Got Garlic?
It’s safe to say, I do.
If you want, you could actually say I have a crapton of garlic. Last time I checked, crapton still wasn’t a word, but I’m rolling with it anyway, and I’m going to keep rolling with it until it gets added to the urban dictionary.
If I was a lesser woman (seriously, would I admit to such a thing…ha, ha, never), this amount of garlic might intimidate me. Not so though; not even a little bit.
“Why?” you might ask?
Well the answer is obvious. Should the vampire apocalypse come, I will be ready (zombies are so overrated), which is a good thing because I’m Team Jacob…post hair cut, of course.
In the first Twilight movie, Jacob was a hot mess with that wild mane. It wasn’t until he chopped it all off and then his shirt magically disappeared, that I hopped on the Jacob train. All aboard….
Poor, poor Jacob…you can forget about stupid Bella…a million women would happily console you, although I’m not one of them because I’m a married lady. Taken, so to speak, but I’d pass you along to a close friend.
Another reason having a zillion bulbs of garlic around doesn’t scare me is because I happen to love, love, love garlic. Seriously, if you put garlic in a dish, and a lot of it, well then I’m sold. I may even lick my plate clean…it has been known to happen, although mostly in the privacy of my own home. Want proof of my love?
I know what a quarter cup of garlic looks like on my cutting board. BAM!
I also own a garlic grater, which puts those silly little presses to shame. Can you say liquid garlic? How about heaven-sent?
Alright, so you realize I love garlic, but you still want to know, “Where did all this garlic come from?”
Even though I love me some garlic, it’s safe to say I didn’t go out and buy this much at once, cause that would be really, really crazy, and I’m only mildly crazy. Instead I’ve been slowly accumulating it all summer long…or at least since August.
Mere months ago, I purchased a large bag because the price was right…$3.00 for a bundle of organic garlic. Sold. Then I went to Cleveland’s Second Annual Garlic Festival, where I proceeded to buy all the garlic in sight. Or really just large quantities because this was obviously different from my grocery store garlic. Plus, who goes to a garlic festival and leaves empty-handed? It would have been wrong and weird not to buy something. Possibly even immoral, and since I’m all about morals (and rainbows and unicorns), I grabbed me some garlic. Then, the garlic started showing up in my weekly CSA share…every single week, and the rest is history.
Of course your third question of the day is, “What does one do with all that garlic?” Might I say, your questions are really on point today. It’s like you’re reading my mind; you must be psychic.
Of course, with this much garlic hanging around, the only thing to do is eat it…in bulk. Take last Thursday’s dinner: garlic bread, garlic smothered and roasted asparagus, and whole wheat pasta in a sautéed garlic and olive oil sauce. Yep, in one meal, I went through an entire bulb of garlic. Granted, it was a CSA bulb, which are small and net only seven cloves, but I’ll take it. One down, seven thousand, three hundred and twenty-four to go.
Crispy, crunchy, sweet buttery, cheesy, garlicky goodness all on a single piece of airy Italian bread. For the easiest and quite possibly the best (I am so humble) garlic bread recipe ever, scroll to the bottom. Feel free to drool on your way down.
Why sure I’d like a little asparagus with my garlic. That’d be good too.
This pasta dish is so packed with flavor (read: diced tomatoes, Kalmata olives, parsley, sautéed garlic and feta cheese), you won’t even notice you’re eating whole wheat pasta. Guilt free über potent pasta, here I come. I would swim in this bowl.
I see lots and lots of garlic bread in my future….it’s a hard knock life, I know.
Are you a garlic lover too? If so, what’s your favorite dish loaded with garlic? Did you do anything exciting this weekend, and are you Team Jacob or Team Edward?
Garlic Bread (Serves 2)
Ingredients
- 4 slices of Italian bread or equally light and porous bread.
- Pat of salted full fat Butter
- 2 cloves fresh Garlic
- 1 1/2 Tbsp Parmesan Cheese
Directions
- Set oven to broil.
- Place four slices of bread on a baking sheet.
- Spread butter across your sliced bread.
- Using a garlic grater or garlic press, mash your cloves of garlic and spread equally across your bread.
- Top bread with Parmesan cheese (roughly 1 tsp per slice).
- Put bread on the middle shelf in the oven until the edges of the bread start to brown. This will only take a minute or two. Watch carefully because it burns quickly.
- Remove bread from oven and eat while hot.
Liz @ iheartvegetables says
Haha Im convinced that garlic makes everything taste delicious! I pretty much use it all the time! I didn’t use to cook with fresh garlic (I’d just use garlic powder) but now I feel like it makes a huge difference!
Meghan says
You’re right! It absolutely makes a difference; there’s so much more flavorful with the fresh stuff. I know because I used to use the powder, then the jar before finally realizing there ain’t nothing like the real deal.
Jessie says
This post leaves me wanting to run to the kitchen & make some garlic bread! mmmm.
Meghan says
I know what I’m having for dinner tonight! And tomorrow, and maybe even the next day.
Jen@HealthyFoodandFamily says
Crapton should be a word, I use it enough!
I am drooling over that garlic bread, it must be mine soon!!!
Meghan says
It’s a perfectly legit word. You should absolutely make the bread and then let me know how much you love it. 🙂
Danielle says
Garlic is one of my favorites too! One of my favorite “dishes” is a dip made of lemon, garlic, and a pinch of salt to taste. You juice lemons and then add smashed garlic and mix it together. You then add salt to taste, and water if it is too strong. You can then dip grilled chicken into this delicious dip! The amount of lemons you use depends on the amount of dip you want to make. Homemade french fries are also super good dipped in the lemon garlic dip!
Meghan says
Oh that’s sounds really good. Thanks so much!
kirsten@FarmFreshFeasts says
So, you wanna know how I put up my farm share stuff? I blogged about puttin up garlic very early on (like, September LOL). You, too, can roast a mess of your garlic and freeze the cloves on a cookie sheet then toss the frozen cloves into a freezer bag.
Poof! Farm share garlic all winter long–without watching it get slowly more dried out and shriveled.
And, if you’re able, run right outside and plant a couple of the bigger cloves! If you can plant a daffodil, you can plant garlic. It will do it’s thing underground over the winter and spring, send up a scape around May-Juneish (cut that off and stir fry it), then you harvest when the leaves die back in June-Julyish. You can do this. Even in Cleveland.
Now then, I picked up a day old loaf of Italian bread the other day, and I’m thinking your garlic bread recipe will go nicely on it. Thanks!