I am becoming an advocate of online grocery shopping. Living in an urban area, working nine and five, and sleeping normal hours means there is never a good time to go to the “real” grocery store. It’s crowded and chaotic, and despite my gourmet tendencies and my love of wandering aisles, I can’t hack it.
I won’t even talk about the state of overcrowding at the Trader Joe’s in old town Alexandria. I finished mourning that loss long ago.
Over the last year I’ve turned to Peapod and Safeway almost exclusively. Though Peapod is the superior site, if you are smart about alternating there is almost always opportunity for free delivery. So the produce isn’t exactly what I would pick, the options aren’t quite as flexible, but lists are saved and so is my sanity.
However, like all online shopping, picking groceries requires some attention to detail. Which I apparently didn’t have this week.
[That's a small-ish 80GB iPod, included strictly for perspective.]
Peapod has these nice idiot filters, which display polite messages like “are you aware you are choosing an item that contains more than one unit?” to which I reply, “why yes I am, thanks for asking!”
Safeway has no such filters, which is how I ended up with a pound of garlic instead of a head of garlic. And those bananas. Bananas this large (12 inches!) can’t be natural. Or healthy.
Excess bananas I can handle by turning them into lots and lots of muffins (early estimates predict 3.5 batches out of that bunch), and if I’m lucky the hormones will bake out, but the garlic?
I love my garlic, and I may be a foodie-in-training, but I’m at a loss as to what to do with nine heads of the stuff. Plant them in my tiny backyard? Garlic soup? There goes my status in cubeland.
Mmm, you could roast some garlic! Just cut the top off the whole head, drizzle some olive oil over it and wrap it in foil and bake it for a long time. Then you can spread it on crackers or something… it’s yummy. I’ve rubbed roasted garlic over a pizza crust before adding toppings, and that was good too.
You probably already know these simple ideas. Sorry I can’t come up with anything more unique or original at this time of night.
No suggestion is too simple… I’ve actually never roasted garlic before. I’ll give it a try!
Yes, definitely give roasted garlic a try, it is very yummy! It is also nice to have around to add to salad dressings, pasta, and pizza.
Another good way to eat garlic is this simple pasta dish, one of Matt’s favorites. Take some chopped garlic and warm it (don’t let it toast or get too brown) in a skillet with some olive oil and red pepper flakes. Cook some pasta (spaghetti, usually) and then with the pasta is done and the oil smells all nice and garlic-y, combine and eat. If the pasta seems a little dry, add some more olive oil or some of the pasta cooking water. I usually top with grated pecorino merano cheese. The quantities of stuff in this are pretty flexible, so make it as garlic-y as you like.
Also, garlic keeps remarkably well in the refrigerator. Just put it in a paper bag in the produce drawer and it should last a couple months.
And those bananas are disturbing!
Funny – that’s pretty close to a dish I love that Allegra makes. She adds onions, diced tomatoes, sometimes shallots, and occasionally green/red peppers. It’s delicious!!
Allegra is being modest on this post, she’s a garlic nut! I’m surprised she hasn’t thought of making garlic ice cream.
OK – so I did some research on garlic crafts and only came up with making garlic braids (you cannot do that with what you have because the tops are already gone) or planting garlic cloves. However, I did see many a garlic festival advertised – who knew. This one in August in Ontario looked fun. http://countygarlicfestival.ca/ The also have a garlic peeling contest open to the public. “Winner is determined by the greatest number of garlic cloves peeled in a two minute time period. Cloves may not be crushed! In the event of a tie, a one-minute peel-off will take place.” So i say start practicing and go win the contest!