applewood-smoked garlic shrimp kebabs

As I have mentioned here before, food is one of my greatest loves. This past year has been one of the worst years for eating unhealthy for me in the past ten years. I don't know if it is stress or being busy or what, but I have had such a hard time eating a balanced diet. It takes discipline, which I need more of! 

And I may have also mentioned that I used to be a vegetarian - for six years. Now, I was more of a pescatarian for the last four years of that, seeing as how I also ate seafood. But back in November, a beer-can, Kruse-farm chicken and pangs of hunger and my continual curiosity about eating meat again overtook me. The funny thing is, I had so many kinds of food that I liked before eating meat. It seems like I have been ignoring all of that healthy vegetarian stuff I used to make.

So, the past couple of nights I've been trying to make somewhat healthier meals that I can be excited about! (It turns out, despite my delicious vegetarian meals, it is hard to make something as awesome as a perfectly grilled, thick-cut pork chop.) 

Here is the first one I'm excited about! It is a variation on a shrimp recipe I've been making for a couple of years. This falls into the easy meals category, and for that reason I love it!

Here it is on the grill:

All done! One of the most challenging things about photographing supper is resisting eating it for that much longer! (I need better willpower!)

I love close-ups. 

The recipe:

Applewood-smoked garlic shrimp kebabs
Serves 2

4+ cups thawed, tailless, pre-cooked frozen shrimp (I know, raw shrimp would be tastier, but the frozen shrimp was in our freezer already!)
3 cups thawed, good quality frozen broccoli florets (or fresh ones that have been blanched)
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
1 red onion, cut into 1/2 inch chunks
Grape tomatoes

for the sauce:
4 tbsp olive oil
6 cloves garlic
1/4 tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

We have a cast-iron smoker box that we put on the flame on our grill. It is a Weber box, but I'm sure other brands make them too! It is amazing! We filled it with soaked applewood chips and let it sit on medium heat for about 20 minutes before putting the kebabs on so it could get nice and smoky.

If you're using wooden skewers, soak them for a bit to keep wood from getting too burned.

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the sauce ingredients, and puree until smooth.

Assemble the kebabs. There isn't much of a rhyme or reason to this! :) Just go where the spirit moves you. Once assembled, brush all sides of the kebabs with the olive-oil garlic sauce. Place on the grill. We kept our grill between 300-325 degrees so the kebabs wouldn't get overdone and they'd have time to get that smoky flavor from the applewood. Seeing as how our kebabs were basically pre-cooked, we didn't want to rubberize them.

We had ours with fresh guacamole! It was an amazingly tasty meal, and I didn't feel too guilty after eating it! Ha!

As you can see, we had no trouble finishing them off:

Yum!

the love of the garden

Our little garden is starting to make progress. I wrote a post awhile back about joining a community garden program with a couple of friends of ours. For awhile there, our chances at having a nice garden seemed dismal, because we have had day after day of rain this spring (well, until recently, when we've finally had a rest from all of the thunderstorms). Because of that rain, we had a hard time getting the garden in. But we did a couple of weeks ago, and in just two weeks, my pea seedlings are reaching for the sky:

Our tomato transplants seem to be holding up pretty well:

And the radishes are really off and running. :)

I am slightly worried about pests, though. This is my first totally organic gardening experience. My beans are getting devoured already. I've noticed several other gardeners in the community are having the same problem with them, and I've been reading about ways to control pests organically. I'm going to try a few things. I think plan A is to try putting coffee grounds around the roots of the plants that are getting chomped. And I'll go from there!

Lately, I'm spending more time focusing on the little things in life that I am grateful for. One of them is the reward of faith. Planting a tiny seed in a sea of soil, and watching it sprout. It is an incredible metaphor that I am blessed to experience time and again.

Much love everyone, and Happy Monday!

Emily

I love photographing musicians! Emily is a wonderful soprano here at IU, and we had a lot of fun doing her headshots last fall. Emily, thanks for being so great! You are sweet, saucy, and gorgeous. :) I wish you all the best in your career at IU and beyond!

Wow to your flawless skin and gorgeous eyes!!!

And kudos to you for awesome clothing choices. I loved your colors & textures.

Helllllooooo blue eyes!

 

I love my job!

Kerry

As usual, I love my musical theater clients! When Kerry walked in the door for her session, I knew my job was going to be easy. She was lighthearted and fun and so naturally beautiful. 

Kerry, maybe you should be a model in addition to being a wonderful singer-actress :) You are gorgeous, inside and out, and I think that really comes through in your photographs. 

Good luck in New York and with all of your future endeavors! I'm sure you'll be amazing.

Check out Kerry's website here!

You are so striking, Kerry! Gah!

Hello gorgeous!

