Garlic Passion

I’m just not one of these people who take vitamins and nutritional supplements, but my mom and dad are charter members of that club. You should see the handful of stuff they swallow every day. And I’m not just talking a multiple vitamin and maybe some B-complex and C. We’re talking hardcore health addicts here.

They take stuff with names like CoQ10, grape seed extract, flax seed oil, and alpha lipoic acid. That’s just the ones I can pronounce! I’m surprised they have room in their stomachs for food.

My idea of being a health addict is Click to continue »

Morley Safer of 60 Minutes said: “You can never have enough garlic. With enough garlic, you can eat The New York Times.”

You know, I think he might be right. Garlic is one of those things that, of course, combines greatly with its usual companions of onion, tomato, and basil, either by itself with each or all together in one flavorful dish. But sometimes I think you can put it with just about anything and improve the taste of the original.

You can’t have good Asian, Mexican, or Italian food without garlic. In fact, of all the different kinds of food in our world, Scandinavian is the only kind that didn’t develop with garlic as a seasoning. So if you think garlic is limited, then let me broaden your culinary horizons. Click to continue »

I don’t know who first started cooking with garlic, but they did the world a favor. I mean, think about it. Did some primitive man gathering berries and roots while waiting for a brontosaurus steak to cook, dig up the bulbous herb, sniff it, and yell to his buddy, “Hey, try this.”

Hard to imagine just chomping down on a big head of this long-domesticated plant, isn’t it? But it’s equally hard to imagine a world without garlic bread, garlic mashed potatoes, and all the other dishes that garlic enhances with its unique flavor.

Garlic bread, without a doubt, is the easiest thing in the world to make. Let me tell you how my mom does it. Click to continue »

Some might think roses and garlic go together like Chanel and fish oil, but that’s simply not true. In many parts of the world, garlic is a cash crop, but I think of it as being planted in flower beds. Click to continue »

I’m horrified! I discovered something I didn’t know about olive oil. You see, it all started with garlic. I’d never have known this if I hadn’t got interested in the stinking rose. Isn’t that some name? No one really knows why, centuries ago, garlic was named the stinking rose. Well, the stinking part might be understandable, but the rose part? You could say it’s because the bulb resembles a tight rose bud, but that’s quite a stretch of the imagination.

Anyway, back to my big discovery. Click to continue »

Hippocrates gave us the Hippocratic oath to which doctors swear. He also is remembered for saying something that natural and organic food supporters could use as a rallying cry: “Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food.”

Sounds good, doesn’t it? Actually, in light of what I’ve learned about garlic, Hippocrates still might be considered an astute and learned Greek in today’s world.

Garlic, like extra virgin olive oil, has remarkable health benefits. Click to continue »

When most people think of roasting, they think of a hearty beef roast or a succulent turkey at Thanksgiving. They don’t think of a head or garlic unless they’ve tasted the luscious result from roasting a big garlic bulb.

If you didn’t know you could roast garlic or didn’t know how, I’m here to rescue you from this sad lack of knowledge. Click to continue »

Wow! Who would have thought that garlic could be so similar to my other favorite ingredient olive oil? I’m amazed at their similarities. Not that they’re from the same plant groups or anything like that. I mean olives are drupes, like cherries and grapes. Garlic is an allium, like onions. Cherries and onions? Not anything alike. What I mean is that garlic is used as a food, but it also has remarkable health benefits, just like olive oil. Click to continue »

I asked my Mom why she used to buy garlic powder instead of fresh garlic. She said it was convenient. Every time she bought heads of garlic, it dried up before she used it up. When she tried keeping it in the refrigerator, something happened to the taste. So she thought it was just easier to buy powdered garlic from the spice section so she’d have some when she needed it. Click to continue »

Hmm. I’m in a quandary. I want to get some kind of exotic garlic as a thank you present for Granny’s friend Dinah. Aunt Dinah’s been sweet enough to teach me what she knows about cooking, and she knows an awful lot. She likes garlic so much that she grows her own in her backyard.

After some thought, I decided a sampler of different kinds of garlic would make a perfect gift. The trouble was I couldn’t find anything at the store other than the white bulbs I usually buy. Click to continue »