Oxley Clan Adventures

Adventures with Garlic

We love fresh garlic at our house.

There is nothing better than mashed potatoes with fresh roasted garlic.

What's not not love?

But what do you do when you buy a big bag of garlic from Costco or Sam's Club? You do what you can with it before it all goes bad.

That was my goal for today, to take care of the big bag of garlic sitting in my pantry.

Every time I opened the pantry door, the garlic smell got stronger and stronger.

Today was the day!!!!!

After doing a little research, I realized that storing minced garlic in olive oil could be dangerous especially if left out at room temperature.

I was clueless. I had no idea that it could cause botulism and cause you to be extremely sick or even deadly. No fun for sure.

Minced garlic in olive oil is okay if refrigerated and used with 5-6 days. Toss it out after that. Don't take any chances.

The store bought stuff has something in it to make it safe and lasts longer in your refrigerator.

The beginning of today's project

I decided to mince a few cloves of garlic and cover in olive oil.

Refrigerated immediately.

Next, I decided to roast quite a few whole bulbs of garlic.

Cut off the tops of the bulbs so the cloves are exposed, leaving the skin on.

Place on a square of aluminum foil, drizzle with olive oil and coarse salt.

Wrap the garlic in the foil, cut side up, not too snugly. Roast in a 400 degree oven for about 35-45 minutes until it's nicely toasted brown. Then squeeze all the cloves out.

Look at all that deliciously roasted yumminess!!!!

This is when you mix it in immediately with your mashed potatoes.

It's soooooo gooooood!!!!!

If you aren't using the garlic at this point, you have different options. You can mix it with softened butter and herbs, roll it into a log, and freeze it. Then you have a wonderful garlic herb butter to use later. (This would be a good butter to use at Thanksgiving on your turkey)

I decided to mash the roasted garlic, put it in teaspoon sized portions, freeze it, and then bag it for the freezer to be used later in recipes.

Last of all, I chose to just freeze the unpeeled garlic cloves. Whenever I need to finely mince or use my garlic press, I'll be able to grab a clove from the freezer.