Kitchen

[PamelaSue72]

On 5/20/2014 debc said:

My brother dehydrates his onions also. He grows a ton of them and he likes it better than freezing. He stores them in canning jars that have been vacuumed with his foodsaver.

I really need to get a foodsaver....we've been kicking the idea around, but haven't bought one yet.

[glmama]

I use onions pretty much in everything I cook. I rarely use onion powder or garlic powder (in fact, I wanted some the other day and realized that I do not own any onion powder). I use garlic very frequently as well, but not as often as onions.

[brewhaha]

I use both. And only the real stuff.

[suzyQ3]

On 5/20/2014 Ladybug724 said:

On 5/20/2014 suzyQ3 said:

On 5/20/2014 ChynnaBlue said:

I use them both. You can't substitute one for the other, so I use both sometimes and one other times. I like to include onions and garlic when I roast vegetables.<br /> <br /> I prefer using fresh onions and garlic, but I sometimes use garlic salt instead of salt in meat rubs.<br /> <br /> I don't use butter on many things at all, but I like to melt a stick or two of butter and include some garlic (both smashed and finely chopped), salt, pepper, and herbs. I take it off the heat and pour it into a container, stirring occasionally until it solidifies into an herbed butter and then I pop it in the freezer. You don't have to melt it first, but I find that helps infuse the garlic throughout. When I make pasta, I just toss a spoonful of the herbed butter over the pasta and toss it to coat.<br /> <br /> I don't like peeling garlic and I don't like the prepared garlic as much as fresh, so I buy pre-peeled cloves in the grocery store. It's a little more expensive, but it saves a lot of time and I feel better tossing 5 cloves in a roasting pan when I didn't have to peel them and know that I have 20 more unpeeled cloves in the fridge. My mom uses freeze dried garlic and I think that's a pretty good option. She has all kinds of health issues and keeping fresh garlic around isn't as easy for her because she can't be sure when she'll feel healthy enough to cook and when she won't, so I'm glad she's found another option that works better for her. I think it's important to adapt your cooking and your kitchen to what works for YOU.

I hate not only the peeling but the slicing or mincing. If it were up to me, I'd buy the peeled cloves, too, just to get rid of one chore.

Fortunately, my husband is the chef here, and he loves all the prep stuff.

I learned a trick from Rachel Ray about how to easily remove the peel from garlic. Take the back of a big knife, lay it on the garlic clove, and with the palm of your hand hit the knife firmly. It takes the peel right off and then just mince it and voila!

Yup. On those rare occasions when I have to do it, we have a wonderful little low-tech thingie for peeling garlic. It looks a bit like just a rubber tube. You put the garlic in and then roll the tube thingy. Works quite well.

[suzyQ3]

Wow. Sorry about that humongous pic.

[debic]

On 5/20/2014 PamelaSue72 said:

On 5/20/2014 debc said:

My brother dehydrates his onions also. He grows a ton of them and he likes it better than freezing. He stores them in canning jars that have been vacuumed with his foodsaver.

I really need to get a foodsaver....we've been kicking the idea around, but haven't bought one yet.

I put everything in jars. I've been collecting them for years.

[Ladybug724]

Is that what that's for? I have one of those too SuzyQ! It came with something I ordered a long time ago and I just sort of threw it in my utensil drawer not knowing what to do with it! Mine is blue--thanks!

[just bee]

I don't know why my mother could never get it straight: My sister preferred onions and I preferred garlic. Especially since I always had creamy garlic dressing on my salad when I was a kid and she complained bitterly about the fumes.

I like and use both -- usually fresh -- but I have a soft spot for garlic. Be warned.

Roasted!

[RedTop]

I use a lot of both, but generally more onions. My truck driver daughter is able to purchase merchandise directly from the warehouse when she does her pick ups, and brought home 50 lbs of sweet onions in December. I am down to about a dozen onions left in that 50 lb box. I will buy Vidalia's locally until my daughter goes back to the pacific northwest warehouse to buy more onions.

[Hoovermom]

On 5/21/2014 just bee said:

I don't know why my mother could never get it straight: My sister preferred onions and I preferred garlic. Especially since I always had creamy garlic dressing on my salad when I was a kid and she complained bitterly about the fumes.

I like and use both -- usually fresh -- but I have a soft spot for garlic. Be warned.

Roasted!

We had garlic roasted like this in a little Italian restaurant in Naples, FL. How do you achieve it? Just cut the top off and drizzle EVOO over it and bake? Loved it!!!