i made pan-roasted honey-glazed carrots out of my own garden

they were pretty impressive i think, delicious in their simplicity.

our garden has lots of carrots growing in a tight little patch, planted by the three-year-old son of our landlords, who lived here until the summer. i know -- lucky us. we now get to literally reap the rewards from our backyard. but sometimes i can't decide what i want to do with carrots other than simmer them endlessly for a soup or something. and it's hard to commit to simmering something i plucked fresh out of the ground into a hot mush.

so. pan-roasted carrots. after lots of trimming, scrubbing, and peeling, i had cute little carrots whose sizes approximated those of my various fingers. some thumb-sized carrots, some mailman-sized carrots (remember that song? "mailman" was the middle finger- weird.), but all small enough to cook through in about twenty minutes, i figured.

warm a tablespoon or two of canola or light olive oil in a large, heavy skillet, over medium or medium-high heat. place the carrots in the pan, without overcrowding them. when they are golden-brown on one size, drizzle a tablespoon or so of honey over them all, and squeeze some lemon juice too. then stir them around and flip each carrot over so it can brown on a new side. lower the heat, strip some thyme leaves off a sprig and toss them in, stir everything again, and cover with a lid (add some vegetable broth first if it looks dry enough to start sticking). cook for 10-15 minutes or until carrots are tender. delicious.

i also made a greens-n-cream sauce for my butternut agnolotti (which are a lot like ravioli, only round) which i got at your dekalb farmers market on a recent trip to atlanta. i swear, i could live in that building and die happy. anyway, the sauce had edamame beans (i wanted fava beans but we were out), some sauteed ribbons of mustard greens, a bit of thyme, some vegetable broth and cream. it was a little odd, but not bad.