Garlic breath

Can I make a confession? Alright I know some of you might gasp but the truth of the matter is that I don't remember EVER cooking with real garlic before. I know... completely ruins the whole SAHM, home cookin, mother of many, stereo type doesn't it? But those are the facts.

I would occasionally purchase some pretty white garlic and bring it home with the best intentions but really didn't know what to do with it and in the end it would spoil before I used it.

Well I found this recipe for an Italian soup at The Full Table. With all the confidence of Alton Brown on Good Eats I thumped that garlic, carefully peeled the paper off, diced, and sauted (spell check is telling me this isn't a word but I give up) a few of those cloves.

All I can say is WOW! OK.. well maybe I can say a little bit more...What have I been waiting all these years for?!? Why have I lazily just thrown some garlic powder into a recipe because I didn't dare figure out how to use the real thing. It smelled like Olive Garden at my house. Now I am emboldened to search out some chicken scampi or other garlic ladened recipes! YUM!

Original intent

I picked up some organic pumpkin seeds at the local health food store a little while ago but some of the kids weren't too excited about snacking on them. SO... I decided to add them on top of Mac-n-cheese to give it some crunch. Much healthier than the average bread crumbs.




I don't expect to see it on the next episode of "Iron Chef" but I'll probably throw some on top of the next batch of M&C again. BTW they work really well in homemade granola.