Excuses, Carrot Salad and a Big Project!

Sandy and Shelly, the sleep depriving, Wild and Crazy Cranky Duo!

Let me start out with my excuses! I had a rough week sleep-wise thanks to a little Sugar Glider named Sandy who refused to be caught twice this week, until the wee hours of the morning.  She is the fastest, most stubborn girl in the whole house (next to her twin sister!) I was going to add cranky to the list...but I've often been told that I hold that title exclusively. :-)  I think it's a close competition, though  I also had a touch of insomnia, a book I stayed up late reading one night, and a few other things... I'm pretty sure I have ADD.  I also had a bunch of projects this week, so I did not throw together a unique project for the blog.  Reverting back to my elementary/high school days I'm throwing this together at the very last minute with whatever I have to work with close at hand, and of course with as little effort as possible.  :-)  So, with the excuse portion out of the way, here's this weeks blog...

One of the things I worked on this weekend was a side dish to bring to a dinner party.  A cold side dish was suggested, so the challenge was to come up with something other than Potato Salad to go with the meal.  Looking around my kitchen my eyes landed on carrots.  (I participate in a CSA and our first vegetable drop included a bunch of carrots, and I still had some in the fridge!)  Sooo.. off to the internet I went to find a unique dish and some inspiration.  Here's what I came up with... I didn't realize at the time I was going to cob together a blog, so no blow by blow pictures, but this is what I made.

The Lazy Diva's Sweet Pickled Carrot Salad

These are the leftovers... the bowl was full last night!

INGREDIENTS:
1 lb shredded carrots
1 1/4 cups Sugar 
1 cup White Vinegar
1 cup Water
1 tablespoon Mustard Seeds
6 Whole Cloves
2 Cinnamon Sticks

1) SHRED THOSE CARROTS
I used the biggest shredder/grater blade on my big cow bell looking shredder. If you have all the patience in the world feel free to cut the carrots into strips of about 1/8 or 1/16 of an inch thick.

2) BLANCH
Throw the shredded carrots into a pot of boiling water for 3 minutes, then quickly remove and pour into a strainer. Immediately run under cold water (or drop in ice water) and rinse the carrots. DRAIN and put aside.  

3) The PICKLING SAUCE

Throw all your ingredients into the pot (same one as before if you like!), stir them all up, and bring to a boil.  Let boil for a minute, than drop it down to low and let simmer for about 10-15 minutes. 

4) MIX IT ALL TOGETHER

Add the carrots and the sauce together.  (In true Lazy Diva style I just added the carrots to the pot!)  Stir it up, let it cool, then place in the refrigerator overnight (or at least 8 hours).

5) DRAIN

Pour the contents of the pot into a strainer again to remove the pickling sauce, and try to find all 6 of your cloves and Cinnamon sticks.  (If you can't find all the cloves, (there's usually at least one rogue one,) at least give a warning that there may be some on the loose!)

6) SERVE AND ENJOY

Everyone seemed to enjoy the carrot salad and I thought it was a hit.  It had a unique and refreshing taste, and was sweet and pickly (is that a word?) at the same time.

My new scanner and two 300 pocket albums to help organizing

My other project this week was a BIG ONE....it's a huge time sucker and is far from over!  I ended up buying this little portable scanner awhile back, promptly forgot about it, then had no idea where it was when I did remember it!  My husband found it last weekend and set it aside for me.  I was super excited and I decided to tackle the world!  Okay, I just decided to test the levels of Snapfish and my patience, and started to archive the family photos. This scanner does negatives and slides and turns them into digital photo form, and I remembered we had a TON of negatives kicking around, so I started the project.  (Of course many of the negatives have disappeared.)

One of the more eclectic nonsensical pages

I started with some of the photos I had in my tote. Then I decided to raid my Mom's collection.  She has this big old trunk packed full of photos, papers and such and it is a horrible disorganized mess!!!  She ended up with photos from both branches of my family, and they all are thrown together and completely randomized.  Also, Grandma G. was a bit of a scrapbooker, but not in the highly organized way, she just randomly filled pages.  The same with photo albums, she just grabbed photos and plugged them in.  She also liked to cut people out of photos and place them in random places, then sometimes she'd relocate the photos... and leave blank spots.  So, I have a lot of work ahead of me!  

So with a lot of patience, Ziploc bags, and luck I'll try to muddle through!!  I've tried to do some genealogy and I'm very interested in family history, so I encourage everyone to tackle a project like this.  What if there was a fire, hurricane, tornado, or some other tragic event?  These are the items you can't replace!  Plus, it's great to take these photos and share them with the whole family!

I need more Ziplocs for  sorting!!!

Ugh... stayed up too late on this blog, but I finished!!  (Seriously, just like high school!!)    LOL!!

Thanks as always for reading!