Garlic Confit: easier to make (and use) than pronounce

Garlic confit (say con-FEE) is simply garlic slowly poached in oil. 

Here are the steps:

1. skin garlic

2. poach in oil

3. enjoy

Step 1

- smash the garlic head to break up all the cloves

- place garlic into a metal bowl

- cover bowl with inverted metal bowl

- hold tightly and shake it for all you're worth

Here's how it is done...

Step 2

- place the peeled garlic into a pot and pour oil to just cover the garlic (you can use olive oil for this or any other oil you would like infused with garlic)

- turn the pot on LOW or 2 and allow to bubble away for 40 to 50 minutes or until they are golden and soft like warm butter; stir occasionally

Step 3

Enjoying this treat is the best part! How can you use it? Here are a few ideas:

For the oil...
- use the oil for a vinaigrette salad dressing
- roasted garlic vegetables - use the oil to toss the veggies before broiling to perfection
- for frying eggs in the morning
- lightly garlic toast for two - oil a cast iron skillet with garlic oil, then toast the bread on both sides
- for a lighter pizza, brush the shell with garlic oil instead of pizza sauce
- use in place of butter or oil - the options are almost limitless

For the garlic cloves...
- salad dressing - smash the cloves and mix with mayo and water to thin then salt to taste
- use in cream pasta sauces
- garlic bread - smash the garlic together with butter (and a little salt if your butter is unsalted) and spread on bread to be toasted in the oven
- use whole in recipes that call for a smaller amount of fresh minced garlic, for example, spaghetti sauce, homestyle chowder, or in stir-fries
- in mashed potatoes; pop them into the milk and butter (or garlic oil) while you are warming them before adding the potatoes and mashing the works; is wonderful this way with fresh goat chèvre

Storage

Keep in a sealed glass jar in the fridge. Keeps for about a month in the fridge as long as the garlic oil stays above the level of the garlic. If the garlic cloves are exposed to air, they are able to spoil more quickly.

When I make this, I use it up before it has a chance to go bad. Once you have made and used this garlic confit, I am sure you will find it disappears fairly quickly.

Where have you been?

It's a good question, really.

Honestly, I let it get out of hand this past Christmas and I said "Yes"; I helped, hand-made, and hosted; I cleaned, visited, baked, cooked, and did many other things I do not specifically remember. It was a wonderful holiday full of loved family and friends and I wouldn't change it.

Camping & Cooking

Whenever we go camping, we take all the camping essentials and one of those is our camp stove. Okay, it's actually a "Camp Chef" two burner bbq, like this one:

We have a grill box that sits over one of the burners and that is where the grilling of meat and veg occurs.

Wood vs. Plastic: the epic cutting board debate rages on

After reading a whole slew of articles, essentially, the choice is yours to make.

There are articles in support and against both sides of the coin. Both hold onto bacteria and both are soft enough to not damage your precious knives. Wooden ones work well as trivets (for putting hot pots and pans on) but plastic ones can go into the dishwasher.

Function is really important to me when choosing a cutting board. It MUST be big enough.

There are articles that talk about wood vs. plastic and others that discuss sanitation of your cutting board and pros & cons of various materials like glass. If you are STILL undecided after that, you could read a study by University of California at Davis.

I usually end up deferring to my preference for natural materials, like wood. I also looked at this article on cutting boards and how to season them, as well as this article by TV hosts Anna & Kristina who put products through a rigorous testing. And often when I am unsure about all things food, I defer to Michael Smith.

Whatever it is you are looking for in a cutting board, I know you will find it!

Bread and Butter

My great grandmother emigrated to Canada from Iceland over 100 years ago. She came with her husband and five children on a boat and settled near Gimli, Manitoba.

I often think of how life would have been different for her then than it is for me now. Those thoughts usually lead me to the kitchen and back to the basics. She would be amazed at how things have changed. And then I think she might be disheartened to see how we have let our knowledge of the basics die off in the name of convenience and saving time. Basics like how to make butter.

Simple & Classy

When I make dinner, my goal is usually to make one thing that is special and make everything else simple. This makes the meal feel classier and takes little effort.

A few weeks ago, dear friends of ours came to visit with their four children. We then had six children in the house, ages 8, 7, 6, 5, 5, & 5 as well as four adults.

What do you feed to an active bunch like this?

Prepare Ahead: buying larger quantities of meat to pre-marinate, spice, dice, and sauce them yourself!

About once every week or two I buy several larger packages of meat and end up spending about 20 or 30 minutes with them.

How do you know what is a good price for meat? Start by looking at the price per pound or the price per kilogram. The price per kilo for regular ground beef will usually be the cheapest; the price per kilo for boneless skinless chicken breasts will be the most. 

With beef, watch the prices per kilo and compare them to other cuts - when I bought these “marinating” steaks, they were $1.20 per kilo cheaper than cubed stewing beef!!

Another important thing to watch is the “best before" date or the “packed on” date. I always want to take home the freshest meat, so next to the price per pound, that is the next most important.

This week, I bought one package of marinating steaks and one package of chicken thighs with the bone in.

In our family, lunch is leftovers from dinner the night before, so when I am packing up meat, I am actually packaging one dinner and one lunch for four. 

This is a wonderful opportunity to plan ahead if you are cooking for one or two or if there are several nights of the week when you need to throw something in the slow cooker or the oven on low before you run out the door for a few hours. This pre-planning has saved us from eating dinner out and spending nearly $40 when the dinner in the oven costs less than $10 and will also feed us lunch tomorrow. 

The Basics: Pots and Pans and Kitchen Tools

Last month, we were taking dinner over to a friend’s house when she asked, “Are there any ingredients you might need that I could have on hand for the dinner?” 

After thinking for a moment, I responded, “No, we will bring all the ingredients, but could you buy a cutting board for salad prep?”

That got me thinking, what are the basic tools and gadgets that every kitchen NEEDS?