus on the things that you are meant to be doing, enjoy where you are right now, love on the people in front of you, be present and mindful, breathe, and say no to the lies that say you’re not good enough and you never will be. Live your own story. Enough with trying to live someone else’s.

And on that bombshell, (as we like to say in our house – Top Gear anyone?) let’s get on to the recipe!

This is a great summertime recipe – the cucumbers in our garden are multiplying daily and our tomatoes aren’t far behind. This dish can be made ahead of time and refrigerated until you’re ready to serve, making it perfect for a picnic or an outdoor dinner on a warm summer evening!

Summery Greek Pasta Salad

Asharae Kroll

A light pasta recipe, perfect to make-ahead for a picnic or outdoor dinner on a warm summer evening.

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Prep Time 10 mins

Cook Time 10 mins

Total Time 20 mins

Servings 3 -4

Ingredients

2 cucumbers peeled, seeded, and diced
2-3 medium tomatoes diced (I also like to remove the seeds)
1/4 of a red onion diced
3/4 lb of pasta I love using tiny bow ties or orzo
2 Tbs red wine vinegar add more to taste - I usually do
3 Tbs lemon juice
1 Tbs pesto optional, but if you have a jar in your fridge I definitely recommend using it!
1 tsp honey
2-3 Tbs olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Feta and chopped mint for garnish

Instructions

Cook the pasta according to package directions. Drain and then rinse under cold water to stop the cooking and set aside to cool completely.
Combine red wine vinegar, lemon juice, pesto, honey, olive oil, salt and pepper in a small bowl and whisk together to combine. Pour over the top of the cooled pasta. Add cucumbers, tomatoes, red onion, and stir to combine. Taste and adjust flavors to suit your preferences. I tend to add more red wine vinegar at the end for a little extra zip.
Place in fridge until ready to serve.
Serve topped with feta and chopped mint.

I picked up this adorable screen-printed flour sack towel at The Handmade Market in Raleigh a while back – you can see more fantastic designs from The High Fiber and purchase items at her Etsy shop!

The Power of Presence. And a Recipe for Costa Rican Gallo Pinto

June 12, 2014 by Asharae 3 Comments

I would like to introduce you to Flor (I’m actually going to introduce you to her cooking, but first a little about her.) During one of my summers in college I lived in Costa Rica with Flor and her husband while volunteering for a local organization with my friend Leslie. Flor became more than our host mom while we lived with her – she took it upon herself to be our guide to the bus system and the ins and outs of San Jose, she guarded us fiercely with her warnings about Costa Rican men (my friend and I stuck out like sore thumbs with our blonde hair and blue eyes – Flor made certain we knew to avoid the attention of men in the city), she was our personal chef as she prepared Gallo Pinto every morning, packed our lunch each day to take to work, and had dinner waiting each night when we returned home. Flor always spoke with immense faith in the Lord, his provision, and his power to heal.

A couple months before I was set to go to Costa Rica, my dad was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia. The doctors quickly started him on chemo and he had a particularly strong round a week or so before I left for my summer trip. He was expected to get sick shortly after, due to the chemo-therapy knocking out his immune system. I remember my dad hugging me tight in the airport before I left, reminding me that Costa Rica is where I was meant to be for the summer and putting my fears and feelings of guilt to rest about being so far away while he was undergoing treatment.

Within about a week of arriving in San Jose with Leslie and beginning our volunteer work with the Rahab Foundation, I got word that my dad was very ill and had been rushed to Duke for treatment. Those conversations are all a blur to me as I found out he had fallen into a coma and the doctors were doing what they could to keep him stable. What I do remember from that night is Leslie helping me scour our local shops for phone cards so I could call my mom to hear more news (these were the early days of Skype and all the internet cafes were already closed.) And I remember Flor comforting me as I anxiously dialed my mom’s number only to have to fight with Costa Rica’s automated system (in Spanish of course) until I could reach my mom’s distant voice on the other end of the phone. Instead of telling me everything was going to be okay or patting me on the back, Flor quietly grabbed a bowl of warm water, knelt down on the tile in her living room, took my shoes off one by one, and gently washed my feet.

I’m tearing up just remembering it.

In that moment, there was nothing more powerful, more thoughtful, or more meaningful anyone could have done. There were no words that would have been helpful, and no amount of “I’ll be praying for you”s that would have comforted, but I will forever remember her selfless act of loving on me without hesitation.

