Hellllooooooooo. Hope your Thursday is going great!
I left you with a bit of a teaser this morning….
Eric and I are crafting.
As part of my ‘stay off the computer during the evening’ pact, I decided that I could use my evening downtime to craft!
I am notorious for never printing any of my photography shots, so I decided that I needed to put an end to that. I submitted a ton of my favourite shots to Costco for enlargement and printing and then Eric and I picked them up last night. Costco has amazing prices and super fast service. Afterwards, we booted it to Michael’s Craft Store for oodles of picture frames (thanks to Amanda for the tip). Michael’s has aisles and aisles of frames…who knew!?!
Eric is also a photography fanatic like I am, so he was quite pumped about this project and offered to help! [Although, he insists what he is doing is not ‘crafting’…lol]
I said, ‘Ok, Ok, you are building things with your super manly hands, does that work??’ :biggrin:
We took the prints and each selected our favourite ones. I had over 60 shots printed off and we had to narrow them down to around 20! I felt like I was picking my favourite children.
Dearest maple baked beans and healthy spelt pancakes for one, I’m really sorry you didn’t make the cut this round. For some reason you didn’t look good blown up. Love, Ange. (tear).
I bought a mixture of frame styles because I wanted a bit of variety. We also got some frameless ones that I don’t have any shots of yet.

Is this real life?
How amazing would a bowl of oats that huge be?!?
Food picture enlargements = always a good thing.
I also put one of my favourite quotes on one of my most recent shots!!

The quote says, ‘To eat is a necessity, but to eat intelligently is an art.’
I also made it the feature of my quotes page if you want to check it out.
Mmm strawberries!

Then I lined up all the ducks in a row!

Now we need help on how to hang/organize them!
We want to do a big collage all mixed and matched and eclectic looking, however we have no idea how to organize them. Maybe something like this…
We have about six 8 x 10’s and about ten 5 x 7’s.
Maybe it would help if I put them all out on the table and took one group shot of them together for you to see?

It was serious business.

Well, not really, but we pretended it was…heh.
Look at this adorable giraffe print we also picked out from Michael’s!

We are going to hang it in the family room as the first thing on the wall after living in our house for a year and a half!
Well, aside from our TV that is.
Our walls have been naked for a long time. Eric was perfectly happy with the flatscreen TV being the only thing hanging on the wall. I, however, was not. :biggrin:
This makes my heart melt.

Eric proceeded to poof out his lips and kiss my forehead like the mama giraffe. I was a bit scared.
I fled from his Giraffe like grip and found solace in the kitchen…

In A Jiffy Curry Chickpea Burgers
These are delicious and majorly addicting curry infused wheat-free chickpea burgers that bake to a beautiful burnt orange colour. The seeds give the burgers a fantastic crunch and texture. You won’t be able to stop at just one…or two…or three…
Adapted from my In A Jiffy Spelt Veggie Burgers and Emily’s Vegan Black Bean Burgers.
Ingredients:
- 1.5 cups cooked chickpeas
- 1/2 cup regular oats
- 10 baby carrots or 2 carrots
- 1 tbsp coconut oil (or oil of your choice), melted
- 1.5 tsp Arvinda’s Curry Masala (or other good quality curry powder)
- 1/2 tsp Paprika
- 1/4 tsp Tumeric
- 1/4-1/2 tsp sea salt, to taste
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tsp Parsley flakes (optional)
- 3 tbsp sunflower seeds
- 1/4 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
Directions: Preheat oven to 375F. Grease a baking sheet or line with parchment paper and set aside. In a food processor, process the oats, carrots, and all the spices/seasonings (sea salt, black pepper, curry masala, paprika, tumeric, optional parsley) for 30 seconds or until somewhat smooth. Now add in the chickpeas at 1/2 cup increments and coconut oil (melted), stopping to scrape down the bowl as necessary. [My food processor was quite cantankerous during this process (it didn’t process the chickpeas well, but that may have been because I doubled the recipe and I had too much in my bowl!)]. Once the chickpeas are mostly processed and smooth, take the mixture and place in a medium sized bowl. Stir in the sunflower seeds and pepita seeds. Wet your hands and shape patties or balls. Makes about 6-8 patties depending on how big you want them. Note: You can also pre-bake these for about 20 minutes and them pop them on the BBQ to finish them off!
For my first test batch, I made smaller patties and left some chickpeas whole…

They turned out delicious, however the whole chickpeas made the burgers fall apart a bit too easily.

