Maple-Glazed Carrots

I have a weakness for cookbooks. Inside, there are so many recipes and techniques. Here's the thing, by owning them I am able to aspire that some day, hopefully, I will be an amazing cook (who can host dinner parties with ease and have a perfect, Martha Stewart house). I realize this isn't true but to this day I remain hopeful. For the last year though, I have been purging my cookbooks. I have been reading them and guess what? Most of the ones I have owned don't contain recipes that are so amazing that they are worth the space on my shelf. I know, go ahead and pause as you think, no duh silly! It's okay I realize other people already know this. I take no offense. Cookbooks offer hope and don't we all need a little hope every now and then?

Sorry, I digress. Even as I have purged cookbooks, I have still had quite a few on my shelf that I haven't gotten around to reading. Recipes from America's Small Farms is one such book. So this evening when I was trying to come up with yet another way to prepare beets (our winter CSA is great but I picked up too many beets and carrots), I checked the index.
The recipe for Marinated Beets looked and sounded great until I realized I didn't have 1. time to roast, marinate for 12 hours then serve 2. and fruit vinegar 3. feta cheese 4. mint leaves 5. walnut oil.

Moving on, I checked the index for carrot recipes. On the page opposite from the marinated beets recipe was Microwave Maple Glazed Carrots. Sigh, we all know what happened to The Microwave. I read the recipe anyway. Nope, no orange juice (but we do have orange peach and mango juice) and yep, I have everything else. Sweet!

Maple-Glazed Carrots
as many carrots as you need for dinner already cooked until soft (I used my Instant Pot to cook the carrots - go ahead, act shocked - and made enough carrots for another meal too)
1/2 c. organic juice
3 TBSP maple syrup
2 TBSP organic raisins
1/8 tsp ground organic nutmeg

1. Heat juice to simmer.
2. Add carrots, maple syrup, raisins and nutmeg.
3. Simmer on low until raisins are plump and tender and juice thickens to desired consistency, approx. 10-15 minutes.

Seriously, that is it. The recipe also called for 2 TBSP organic butter but I forgot it. I served it with oven roasted potatoes (made with oil, not turkey fat) and a pork roast which I followed the same recipe as the one hour beef roast except I cooked it for 20 minutes on 500 then 40-60 minutes on 325, depending on the thickens. I rubbed the roast with  fresh pressed organic garlic (with so much garlic as part of the winter CSA, I use a garlic press a lot) and black pepper. I topped it with a couple of slices of bacon (which I removed after the initial 20 minute searing and set aside). Our dinner menu looked like this:

1st course: maple-glazed carrots
2nd course: potatoes and pork roast
3rd course: slices of Colby cheese from our local farm with small pieces of bacon on top
4th course: blueberry yogurt

These carrots were so good. They were super sweet and really didn't need as much maple syrup and could have been dessert. I think the butter would have added richness but it was fantastic without it. Plus since I served it first, I was able to dip my pork and potatoes in the juices. So delicious.

How do you cook your carrots?