I wonder how I could share that selfless kind of love with others. How do you comfort someone when they’re in the midst of the darkness and they’re not sure the light is anywhere close? I’m not entirely sure. But having been on the other side, I can say that perhaps actions and presence are more important than having the perfect words.

My dad had been in a coma for a few weeks when I called my mom on Skype one afternoon. She answered and then said “hang on a second,” I waited a moment and then heard my dad’s weak voice from miles away – “hey baby.”

And there I was, bawling in the internet cafe.

My dad is all healed now. He spent 80-something days in the hospital that year, but just over a year ago he passed the 5-year mark, so they’ve declared him cured. Praise the Lord.

All that to say, this recipe for Flor’s Gallo Pinto is pretty special to me. It’s simple, and maybe you don’t like rice and beans, that’s fine. But to me this dish is comfort food. It reminds me of sitting in Flor’s kitchen in Costa Rica, chatting over the newspaper, learning to like coffee, and her husband laughing at me because it was possible that I liked Gallo Pinto even more than he did. Most of all it reminds me of Flor and her selfless act of washing my feet the night I was so scared and felt so uncertain about the future. I pray I learn to love like that.

It would make my day if you tried this recipe. It’s the closest I’ve been able to get to the dish Flor would serve us each morning. I love it served with bananas – call me crazy but the salty sweet combination of the rice and beans with the banana is delicious. Avocado and scrambled eggs are also great sides. We even became friends with one family in Costa Rica whose tradition was to have Gallo Pinto with leftover birthday cake the day after a family member’s celebration (that was also surprisingly delicious!)

On a side note – if you live in Chicago, you should visit Irazu, one of the only Costa Rican restaurants I know of in the states. Be sure to ask them for Salsa Lizano (pronounced lee-san-o) – they’ll be impressed. If you can’t get to Irazu to try Lizano, you can always order some online! Tim got a bottle for me for my birthday this year – he knows me so well.

Happy cooking! And Pura Vida!

Costa Rican Gallo Pinto

Asharae Kroll

This is the closest recipe I've gotten to the delicious gallo pinto my Costa Rican host mom made every morning.

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Prep Time 5 mins

Cook Time 25 mins

Total Time 30 mins

Servings 4 -6

Ingredients

1 yellow onion diced
2 cloves garlic minced
1 Tbs canola/vegetable oil don't use olive oil or spray
1 15 oz can black beans do not drain
About 3 c cooked rice day-old is best
Kosher salt and black pepper to taste.
Salsa Lizano only if you're lucky enough to own a bottle
Optional Avocado, banana, scrambled eggs, birthday cake.

Instructions

Cook rice according to package directions (day old rice is actually best, so you can skip this step if you have cooked rice on hand)
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Sauté onion, about 3 minutes.
Add garlic and sauté one more minute.
Add beans, with liquid, and salt and black pepper. Heat through and let simmer for 1-2 min.
Add rice and stir to combine, trying not to smash the beans. Cook until heated through. I like to stir it together and then let it cook, without stirring it for about 3 minutes at a time. This allows the mixture to get little crunchy bits throughout. Stir after 3 minutes and then let it sit an additional 3 minutes. Repeat this, tasting along the way, till the gallo pinto is the consistency you'd like. I cooked mine about 15 minutes total.
Serve with your choice of bananas, avocado, and scrambled eggs.

Spicy Cauliflower Chickpea Quinoa Bowl

May 29, 2014 by Asharae 2 Comments

Remember that yummy cilantro lime dressing I shared last week? Well, here’s another use for it!

This combination of spicy cauliflower and chickpeas with crunchy bell peppers, red onions, and jalapeños is a fabulously colorful and delicious meal that’s perfect for a meatless dinner night! This recipe (like all of my favorites) is adaptable to suit your preferences and tastes – please take it and make it your own!

The original idea for this dish stemmed from a delicious veggie taco recipe over on Two Peas and Their Pod – you may have seen their photos floating around Pinterest. Just look at those pictures and tell me you don’t want to try those tacos! I made them for Tim and my brother – and although they both enjoyed them, I distinctly remember my brother telling me that meat was a necessary ingredient in tacos. Guess you can’t please everyone! Anyway, I loved the veggie tacos so much that I decided to use the idea of roasting the veggies but exchange tortillas for quinoa instead. The addition of the cilantro lime dressing cools this dish down a bit and adds some more fun color.

