"Gus" > wrote in message
...
> "sf" > wrote in message
> ...
>> On Wed, 18 Dec 2013 13:59:13 -0500, "Gus" >
>>> Is there anything garlic doesn't go with, besides peanut butter?
>>
>> I'd venture to make a blanket statement and say anything sweet where
>> garlic is a dominate flavor (not masked by others) - but I'm sure you
>> will find an exception or three if you Googled. I'll let you go first
>> tasting it. 
>> --
>
> My parents never used garlic (or onions). My dad an ulcer in the early
> 60s and nearly died and they cut out like 3/4 of his stomach, and couldn't
> eat spicy things. (I don't think he ever did.) Anyway, the five kids in
> my family all feel like we were deprived because we never were exposed to
> garlic, or much of anything other than very standard fare. I love garlic
> but not a lot of experience with it.
We never had onions. Yes, my mom bought those dried, minced ones and put
them in her meatloaf. And I even grew them in my garden because I had read
they would repel bugs. At the end of each season, I plucked them up and
tossed them. I did see onions in the store but never realized that they
were edible simply because they were not in our house and I don't think
garlic was either! My mom didn't like to cook and mostly didn't use
seasonings beyond salt, pepper, chili powder and cinnamon.
My mom did come from a farm but was a child during the depression years.
From what I've been reading about the food history of that time period, many
seasonings were hard to come by. I think chili powder was one thing they
could readily get because the ingredients came from Mexico. So she was
likely taught to cook using only the seasonings they could easily get. I am
just surmising this but it makes sense.
I didn't learn about onions until I saw a cooking show and saw them being
used. Then I began using them but my mom always put up a big stink that
they would stink up her fridge if I ever put in a partially used one. Hint!
Rub butter on the cut end. No stink. Margarine will work too.
The garlic didn't come along until I hooked up with my husband who is
Italian. He LOVES garlic! So I began using it in my cooking. Then one day
I was visiting my youngest SIL who was just learning to cook. She asked me
to taste one of the traditional family Christmas dishes. She then
apologized and said that the recipe called for one clove of garlic. She
thought she had done it right but she had put in the whole head. And I was
like... Uh... Wait! Clove? Head? She then picked up a head of garlic
and said something like... I didn't realize that *this* contained a bunch
of cloves so I put the whole thing in.
That's when I confessed that I thought like she did. If a recipe called for
3 cloves, I had been putting in 3 heads! She didn't believe me when I said
this but it was true. I am older than her and have been cooking for a lot
longer. But we never had any garlic in the house and since I don't actually
like garlic, I hadn't paid attention if it was on a cooking show. But I
know about it now!
Am going to try Martha Stewart's technique for getting the papery stuff off.
She used two small metal mixing bowls of the same size. Put the garlic in
one, turn the other upside down on top of it, hold the edges together with
your hands and shake the hell of of them! Then if that doesn't work, I have
a garlic peeler that I got from Sur La Table. Forgot that I had it! I
still don't use garlic often. And when I do I tend to use the powdered.