Roasted garlic is one of those things that seems to have some underserved mystique about it. The mystique about the flavor is well-founded. It is deliciously soft and smooth and wonderful.  But any mystique about its preparation is not.  Set aside half an hour or so and know that you can roast garlic ahead of time, then cool it, bag it, and store it in the frig for 2-3 weeks.

For each head of garlic, cut the tips off to open up the cloves.  So if you don’t grow garlic, you may wonder “What are the tips?”  The opposite of the root end!  Basically, the cloves grow up into a point and the green shoots rise up out of the ground from the pointy end. So the tips you want to cut off come to a point. (And if you haven’t grown garlic, try it!  it’s so easy! Where I live, in the SF bay area, we plant towards the end of October and harvest towards the end of June. Each year, I set aside my largest heads to replant so I basically haven’t bought garlic in however many years I’ve grown it. I’ve yet to run out before the next crop is ready.)

So preheat the oven to 375 and cut enough off the tips of the bulbs to expose most of the heads. Find a baking dish just large enough to fit all the heads you want to bake. Rub a bit of olive oil along the bottom of the dish and place the heads cut side up in there. Pour just a bit of olive oil across the top of each head.  Bake 20-30 minutes, testing that the cloves are done by poking a toothpick into the exposed side. They should be soft.

Use in dishes like Potato Soup with Roast Garlic, use for a softer garlic bread, make a fantastic baked Brie appetizer by spreading some roast garlic, olive oil and pine nuts across the Brie, barbecue some fish with roast garlic and butter and lemon juice in a foil pan, mix in with some mashed potatoes, …  The options are nearly endless!

What’s your favorite way to use roast garlic?

I’m gearing up for a large graduation party and am trying to figure out what to fix. I’m also trying to clear out my frig and freezer so as to make room for party food. By my current guess, we’ve at least 5o coming for an open house/barbecue.   I’m thinking hot dogs, burgers, and maybe ribs (cook those first as they take a few hours).  I was browsing through the book Desperation Entertaining! and got some great ideas. You can also browse through their site for new recipes at Kitchen Snoop.

So tonight I thought I’d experiment with their Carolina Chili Dogs. These were very good and I think a nice option to add for a cookout when you’re doing burgers and dogs.  They suggested that Southeners preferred their chili finely ground. To get this texture, they suggested cooling the mixture 20 minutes or so and then using your blenders or food processor. I just pulled out my immersion blender (love that thing!) and it did the trick just perfectly!  I used a pound of ground beef rather than their 1.5 p0unds because that’s what I had. And I upped the Worcestershire from 2 tsp to 1 Tbs because (a) I’d just used the tablespoon and b) we like Worcestershire.

• 1 pound ground beef (extra lean)
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 2 cups water
• 1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 Tbs chili powder
• 1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp vinegar (cider or white)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Put the water and ground beef in a Dutch oven or soup pot over high heat and bring to a boil. Peel and chop the onion while waiting for this to boil.  Add the onion, reduce the heat to medium, and stir to break up the meat a bit.

Add the tomato paste, ketchup, chili powder, Worcestershire, vinegar, salt and pepper and stir until the tomato paste is dissolved and everything is mixed well, breaking up the meat chunks as you go.

Simmer over low heat about 15 minutes, until very thick, stirring now and then.

Serve on hot dogs with grated Cheddar cheese if you want chili cheese dogs. They didn’t suggest that so maybe it’s not a Carolina thing, but around here you get chili cheese dogs if you get chili on hot dogs.

NOTE: If you like boiling ground beef, I’d think you could reduce the water a bit and skip the blending because the ground beef will already be fairly fine.

You can definitely make the chili ahead of time and freeze in portions that your family will find useful. They suggest 2 Tbs per hot dog, so maybe 1/2 cup for a family of 4-5.

cheese and spinach stuffed shell

These were good! The girls protested the spinach a bit, but ate them up. It’s funny because they would each happily eat spinach alone as a side dish. I don’t really like cooked spinach so liked it this way.

I started with this recipe from Karen Cooks. I used half a small onion instead of shallots and stuffed more shells than she allows for. But her count of 15 was about perfect for an 8×8 dish. I just froze the extra (about a dozen). Maybe my shells were smaller.

We each ate 2-3 shells with a Caesar salad and some sliced carrots on the side so this was more than enough to feed 6 by my count. I predict the leftovers will be delicious and if I didn’t have a lunch appointment tomorrow would be looking forward to them! I’ve been getting good lunches at home lately, between the Chicken Curry in Coconut Milk I made the other night and half a leftover burrito from lunch in Berkeley on Sunday.

• a box of large shells (but you may have too many)
• 1 10-oz box of frozen spinach
• 1 Tbs olive oil
• 1/2 a small onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 15 oz container ricotta cheese
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup grated Parmesan
• 2 cups grated Mozzarella (divided)
• 1 26 oz can of tomato sauce (I like the Hunts brand when it goes on sale)

Bring a large pot of water to boil and cook the shells according to the lesser time on the directions. Drain and rinse with cold water. If you overcook them, they’ll fall apart as you’re stuffing them. Believe me.

Meanwhile, thaw the spinach. Heat the oil in a skillet and cook the onion until soft, a few minutes, then add the garlic and cook another minute or two. Squeeze the spinach to remove the excess moisture and add to the pan and stir to mix up, then turn the heat off and let it cool.

In a small bowl, mix the Ricotta, 1 cup of the Mozzarella, and the Parmesan along with the eggs. When the spinach mix has cooled off a bit, stir it into the cheeses.

Preheat the oven to 350.

Pour half the sauce into an 8×8 pan. Use a large spoon to fill each shell with the cheese and spinach mixture. Lay them in the pan as you go. If you have extras, you can freeze for another day, as I did. Pour the rest of the sauce over the shells when you’re done, then top with the leftover Mozarrella. Bake uncovered for half an hour or so.

I haven’t bought a packet of taco seasoning mix in years because when I make tacos I do this.   But sometimes recipes call for a packet of taco seasoning mix and just a bit of cumin doesn’t seem like it will do the trick. Try this instead, courtesy of Make-A-Mix. Actually that’s a newer version of the copy I have, that I bought at a garage sale about 15 years ago. But I’m betting they still have good things in there.

• 2 tsp minced dried onion
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp cornstarch
• 1/2 tsp dried red pepper
• 1/2 tsp dried minced garlic or garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp dried oregano

This makes the equivalent of 1 packet of taco seasoning mix. If you want to be efficient, lay out small pieces of aluminum foil on your counter and measure out each ingredient onto each piece of aluminum foil. Then wrap up to make airtight and store for up to 6 months.

For tacos, brown 1 pound of ground beef in a skillet until there’s no more pink, stirring as you go. Drain excess fat, Add 1/2 cup water and one recipe of this taco seasoning mix.  Stir well, then lower the heat until it’s at a low simmer. Stir now and then and simmer for 10 minutes or so. This should fill 10 -12 tacos.