Garlic: This Bulb by Any Other Name Still Stinks

And how. Cook up these babies and you'll be reeking for a few days, but damn it's delicious. This segment will teach you how to make roasted garlic. After it's roasted you can mash it up and spread it on toasted baguettes, chop it up into a salad or throw whole cloves onto cooked pasta. Just don't come to my house with that dragon breath of yours. Ew.



What you will need:

• garlic bulbs
• olive oil
• salt, pepper, thyme
• a sharp knife
• tin foil (optional)
• an oven proof dish/bowl/whatever ( NOT optional)
  

Step 1: Prep your oven

Set your oven to bake at about 350 degrees and let that bad boy heat up. While it's doing that, go ahead to step two.


Step 2: Reach over and grab your bulbs!

Get your head out of the gutter. First thing you do is assess how fast you can use the garlic. One bulb a week? A month? A day? Ew. I usually do one bulb when I roast because my husband gets into it like a dog gets into the garbage and while garlic smells great in food it smells GROSS coming from humans! Take the bulb and slice off the top of it. Not too much, just enough to have most of the cloves exposed.

Dealing with the tin foil and the oven proof container: I usually fashion a boil out of the tin foil to make cleaning up easier. Face it, no matter how good you are with arts and crafts, oil will always find an escape route. That's why you place your tin foil bowl in the oven proof dish. Or just use the dish and wash it later. Put the decapitated garlic bulb(s) in the dish and pour about a table spoon or more of the oil over the top. Salt it, pepper it and throw on some thyme if you want to. Shove that into the oven and time it about 30 minutes.

Step 3: Is it done yet? Is it done yet? Is it done yet? Is it done yet? Is it done yet?

When you see the tops of the garlic cloves turning a deep golden brown, it's probably done. Another clue is if the cloves pop up out of the papery cover. If you open the oven and there is a lot of smoke and the garlic is charred and black then turn off the oven, tell the fire department you're a moron and order a pizza.

And ladies, burning dinner at 3 am forcing neighbors to call the FDNY is NOT a good way to meet men. ....You know who you are....(cough).


Now that you have this lovely stink bomb, you can keep it for about 2 weeks, I think. I usually toss anything I make after 5 days just to be safe, but garlic has a longer shelf life. That does not mean you can leave it out on a shelf. Put it in the fridge for goddess sake.