Carrots

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

I like carrots. I make a pretty decent carrot cake. And I love carrots in soups and stews and as one of the veggies with a pot roast.

I was just now looking at a recipe on line for chicken noodle soup, and it calls for four to six large carrots cut into rounds.

Poindexter's Helpful Hint for Carrots: Cook the carrots more or less whole in the soup. When it's all done, or at some point in the cooking process, pull them out, then cut. Raw carrots are tough and are a pain to cut. If they're already cooked . . . .

Sometimes I'm a genius, right? to everyone here.

[drray23]

1. I love carrots too.

As a kid my mother would serve us carrot puree. I still make it sometimes. Oddly enough, shredded raw carrots I cant eat. Make me retch. But, cut in slices
And I am fine with it..

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

2. That's interesting.

And a bit weird, if I can be judgemental here.

Although I have my own food weirdnesses, so I hope that isn't judging.

When my children were very young, I bought very little commercial baby food. I didn't have a blender but I did have a small, hand-cranked version that I used to make baby food. Can't specifically recall pureeing carrots, but I suppose I did.

[drray23]

3. I think it's the texture.

I'm not sure myself. I do recall that as a kid, I had to eat lunch at the school cafeteria. Back then, no multiple choices or pizzas. It was a strict Jesuit school. They expected you to eat what was served and would force you to do it. To this day, I hate shredded carrots, raw red beets and celeri (the yellowish and fibery one when cooked).

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. Not just the texture

(although you might not want my honest opinion of jello) but also the being forced to eat it. THAT'S a form of torture and unconscionable. Unfortunately, all too common.

[Ohiogal]

5. As a child, I was a very picky eater

Completely changed now ...

But why do adults think kids should be forced to eat food they find nauseating? I agree, it's a form of torture that was far too common in the 50s and 60s. I was a skinny kid and food was forced on me many times, once to the point where I got sick at the table. That made my parents slack off a bit. I hated those stringy canned pears in particular.

I vowed I'd never force my own kids to eat something they hated. Only rule here was no dessert if you didn't eat your dinner.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

8. Most kids are picky eaters.

Unless parents are total food Nazis, kids reject all sorts of stuff. I've known more than one parent who claimed, "My kid eats everything!" only to discover, if I was around at meal time, that the kid was exactly as picky as my kid, who I acknowledged as being picky.

I only had once incident where my dad tried to force me to eat something I didn't want to eat. The details aren't important, but suffice to say the lesson I learned was NEVER to force a kid to eat something.

I didn't often have dessert on hand, so that wasn't ever an issue. My rule was that if you didn't like what I fixed, you could make yourself a peanut butter sandwich. I was not going to make separate meals for everyone. I fixed things that I liked, and I tried to pay attention and make only what at least three of the four of us liked, but sometimes two of the four was sufficient. Plus, there were usually some kind of leftovers available, and no one went hungry.

Your dessert rule was reasonable. It was no doubt instrumental in getting them to try things.

Currently I live alone (divorced, kids long grown) and it is nice that I only have to consider myself when fixing meals. Not that my husband or my sons were difficult to cook for. And one of the truly good things about my ex was that if I didn't feel like cooking (I was a stay-at-home mom for most of our marriage) I'd call him up and ask if we could go out to eat that night. I never surprised him when he got home from work, and he never said no to that request. Once or twice I made something that was such a spectacular failure (I particularly recall some failed fish attempt) that we each took a couple of bites, looked at each other, dumped it in the trash, and got in the car. He never held such failures against me, either.

[mysteryowl]

6. Carrots... are the foundation to my morning juiced drink

[elleng]

7. As a kid (and a bit older,) I hated cooked carrots.

Now can never have enough of them, in stews, soups, and pot roast.

Thanks, now thinking about cooking! (BUT a hot spell here, so not for a little while.)

[forgotmylogin]

9. Raw carrots used to make me gag due to the texture.

They took so long to chew...moreso than most foods, and as a kid, I couldn't handle them.

Nowadays I don't mind munching on the shaved down "baby" carrots on occasion.

I found the most palatable way as a carrot-hater to eat them raw is juiced with apples. The juice turns opaque orange, but tastes exactly like apple juice and you don't even notice carrot.

Although not the healthiest way to prepare them, I LOVE glazed carrots cooked tender with brown sugar and a little maple syrup.

Oh - and cutting carrot rounds is exactly what a food processor was designed for. Cooking them whole then cutting them is a great tip though!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

11. Not everyone owns a food processor.

About thirty years back I did have one, and I found it was much more trouble to use than it was worth. It took longer to set up, then disassemble and clean than it took to slice up things on a cutting board. Perhaps if I'd been cooking for a larger crowd it would have been convenient. I live alone now, so it definitely wouldn't be worth it to me to have one. Plus, I have a rather small kitchen, so storing it would be a hassle.

[forgotmylogin]

12. Oh, I certainly understand.

The only reason I have one is it's an alternate attachment for the blender. 99 percent of the time when I do chop vegetables I just use a knife. If I were healthier and ate more salads, I'd definitely be using it more. And I sympathize with the lack of counter space.

I want an espresso maker, but have to keep talking myself out of it because it would have to go on top of the fridge!

[dem in texas]

10. In Praise of the Lowly Carrot

I like them raw or cooked. Carrots are bland, but add color to foods. One thing to keep in mind is that the older the carrot is, the sweeter it will be. I have found that sometimes my split pea and navy bean soups will taste too sweet because of the carrots used, I usually fix this with a few tablespoons of balsamic vinegar.

Cooked, mashed carrots are a great starter when your babies are ready to eat table food. Glazed carrots are an old fashioned dish, used to see it served all the time, I need to make some.

Raw grated carrots are a must for salads and coleslaws. add color and extra vitamins to both. If I make Mexican rice, I will add a few frozen green peas and some finely diced carrot, adds color and texture to the dish.

Carrot mincemeat cake is a few found favorite at our house.

Don't buy those fake miniature carrots at the supermarket.

My four year old grandson helped plant my garden one year. He was at my house when we pulled up the first carrot. He was so surprised to see the long orange carrot come out of the ground where he had planted seeds a few months back. A priceless memory about carrots.

[Vinca]

13. We eat carrots in some fashion just about every day.

Earlier in the week I made a salmon chowder that had grated carrots in it. Nice addition color-wise and added to the flavor.

[Freddie]

14. The supermarket (Giant) now calls regular carrots

“Cooking carrots”. As opposed to the “baby” carrots. Arghh.
I also like glazed carrots especially for holiday meals. My favorite is brown sugar, butter, a couple splashes of orange juice and a handful of sliced red grapes.