Glazed Carrots

During college, I was in a car accident and the air bag went off in my face. The hard contact lens in my eye busted and scratched my cornea. My optometrist thought that it would not ever heal completely, but it thankfully did. I know it's ridiculous, but ever since then, carrots have been a little specialer to me.

Hahaha - that IS a true story and I don't think I've ever revealed that to anyone before!

I used to make this recipe about once a week with baby carrots, but it is better with whole big ones. I like it because it's so simple and in addition to carrots all you need probably on your countertop right now. I don't mess with ginger, orange juice, or any of that when I cook my carrots because they have such a good flavor, and cooking them this way brings out the best the carrot has to offer, and we don't want to cover that up.
Glazed Carrots
1 lb regular or baby carrots
2 T. olive oil
2 T. butter
salt & pepper
1 T. sugar

If you get baby carrots, leave them whole; if you get regular carrots, peel them and cut the ends off. Cut the first piece on a diagonal, your knife parallel to the cutting board. Roll the carrot a quarter of the way, and cut the second piece using the same motion. Continue to cut the whole carrot into these funny little chunks. (Please leave a comment if I didn't state this clearly and I can post a video, it's hard to explain.)

Heat a large sautee pan over high heat and add the olive oil and butter. Toss in the carrots and sprinkle with salt and pepper, and reduce the heat to medium. Stir around to coat, and then stir and flip occasionally for a few minutes; you want to give them a chance to get nice and browned on most sides (the picture above is in the beginning/middle stage of cooking). When they are about halfway browned and starting to get soft, add the sugar. You may need to adjust the heat level between medium and high throughout cooking so they cook pretty quickly, but don't burn.

I like them when they're still a bit firm on the inside, but if you like them completely soft, once they are browned add 1/2 cup of water to the pan and cover for 5 minutes. Uncover and continue cooking until the water has evaporated.