I also can't deal with your blue eyes! :)

 

Happy Friday!

in the twilight

My love of the earth is one of the things that first motivated me to try my hand at photography. My parents bought me my first camera when I was in middle school. It was a fairly nice Vivitar film camera, but not an SLR. I took rolls and rolls of film on it. I spent my allowance developing photographs of the sunset and gorgeous clouds with light streaming through them. Sometimes I think my family thought I was crazy, spending all of that money taking pictures of the sky. But a beautiful sunset or other quiet moment in nature felt to me much like other aesthetic experiences: listening to a chord line up in a favorite Palestrina piece, or better yet, listening to the first movement of Brahms's Fourth, or maybe the entire 17+ minutes of Vaughan William's Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. In those moments, it is like that tiny space in the atmosphere that separates us from the Divine is suddenly open, and we can glimpse what lies beyond and above human experience. 

It might seem crazy to compare leaves and open skies to Brahms, but it is how I feel. 

I convinced my hubby to accompany me into the late evening for a little photo hike the other night, and here are a few of the moments I wanted to hold onto in my heart:

 

 

 I am so thankful for the endless beauty of the world.

dina + grigor

When Dina emailed me to ask about photographing her wedding back in January, I remember that I was in my studio practicing with friends and my laptop just happened to be open. I did a little dance when I saw the email in my inbox read her email looking for a wedding photographer, and I was beyond excited when she chose me for the honor of documenting her love.

I knew it was meant to be when we had our first coffee date. She is this gorgeous, beautifully real woman. I love hearing stories of love, and how they are often preceded by the stories of broken hearts and waiting for the right person to come. Dina told me all about her stories of love. But of course, the best one of all was the story of how she met Grigor at a masterclass. Apparently he had had his eye on her, and offered to be her accompanist. You see, Dina is a wonderful violinist and Grigor is an equally awesome pianist. It was meant to be! You know how you meet people every so often and you feel like you've known them forever? That's how Dina is. And that is how Dina and Grigor's love blossomed, like it had been there just waiting for the moment when their paths would physically cross. Once they finally met, it didn't take long for them to know it was meant to be.

When I met Grigor and we did their engagement session, I saw what Dina saw: the way he looks at her, the way he puts his arms around her. Their love is beautiful, and I can't wait to document their amazing day in August.

Here are a few of my favorites from their session:

Hello Dina, you are beautiful.

I love the look on Grigor's face in the one of the right! Awesome!

Can you say editorial? You guys are models in your spare time...

 

I think this one is my favorite. :) It is hard to choose, but that light was magical.

You guys are so adorable. I can't handle it!!!

 

To see more of Dina + Grigor's engagement photos click play on the slideshow below:

Russell

I am so behind! Time to start catching up on all of my wonderful headshot clients!

Russell was one of my first musical theater clients at IU. The had such a great energy and was so much fun to work with! Add to that that he was super natural in front of the camera and my job was easy! He was a senior at IU and now he is off singing and acting for his supper.

Check out his website here. I wish you all the best Russell! Thanks for being awesome!

Russell, I think you've perfected the "smolder." :)

And lucky for me that day had some gorgeous fall light!!! :)

 

Happy Wednesday!

packaging

Its crazy how many decisions there are to make when you start a new business. Designing a logo, a website, learning so many new skills! One of the things I recently started to brainstorm about is packaging. I want to keep everything in line with my logo, and this is my first crack at it. There are a few things I'd like to do differently next time, but for now, this is the kind of setup my client's products (prints, etc) come in! It was fun to hand the first one off today to one of my senior photography clients. I've always liked to give gifts, and handing over their goods wrapped up like this feels like gift-giving. 

My job is so cool.

the art of food

The title of this post isn't meant to suggest that I'm an artist while cooking. I do, however, believe that cooking is an art, and it takes artistic energy. I never really cooked when I was a kid, mostly because my mother was just so darn good at it. She is the queen of throwing things together and them tasting amazing. But, as she always says, you can't ask her to duplicate it. It just happens. There is no recipe. 

I learned many of my domestic talents from my Mother: cooking, baking, cleaning, sewing, and gardening. To be fair, my Father had a fair hand in teaching me too, especially about gardening, and he is a great cook! I was in 4-H. I had to learn to sew. I didn't enjoy it when I was a child. I do, however, enjoy it as an adult. I liked to bake but would rather have my Mom bake for me. And because you didn't really cook for 4-H, I didn't really learn how to do it. 

My first year as an "adult" in college, I lived in the dorms, and people made my lunch. I didn't know how to make much beyond a good grilled cheese and a can of tomato soup, and I was the master of boxed shells and cheese. However, cooking in my dorm was a hassle, and I had a food plan anyway with the ISU dining center, so I just ate there.

When I became truly lost was when I ventured to Italy and studied abroad the first semester of my sophomore year. Suddenly, it was a minimum of 7 euros to eat a meal, which got expensive really fast. So I found myself using my expensive euro minutes to call my Mom and ask her how to make scalloped corn, and stir fry, and anything else I craved as I yearned for familiarity. And in Italy, I became a vegetarian. Suddenly, I fell in love with eggplant, any kind of bean, squash, and tons of other vegetables I had claimed to abhor. Suddenly I was learning to cook for myself and be a vegetarian at the same time.

