As quoted by British Pete from my days teaching in Japan, garlic has a very important role when it comes to cooking. Good friends, good times, good conversation, good music, good literature, good movies, good food...that's what life's all about- being able to enjoy your time and spend it with people you care about.
We had a dinner party tonight and I was worried that our guests would be offended by my very liberal use of garlic. I love the stuff! I always use the excuse that garlic's good for your health, but in actuality, I just plain love cooking with it.
Tonight's menu included:
-shrimp cocktail
-baked salmon
-wild rice with mushrooms
-muslix salad with my homemade balsamic vinaigrette
-fruit salad
Our guests brought some lovely red wine, but like my mom, the tanin in the red wine makes me very drowsy and sometimes headachy.
Since I love garlic, here's a recipe for my balsamic vinaigrette that I hope you'll enjoy.
*1/2 c extra virgin olive oil
*1/2 c balsamic vinegar
*minced garlic (I tend to go a bit heavy on the stuff- like 3-4 cloves, but use your discretion and add only as much as you like)
*1 tbsp Dijon mustard
*1 tbsp honey
*salt and black pepper to taste
Mix all of the ingredients and use with any salad. This works extremely well with spinach salad and mandarin oranges or muslix salads.
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3 comments:
The other night I asked Elisabeth out of the blue - If you had to give up garlic or onions for the rest of your life, which would you choose. It took a while but she chose correctly: Onions. Garlic, as far as I'm concerned is the most indispensible food there is.
Except for pizza.
:) LOL Garlic hands down. Funny you posted that, Stephen. For some reason I think of you and E whenever I think garlic! LOL I guess it's the wine, yummy food, music, artsy stuff, kewl dinner parties...they all go hand in hand with garlic, don't they? ;p Hmm..garlic and socializing sounds like an odd combination, but not really if everyone's eating it! LOL
I stand corrected. British Pete's quote (from my Fukuyama teaching days) was actually "Insanity is to Art as Garlic is to Food." (and yes, the letters in Art, Garlic and Food were capitalized purposefully, as per Pete)