Enjoy!!

Spicy Cauliflower Chickpea Quinoa Bowl

Heavily adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod

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Prep Time 15 mins

Cook Time 45 mins

Total Time 1 hr

Servings 4

Ingredients

1 c uncooked quinoa
1 head cauliflower rinsed, chopped into medium sized pieces, and patted dry
1 15 oz can chickpeas drained, rinsed, and patted dry
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp onion powder
1 tsp kosher salt
Juice of 1 lime
1 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs water
Bell pepper red onion, jalapeño (I used the kind from a jar for the vinegary taste), cilantro, etc to taste. I like to add the colorful fresh vegetables to give this dish some crunch and to make it pretty! Add as many as you like or have on hand!
Salt and pepper to taste
Cilantro lime dressing find that recipe here!

Instructions

Heat oven to 400 degrees F
Place cauliflower and chickpeas in a large bowl.
Combine chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, kosher salt, juice of one lime, olive oil, and water. Pour over cauliflower and chickpeas and stir gently to combine.
Place veggies on a rimmed baking sheet and roast at 400 for 30-45 minutes, flipping every 15 minutes.
While roasting veggies, cook quinoa according to package directions, and then set aside.
Combine roasted vegetables with quinoa in a large bowl. Add as many colorful vegetables as you like and stir to combine. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve with cilantro lime dressing drizzled over the top.

The Battle Against Comparison. And a Recipe for Cilantro Lime Dressing

May 20, 2014 by Asharae 3 Comments

I’m struggling in this place right now of fighting against the worries and fears of what other people think of me. It’s one of those constant, life-long struggles for many of us, especially when we tend to be people-pleasers. It’s such a battle, each and every day to not compare myself and my life and my successes and failures against other people and their own lives, successes, and failures.

My dad tells this funny story from his childhood of his very pious grandmother who, when scolding the grandchildren, would say in a very solemn voice, “It doesn’t matter what I think, it matters what GOD thinks.” We all laugh when he imitates her serious, grandmotherly tone, but then I always get squirmy thinking about the intention of her message. To me it sounds like she was laying the guilt trip on pretty thick in order to scare the grandkids into behaving. While she was right that we should be more concerned about the Lord than we should be about the opinions of other people, it seems her reasoning for that was misplaced. God is a God of forgiveness and grace. He is not a God of guilt trips and shame.

When I find myself getting stuck in a rut of comparing myself to others, it’s usually because I’ve spent too much time looking at other artists’ photographs, reading other creatives’ blogs, or scrolling through Instagram drooling over other people’s lives. I begin to wonder why my photos don’t look like theirs, why my life doesn’t sound as creative and read as eloquently as someone else’s, why my Instagram feed isn’t filled with as many fun and beautiful photos as the ones I’m scrolling past. And then I stop. And I wonder what someone would think of my life, looking from the outside. What would they see and what would they think?

They would see beautiful wedding photos and films on our blog. (They wouldn’t see the hours of preparation that went into each wedding. They wouldn’t see the literal blood, sweat, and tears that go into capturing some wedding days. They wouldn’t see the days of editing through each wedding as Tim and I choose our favorite images or film clips, spend hours pouring over music to find the perfect songs for each couple, or edit through a thousand photographs making skin tones and white balance just perfect till our eyes are ready to fall out.)

They would see my Instagram feed filled with photos of our garden, our puppies, and our travels. (They wouldn’t see the pile of dirty dishes in the sink, the bathroom that needs scrubbing from top to bottom, the piles of boxes we’ve yet to unpack. They wouldn’t hear the conversations Tim and I have – the struggles and the worries about money, our days of discouragement over feeling like we’re not getting where we want to go, the days when we fear the future rather than rejoice at its possibilities. They wouldn’t see our constant struggle to balance Tim’s full-time job, the classes he has to take in order to keep his full-time job, our business and keeping our clients happy, our marriage and making sure it’s healthy, our commitments to our church, and our relationships with our friends amongst other things.)

It all feels like so much. And it’s easy to see snippets of other people’s lives and think they have it all together.

