salad

Grilled Greek Salad

October 20, 2015 by Asharae 2 Comments

I know, I know. It’s almost November. Shhh! Don’t tell that to our new grill.

Now that our wedding season is finally slowing down, Tim and I are taking advantage of all the summer grilling that we missed out on. We have a fancy-pants new grill (it’s WAY better than our old one – the handle would come off every time you opened it, the grill rack would rock precariously every time you set anything on it, and there were only a few remaining hot-spots over which you could actually cook food.) We are pretty stoked about this new grill so we are hereby extending grilling season into the fall!

Over the summer we stayed with Tim’s brother and our sister-in-law in Chicago and they made us some ridiculously delicious food (they always do!) including a grilled salad. You guys. Grilled salad. You have to try it. I needed to try it myself, and that’s why I made this recipe!

You don’t actually grill the lettuce long enough to “cook” it, only long enough to get some good grill marks on the leaves which give it a delicious smoky flavor. You can get romaine hearts at the grocery store and cut them down the middle, keeping the center root-end intact as it will hold all those pretty leaves together. Brush each half with a little olive oil, add some salt and pepper if you like, and grill just long enough to get a good char on the leaves. Chop up the leaves and toss with any dressing! I made a Greek dressing for this recipe, but you can easily adapt this technique to suit your flavor preferences.

Grilled Greek Salad

Asharae Kroll

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Servings 2 -4

Ingredients

For the Dressing

Juice of 1 lemon
1 clove of garlic minced
Kosher salt and pepper
1/4 c olive oil

For the Salad

2 hearts of romaine
1 Tbs olive oil
Cherry tomatoes halved
Pitted Kalamata olives I like to halve these just to make sure no pits are still hiding inside
Cucumber halved lengthwise and cut into pieces
Feta cheese
Dried oregano

Instructions

Whisk together the lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil, whisking constantly. Set aside.
Peel off any dirty outer leaves from each of your romaine hearts. Cut each one down the middle. I find it's easiest to cut down the middle of the stem first, then cut through all the leaves. Some leaves may fall out - that's okay! Save them for later and you can toss them back into your salad right before serving. (Rinse the leaves if you like and drain cut-side-down on a paper towel. Pat dry before continuing.)
Preheat the grill to medium high. Place hearts of romaine, cut side up, on a plate or rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with 1 Tbs olive oil. Grill for just a couple minutes, or until leaves are slightly charred. You're not trying to cook the lettuce, just give it some color and smoky flavor.
To serve, place one romaine heart half on a plate, cut side up. Drizzle with dressing, top with cherry tomatoes, Kalamata olives, cucumber, and feta. Sprinkle with dried oregano and extra salt and pepper if desired.

Notes

Serve half a head of romaine per person as a side dish, or a whole head of romaine as the main course.

You could serve topped with roasted or grilled chicken to make this salad more filling.

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

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

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.

Basic Vinaigrette and Salad

March 11, 2014 by Asharae 8 Comments

I recently read Bread & Wine by Shauna Niequist. If you haven’t already read this little beauty, you need to get your hands on a copy. Like, yesterday. The way she writes, speaks about food and conversation around the table, shares about life and loss and the beauty of walking alongside your friends and family through it all – well, it is simply beautiful. She puts things into words that I never would have been able to speak so eloquently. Many, many times as I read this book, I found myself saying, “Yes! My thoughts exactly!” Although I’d never been able to put many of those thoughts into words before now.

The name of this blog actually comes from a quote out of Bread & Wine:

“Let’s be courageous in these days. Let’s choose love and rest and grace. Let’s use our minutes and hours to create memories with the people we love…I pray that we’ll live with intention, hope, and love in this wild season and in every season, and that the God who loves us will bring new life to our worn-out hearts this year and every year, that we’ll live, truly and deeply, in the present, instead of waiting, waiting, waiting for perfect.”

Isn’t that just beautiful? When the world tells us to be constantly on the go, competing for the top, always available and accessible, unforgiving to those who disagree with us, and constantly distracted – what a beautiful call this is to do just the opposite. A call to slow down, be present, let go of the worries of the future, love on those around us here and now. Just soak that up for a moment.

This season is wild. For us it certainly is, and for you I’m sure. My husband, Tim, and I never dreamed we’d end up back in the town I grew up in, him teaching at the high school I attended, us living in the actual house I grew up in. What a crazy life this is. This season isn’t at all what we would have chosen for ourselves, and yet it is beautiful. We’re learning in the midst of the unexpected. We’re stumbling and making mistakes and growing through the ups and downs. And even though we’re excited for what’s next, we’re also struggling and striving to see what God has for us here and now. May we all “live, truly and deeply, in the present, instead of waiting, waiting, waiting for perfect.”

Are you striving to live in the present? To just be? To allow yourself to rest and let go of your fears and worries?

Today’s recipe is a simple vinaigrette found in Shauna’s Bread & Wine. I made it for the first time the other week and feel it will become a staple in our fridge. It’s ridiculously simple to make – no whisking or blending of ingredients – simply toss it all in a jar and shake. I was actually surprised how well my dressing stayed mixed together – I always think of vinaigrettes separating and needing to be shaken before each use. Not this one though. If you like your vinaigrette a little less “puckery,” you can add more olive oil to mellow it out. I personally liked this just the way it was!

I drizzled this over a salad of spinach, red onion, sunflower seeds, and feta cheese. It was delicious! Use it however you like – I think it’d be great on a salad topped with walnut and dried cranberry as well! Come back tomorrow – we’ll be featuring a super-duper simple recipe and another use for this delicious vinaigrette!