What a great time of year this is. Especially since we now live in Idaho and I have free-reign of my parents’ garden. The last time I took Greta out there to pick tomatoes, I became a little engrossed in what I was doing and failed to notice my daughter had snuck away from my side. When I finally looked up, I could only see one eye and half of her beaming smile through the armful of carrots she was holding. Fun fact – apparently the only thing Greta likes about carrots, is picking them. So now that I have carrots for days, how do I get her to contribute to eating them? Boom. The glazed carrot.

Glazed carrots are basically candy, but warm and ok to eat during dinner. I like spicy carrots, but when dealing with a toddler you gotta be careful. For that reason, I stayed away from the Thai chilies and used a deseeded, red jalapeño and sweet chili sauce (Greta is a little more keen on spice than most kids I would say, so you may want to just use red bells instead of the red jalapeño). Wrote a recipe about it; like to hear it here it goes (In Living Color, anyone?).

Stuff you need:
• 6 large carrots (10 medium to small ones), washed and cut into quarters if needed. Try to keep them all under 1 inch thick, 3-4 inches long
• 1 deseeded, red jalapeño, cut in half and sliced -Red jalapeños are really not that spicy, and they’re a little sweeter than regular jalapeños
• 1 tbsp light olive oil
* 1 1/2 cups chicken stock
* 1/4 cup sweet chili sauce
* 1/4 cup brown sugar
* 2 Tbsp Soy Sauce (I used gluten-free)
* 2 tsp freshly grated ginger
* 1 tsp turmeric
* 1/2 tsp ground ginger
* 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
* 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
* 1/2 tsp fresh cracked black pepper
green onion and toasted sesame seeds to garnish

Super easy. Heat a sauce pan (preferably one that has a lid) over medium-low heat. Add the oil, then immediately put the carrots and jalapeño in and sauté that for a minute or two. While that’s sautéing, add the starred ingredients in a bowl and mix together well. Add to the carrots, cover and simmer for 2-3 minutes, then remove the lid and let the liquid cook down until it creates a nice glaze. If you reduce it too much, just add a little water and stir. Serve with roasted chicken, or don’t. You are the master of your universe.

Greta ate a few of these carrots, and probably would have eaten even more if she weren’t such a rice fiend (we also served some rice with this). Seriously, that girl looooooooves rice. Plain. No salt. No soy sauce. No nothing.

Anyways. Give this one a try. It’s a great side dish and the perfect way to use up that crazy amount of carrots your garden threw at ya this year. Cheers everyone, have a great long weekend.