I made and ate some strange things that semester. Before, I had hated beans, but canned beans were so cheap, and my roommate and I would buy them, open the can, heat them up, and eat them right out of the can. A favorite meal was when I fried potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers, and toss them with olive oil and pasta. I burned a lot of potatoes and learned that timing is everything. I started spending my mornings before class at the Italian language computer lab, browsing for hours through websites like Better Homes and Gardens and Vegetarian Times trying to demystify recipes, ingredients, and how to make modifications for Europe. 

After that, I only got  more curious. I subscribed to magazines and bought Vegetarian cookbooks. I became an artisan bread baker.  I became obsessed with beautiful food and beautiful ingredients. And then cooking became therapy, another love, and another art for me to embrace. 

Today, I make all kinds of things. I love to cook. My kitchen overflows with dishes, appliances, and possibility. I have recipes I pass on to friends for my best homemade pizza, my brown-butter tortellini, my three-bean chili, and my baked oven eggs. In November, I started eating meat again, and it has opened my culinary door to infinite possibilities, even though I still hold a special place in my heart for vegetarian meals. 

This past year, I didn't cook much. I didn't explore much. Or at least, I didn't enjoy cooking. It is funny how when I get stressed or overextended artistically and physically, the last thing I want to do is cook. I have such a hard time finding the creative energy for it. As soon as I graduated from IU, I could feel my culinary chains loosening. I have started to enjoy cooking again. I hope to start documenting some beautiful food moments on this blog, especially after tuning into CreativeLive's last amazing photography workshop with the amazing food and culture photographer, Penny de los Santos. It not only inspired me photographically and as an artist, but it made me want to appreciate and document my life more. After all, that is why I picked up my first DSLR in the first place.

This week, I think one of our best nights was when Ayron grilled cheesy chicken sausages and we sipped fresh strawberry margaritas and munched on:

Spicy black-bean hummus

• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 heaping tbsp tahini
• 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/8 cup water
• red pepper flakes
• chipotle chili pepper
• smoked spanish paprika
• hot sauce (we have some pretty spicy Louisiana style hot sauce)
• salt & freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp olive oil, plus some to drizzle on top

Mix all ingredients in a food processor. Drizzle with olive oil.

Guacamole, Kelly style:

• 2 ripe avocadoes
• 1/4 cup red onion, diced fairly small
• a handful of grape tomatoes, diced
• salt & freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• lime juice
• Olive oil to drizzle on top

Mash avocados in a bowl (a potato masher works wonders!). Mix in remaining ingredients. Drizzle with olive oil and serve.

My favorite moment of Penny's from the aforementioned seminar?

"If you're not doing what you love, why not? Why are you not doing what you love?...Whatever it is you want to do, you can do it.  Whatever it is you want to be, you can be it.  So go do it.  That is your final assignment." 

Thank you Penny. I will do it. I will be it. I will do my very best to fall in love with my chosen path every day, and to embrace what I'm meant to be.

somewhere between excitement and total panic

The past couple of weeks have been full of all kinds of ups and downs. My husband and I received our masters degrees from Indiana University and headed back to Iowa to reunite with friends and family. I am so relieved to be graduated it is hard for me to find words to describe it.  It is like a long, beautiful chapter of my life is over and now the next wonderful stage can begin.

The trip home was mostly bliss for me, especially getting to be with my family (especially that sweet niece of mine who is pictured below). This will be the first summer ever that I don't spend in the middle of the cornfields, immersed in the routine of walking with my Mother in the mornings, working at the house or on the farm for the rest of the day, and digging my hands into that lovely stretch of 8x8 raised beds and gardening whenever possible. It will be the first summer without the communal dinners where we put our heads together and have nightly feasts. It will be the first summer I don't walk around barefoot on the grass and walk out my front door and smell that deep, heady scent of twilight. It will be the first time I'm not home for Father's day.

It is hard to describe that deep yearning for a place to someone who doesn't have a similar spot in their heart for someplace like this. I always wondered why I wasn't like many "normal" children who feel the innate desire to be different; I never wanted to forge my own new path into some unknown world and leave all that I had known to reach beyond it. That doesn't mean I don't have hopes and dreams, but for me there is no greater satisfaction, no greater peace, and no greater beauty in any place besides that stretch of 200 odd acres in northwest Iowa. My family is there. My history is there. My heart is there.

But I cannot figure out a way for it to make sense for my physical self to be there. I have this awesome opportunity to be a photographer here. I think I can do it there, too, but here I will have more opportunities to get experience. And Ayron needs to be here to continue to pursue his dream of becoming a professional singer, and I want to support him one-hundred-and-ten-percent. 

I just feel like there are a lot of growing pains. And there will be so many more. Starting a business and actually growing it and moving it forward are so exhausting. Yes, it is rewarding, but it is hard some days not to be stifled by the fear of it all. There is this deep fear of not being good enough that accompanies almost any artistic endeavor. Who am I kidding? It accompanies almost any big step in life. 

I just have to remember that to truly grow you have to take risks. Truly great things always take a lot of effort to attain. On the hard days, I just have to remember why I started taking photographs in the first place. One of the reasons is right here:

I just have to pray. And dream. I need to always keep dreaming.