This war against comparison is constant. It’s a constant mental battle to ignore the outside influences that say you’re not good enough, brave enough, successful enough, beautiful enough. I think we too often put up a false front of confidence, pretend we have it all together, while inside we’re sad and worn out from trying so hard on the outside. I think if we were more honest with ourselves and with those around us, if we could be more vulnerable and quit faking it, then we might just find a richer community of support and honesty than we thought possible.

Allow yourself a little grace today. Stop the comparison. Let go of the feelings of shame and the thoughts that you’re not enough. I’ll struggle right alongside you today.

I was craving a creamy cilantro lime dressing when I came up with this recipe – I looked at several recipes to get the ratios right and combined a few of them to make my own. Enjoy this dressing over salad (it’s delicious with spinach), with a taco salad, or over rice or quinoa. Come back soon – I’ll be sharing a colorful quinoa recipe that uses this dressing!

Cilantro Lime Dressing

Asharae Kroll

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Prep Time 5 mins

Cook Time 5 mins

Total Time 10 mins

Ingredients

1 c loosely packed cilantro leaves only
1/2 c plain Greek yogurt
Juice of 1 lime
2 cloves garlic minced
1/2 jalapeño diced (remove seeds for mild, add a few in for a spicier dressing)
1.5 tsp white wine vinegar
1/4 tsp cumin
1 tsp honey optional for sweeter dressing
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 c olive oil

Instructions

Add all ingredients to a blender except olive oil. Cover and blend until combined.
While blender is off, add a little olive oil, cover the blender with the lid, blend to combine. Pause the blender, add a little more olive oil, and continue until all the oil is well blended into the dressing. Some recipes recommend you pour the olive oil in while the blender is running, but mine is too powerful that I would have ended up with dressing on the ceiling. I recommend being safe and stopping your blender between each addition.
Serve over spinach, with a taco salad, over rice or quinoa. Or just eat it straight out of the jar. I won't mind.

26 Years and the Meaning of a Name

May 14, 2014 by Asharae 1 Comment

26 years.

26 years ago today, I arrived into this world and my parents named me Asharae. (More or less pronounced ash-uh-ray.) It’s an odd name upon first glance, but I love it. When I was a kid, people would always ask my parents where my name came from. I can still hear my dad’s voice explaining it the same way each time, “It’s a Hebrew word that means ‘blessed.’ It’s the first word of the first Psalm and the word Jesus used when he spoke the Beatitudes.”

I heard that over and over as a child. “Her name means blessed.”

My dad chose my name before he even met my mom. He was in a Hebrew class in seminary when he learned the meaning of the word asharae. He decided then that when he had a daughter, her name would be blessed.

It took a long time for me to realize the significance and the truth behind my name. I always liked that I had a unique name, but it was through hearing my dad explain my name over and over that the truth of it began to sink in. Her name means blessed. I have called her blessed. She is blessed.

Since today is my birthday and I’ve felt completely worn down lately, I decided to take the day off from photo-editing, email-answering, and all other business related things. Instead I’ve spent the entire day cleaning our house, doing dishes, and organizing our never-ending pile of boxes from storage. I laughed to myself that I really must be an adult now if an enjoyable “day off” means cleaning the house! I was lucky enough to get to chat on the phone with both my friends Lauren and Emily though – go check out both of their blogs! I’m so blessed by both of these ladies!!

Lately I’ve also been gathering artwork to create a gallery wall in our family room, and I spent the early afternoon trying to match frames to artwork. I had this one little square frame that I wasn’t sure what to do with. As I was digging through our office closet today, I came across a sheet of paper with Hebrew script on it. My name was written in English in my dad’s handwriting with an arrow pointing to the top right word. I decided to use the Hebrew lettering in the frame by photocopying it onto some old tea-stained paper I had lying around. (What? You don’t keep old tea-stained paper lying around?) I’m pretty excited with the result, and I can’t wait to see it up on the walls with the rest of our artwork.

Credit for our fabulous family portrait goes to the oh-so-talented Anne Thiele – go check out her website and Etsy shop! We commissioned her to do our family portrait a few months ago and could not be happier with the result!!

Tim and I painted the Spanish alphabet back when we were living in Seattle – as you can see we still haven’t erased our pencil guidelines from when we first painted it. Oh well.