How to Skin Garlic and Friday Faves

Putting the microwave to work as your sous chef is the secret step in this how to skin garlic tip.

I use a lot of garlic in my house. Meats, pastas, salad dressings and pretty much whatever else I can talk my family into breathing in. While cloves of garlic developed some sort of super power and become far more bulbous and larger than in years past, getting that darn skin off of the fresh clove is still a bugger.

So when I discovered the tip to invite my kitchen’s best ally—aka my microwave—into the equation, the peeling and picking and garlic chunks under my fingernails became a dream of the past. Thanks to my issue of Cooks Illustrated, I can have clean skinned cloves in seconds.

Make that 20 seconds.

I use my microwave for lots of things, like steaming spinach, softening butter (10 seconds and you’re set) and making egg breakfast sandwiches on the go.

But discovering how to skin garlic in my back to the future kitchen contraption? While I do prefer the striking flavor of fresh garlic, when I need a bunch of cloves for a recipe this is what I do.

 Place individual cloves in a small bowl or on a paper towel and microwave for 15-20 seconds depending on the size of the clove.

Let them cool to touch and slip those paper puppies off their pale little bodies and start chopping away to use in my Killer Garlic Rolls, Grilled Artichokes with Garlic Butter or may I interest you in some Roasted Garlic and Pickled Jalapeño Guacamole?

Now for a little housekeeping.

While working and traveling and picture taking and recipe making, I’ve been diligently producing the next issue of FoodieCrush to showcase icy treats to eating at the fair sweets—the best that the deep days of summer has to offer. FoodieCrush Summer 2013 will be uploaded in July to save you from the summer doldrums thanks to some incredible food bloggers stories and recipes.

So, I have a question.

Would you be interested in the option to buy a printed version of FoodieCrush, in addition to the online version? I’ve discovered some new ways to make it more affordable to have a hard copy to dust with flour and coat with BBQ sauce. Please leave a comment if that’s something you’d be interested in.

This illustration is from a Hallmark card I have pinned on my bulletin board.

As a blogger whose best intentions is to feature other bloggers, I do my best to keep up on what’s going on out there in the www and do so with an RSS feed that gathers all of my favorites into one readable page whenever a new post is published. I do this with Google Reader. Oh, those Google-ites. They’ve made it incredibly easy to become a slave to their products with such ease and their intermingling.

When I first started following blogs I would switch over from one or two or five on my short list of faves. These days that list has evolved into over 1,000 which has created a serious reliance/habit/enabler of using Google reader in a well intentioned but not always successful attempt to keep up on what’s going on out there in food, business and design.

Well now Google Reader is going away. Most of us in the blogging community have known for a while the lights would be turned out on July 1, but some of you may not be aware since you have better things to do than monitor the boards of blog tech university. I salute you.

So if you get your cravings cured by reading FoodieCrush on Google Reader, be sure to switch over to another service like Feedly before the weekend is over.

I LOVE Feedly as my reader of choice and have been using for the past year to view my Google Reader feed—the pictures are just so pretty on my iPad and they now have a view option very similar to Pinterest or I can choose to see in list form when I’m short on time. Import of my Google list into Feedly was easy and painless, so do not hesitate and make the move.

An RSS and Feedly feed is a great way to keep up on lots of blogs, but if you’re like my mom and really only care about a few, subscribing to FoodieCrush for posts delivered straight to your e-mail inbox will yield the best results of not missing a beat of foodie heaven at the old FC bank.

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As always, I am so thankful and appreciative of your support and follows, please remember to send me your comments and e-mails and if you want to send cookies I’m all in for that too.

While I’ve already delivered my tip of the day promise, I’m adding ten more. This weekend I’ll be riding roller coasters and saying ‘hey’ to old Faithful, so if you’re a voyeur like me, follow me on Instagram for a behind the scenes view.

Have a great Friday friends.

I am seriously crushing on this new fangled ice cream bar I MUST try at my next summer party.

And I would decorate the party with these adorable DIY faux snow cone party lights.

While I was working on an ebook with Heather, she was having her Paleo blog redesigned by the talented Erin and Melissa. I’m digging the final product.

Gushing over this list of 60 food bloggers with photos to inspire.

This foodie travel post was shot almost entirely with baby on hip and iPod in hand. I wish Jenn would pack me in her iPod for her next roadie to enjoy.

Move over Sandy and Danny, I think I found my summer of love movie for 2013. Still searching for my summer song. Any suggestions?

The obvious reason food bloggers should make a video on Instagram.

Cage-free eggs from cage-free chickens: it’s not perfect but it’s a start.

This ought to do it. 25 Fresh 4th of July Recipes.

Funky Monkey Doughnuts—ahem, with nutella and bananas—inspired by Gourdough’s in Austin, TX. Get the baker’s dozen.

and finally:

My weekend crush for dinner: Watermelon Lime Margaritas, Caprese Rosemary Skewers, Roasted Summer Vegetable Mac n Cheese, Grilled Beer and Buttermilk Chicken with Sriracha Glaze and Roasted Pineapple and Butterscotch Pudding

Have a fantastic weekend and get those sparklers set to ready, I want some big bangs next week. But be careful, or you’ll poke your eye out.

Thanks for reading and please keep in touch by subscribing to FoodieCrush and follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest. This site includes affiliate shopping links of which I receive a small percentage of sales to allow me to create new and special content like this for my readers, so thank you for your support. All opinions are my own.