World's Best Cooked Carrots From Your Food Storage

"My mother made the best cooked carrots. Not the candied sweet carrot pieces you may be thinking of, but an incredible mashed carrot delight that had three ingredients: carrots, water and butter. It was a treat in our home. Occasionally my dad would sprinkle some salt and pepper on his, but most of us took them straight! There were never leftover carrots. Mom taught me how to make them and it was a labor of love. After cleaning the fresh carrots, she painstakingly grated them (this later became my job). She minced the leftover “handles” if I did not eat them first. She topped the pan off with water and cooked them low and slow for what seemed like an eternity. When they finally met her approval, they were a little runnier than mashed potatoes, but stiff enough to hold a pat of butter on your helping. It was heaven. After leaving home for school, I experienced the “norm” for cooked carrots: nearly inedible coins of poorly cooked carrots, or worse yet, over cooked bland chunks of what was once a carrot. No wonder people avoided them. It's a pity because carrots are a great source of beta carotene and vitamin A, and cooking them makes these nutrients more available in our digestion.