Last week, my nine-year-old’s class took a field trip to “see how pizzas are grown.”  (As I type, I realize I have no idea where they went – the garden center, right?)  The day prior, one of the mothers in the classroom texted a few of the others and said, “We decided that tomorrow’s field trip about ‘Growing Pizza’ should be followed by, naturally, a lunch of pizza!  We are treating the class to pizza lunch tomorrow; I’m wondering if any of the other moms might want to contribute anything else.”  With a desire to both help my friend and prove that I’m the type of mother who knows where her child is going on a field trip, I was the first to respond. 

“I’ll send Nine with a bag of baby carrots!”  I texted because, in addition to being a mom who knows about the location of scheduled field trips, I’m also the type who feeds her children only healthy snacks.

That evening, I went to Sam’s Club to top off a few necessities, such as a 15-gallon tub of Miracle Whip healthy snacks, and to pick up said baby carrots.  Baby carrots were on sale and so I grabbed two three-pound bags: one for Nine, and one for our own Kosior consumption.

“Three pounds of carrots sounds like a lot for a family of four,” you may be thinking, and you’re right.

Back at home, as I unpacked a 500-stick bankers box of Slim Jims healthy snacks, it dawned on me that Nine was not exactly the most reliable delivery method; some of his previously-forgotten goods included his 3^rd grade class Valentines, his end-of-the-year teacher gifts and, most recently, that day’s morning snack.

“These carrots are for school,” I said to Nine.

“Okay,” he said, shuffling a pack of Uno cards.

“Look at me, please,” I said.  He obliged.  “I’m putting these carrots right at the front of the fridge, see?  You need to take them tomorrow morning.”

“Why?”  He asked.

“Because you’re having a classroom pizza lunch,” I said.

“Why are we having a classroom pizza lunch?”  He asked.

“Because you’re going on a field trip,” I said.

“We’re not going on a field trip,” Nine said, returning to his cards.

“You ARE going on a field trip,” I said, even though I wasn’t really sure what was happening, “and you need to take these carrots.”

“Okay,” he said.

The next morning, as he put on his shoes, I asked him about the carrots.

“Yep, I got ’em,” he said – and then, “Oh, wait, I don’t.”

I opened the fridge and pulled out the carrots.  He unzipped his backpack.

“Just carry them into the school,” I said, remembering the Valentine’s Day “Why is there a bag of smushed candy in the bottom of your bag?” debacle.

“No, I can’t do that,” Nine said, without explanation.  He dropped them unceremoniously into the bottom of his backpack.

“Then remember to take them out,” I said.

“I will,” he said.

That evening, when I got home from work, I went straight to Nine.

“Did you give your teacher the carrots?”  I asked.

“No,” Nine said, VERY mournfully – too mournfully, one might say.  “I didn’t.”

“Why not?”  I asked.

“I don’t know,” Nine said.

“Where are they now?”  I asked.

“Still in my backpack,” Nine sighed.  I sighed, too.

I pulled the baby carrots out of his backpack and set them on the kitchen counter next to my other three-pound bag of baby carrots.  I mentally processed exactly how many meals and snack times it would take us to eat six pounds of steamed or raw carrots.  Then I tried to remember if I had read something somewhere about a person who had turned orange or had an arm fall off or whatever from eating too many carrots.

I picked up my phone and Googled, “How to use up a lot of carrots.”

I landed on two recipes: Carrot Soup and Carrot Pie.  Both turned out deee-lish and none of us have turned orange had an arm fall off or whatever, so I’m going to share the Carrot Pie recipe with you now.

I had never heard of carrot pie, and everyone I told about carrot pie had never heard of carrot pie, so I’m pretty sure I uncovered a secret recipe that was readily available all over the Internet.  Also, everyone, including Kyle, had the same reaction when I told them about the carrot pie: they made a face, because it sounded gross.  It sounded so gross, in fact, that when I asked Kyle if I should bring a couple of slices over to our neighbors, he said an emphatic NO before I got the full sentence out.  This is where I will smugly tell you that Kyle later tried my Carrot Pie and he loved it.

I’d describe Carrot Pie as the milder, creamer love child of sweet potato pie and pumpkin pie; in fact, if you told people it was sweet potato pumpkin pie, they’d probably believe you.  I’d recommend eating it for dessert or breakfast.

Carrot Pie is seven ingredients, plus a pie shell.  I used a graham cracker shell because I had one in the house, but you could use whatever.  Here’s what you do:

Boil two heaping cups of baby carrots in water until soft and smooshy.  Drain, and then stick them in a blender until smooth.  Dump the carrot puree into a bowl and add in 1/2 cup of sugar, two eggs, one teaspoon of ground cinnamon, whatever amount you feel like adding (including zero) of ground ginger, a teaspoon of vanilla, and ½ cup of milk.  Mix it up until it’s blended, pour it into the pie shell, and bake at 350 for about 50 minutes.  Let it cool, and then eat it with whipped cream or by itself.  The end.

For his part, Nine – who normally loves pumpkin pie – has used up every excuse in the book to get out of eating Carrot Pie.  I briefly considered putting a piece in his school snack box, but then I decided I didn’t want to scrape Carrot Pie out of the bottom of his backpack come May.

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I took the photo above while I was roasting three pounds of carrots for carrot soup. Here is how you make carrot soup: Roast a crap-ton of carrots with salt, white pepper, olive oil, ground ginger, and turmeric in the oven until really soft. Cook up a chopped onion with salt, garlic, turmeric, and a little bit of cumin in a soup pot; when that’s is done, add in 4 cups of vegetable broth and 2 cups of water, scrape the bottom, and toss in the roasted carrots. Bring that to a boil, and then reduce to a simmer for 15 minutes. Once it’s done, stick the whole business – plus 2 tablespoons of butter – in a blender (probably need to do it in batches) until smooth. Enjoy!

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This week on North Dakota Today we talked about Dr. Gaylynn Becker, my Nice Person of the Week, as a Polar Plunge for Special Olympics Grand Forks. (Valley News Live)

Mark your calendars for the Western North Dakota Bluegrass and Oldtime Music Association of North Dakota’s April 4-5, where a portion of the proceeds will help students attend International Music Camp. (Minot Daily News)

The Fargo Force’s jerseys worn at the Sanford Children’s game were designed by 12-year-old artist Jacob Haug. (Fargo Forum)

Minot’s Rosanne Olson heard her original pieces played at the Minot State University Concert Choir yesterday. (Minot Daily News)

Fun fact: Grand Forks has two international opera singers: brothers Ian and Cole Sherwood. (Grand Forks Herald)

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