They will be great for crumbling over salads!!

Afterward, I loved them so much I decided to make another batch and this time I doubled the recipe above! It was almost too big for my 12-cup food processor. I made 6 huge patties from the mixture.

I baked these huge burgers at 375F for 20-25 minutes on each side until golden.
They turned out incredible!!!!!!! Look at that rich orange/golden curry colour…Mmmmmmm!!

I also made Eric’s favourite new snack for a side…

That would be shredded carrot salad with my Better Than Bottled Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing!
Eric has a little obsession with carrots! They are his favourite veggie. He walked into the office the other night with a huge honking bowl of shredded carrots (plain!) and wouldn’t leave me alone until I tried some. I admit, they are pretty good…but I’m feeling a little ‘carroted out’ at the moment.

Somehow this happened again….!
That would be two patties with a 1/4 cup of roasted red pepper hummus smothered in between.
I swear to you, no buns are even needed! It might just be one of the best creations in the world. The Double Down need not apply!
I froze a ton of these burgers and I can’t wait to pop them out of the freezer for quick and easy meals.
Well, we are off for our evening stroll + chat. Then it is more crafting…or as Eric would say ‘constructing’. Night!
omg i am in LOVE with your crafty-man-hand project :) and i know exactly where i would put all of mine too! consider that idea stolen!
Angela, that is the best idea EVER! I am absolutely, 100% going to do that with my food photos. You and Eric are geniuses.
hehe tks!
um, Angela? you should open an etsy shop. (I know, in your spare time…)
I would totally purchase the pea one with the quote. (I LOVE that pea photo)
just sayin’
good idea!
Awesome photos! I am going to just hire you for our next family photoshoot! :)
Ethan’s favourite veggie is carrots too!!!
Id love to!
Those shots are so beautiful!
You are so talented.
Wow! Great photos!! Are those for sale? hahha So sharp :)
Those prints are beyond gorgeous; they look professional!
Those burgers look delicious. I must try.
I just wanted to let you know how beautiful your photography is. Seriously, the photos that you have posted so far are absolutely gorgeous. I think that is a great project. It’s important to surround yourself with what makes you happiest. :)
Thank you so much :)
Your photography is SO beautiful…love the art project!
Ange, it’s official, you are my FAVOURITE blogger! Reading your posts always makes me smile :)
LOL thank you you just made me smile!
You guys are doing just fine hanging the giraffe 1.5 years after you moved in. This week we celebrated 17 years in our house and I finally decided to hang some art 2 weeks ago. 17 years was the magic number for me. I guess we’re going to stay here for a while.
hahaha nice!!!! ;p
LOL at Eric’s manly crafting! Reminds me of Jake and his SUPER MANLY Green Monstahs! ;)
And you really should sell some of your photos. I think they would be beautiful as notecards. Sometimes I see art vendors at the farmer’s market, maybe you could rig something up and become the baked-goods-goddess-arts-extraordinaire!! :D
Check out younghouselove.com! They have the best displays of multiple small picture frames combined into wall art. It’s kind of my new obsession.
Those burgers look phenom.
The first thing I thought of when I saw that pic was why do people eat double downs when they can have nutrition and flavor?!?
The pictures are fabulous, so jealous.
LOL – that definitely beats the Double Down!
Your house is going to look SO gorgeous!!! I hope you printed some of your vegan overnight oat combos because those are beauties!
I think Eric and I would get on quite well… I could probably give him a run for his money on carrot consumption!
you could have a carrot comp?
You’re pictures look great! What about arranging them so once they’re assembled on the wall they form a square. Using the mixed size arrange them on the table to see how you like it best, measure the dimensions on the table, get a level line and move them from the table to the wall. I’m not sure if that makes any sense, but I can’t find a picture to show you what I mean. Maybe check with Young House Love too- they have great ideas.
And don’t feel bad about having no pictures up, we’ve been in our house 3 years and still haven’t gotten around to hanging photos- we’re too busy remodeling the rooms. We’ll hopefully get to it this winter.
Gorgeous pictures! I think you should also showcase them at your Farmer’s Market AND even sell them. I’m sure Foodies and restaurateurs would love to hang them :)
Your pictures are so good! I’m sure they will look amazing whatever you do with them. I have the same giraffe picture! I think I even got it at Michaels! weird :P Those chickpea burgers look so yummy!