Garlic

Many of us grew up thinking that green beans came from a can. Those soft and water-logged beans were all we knew until we had our eyes were opened up to the true flavor of string beans (the name covers haricot verts, wax beans and green beans) that were fresh and properly cooked. But the problem is how to cook them differently. While steaming in a pan or boiling in salted water work well, it can get a little monotonous. So this time, try grilling. The dry heat evaporates the water inside the beans and concentrates the flavor while also picking up char from the flame.

My first thought when I found a garlic scapes dip recipe, which ran in the New York Times several years ago, was this: I bet this dip would be great with homemade pita chips. My second thought was this: Making homemade pita chips means cleaning my big baking sheets, which is not one of my favorite tasks, so maybe I can find some pita chips at Wegmans. Garlic scapes, in case you don't know, as I didn't before I owned some, are the green, curly shoots of a garlic plant. They taste like garlic, but not as intensely as a garlic bulb.

If you've ever wondered why it is better to sear than to boil your steak or how to properly roast a luscious hunk of beef, then Alton Brown's new I'm Just Here for the Food is the book for you. It is less a book of recipes, although there are 80 of them, than a primer on the mechanics of cooking. But if the word primer makes you sigh at the thought of textbooks and science talk, think again. Brown, the host of the Food Network's Good Eats, is an amiable, amusing and sometimes irreverent guide to the subject of applying heat to food and coming up with dinner for your efforts.

Many of us grew up thinking that green beans came from a can. Those soft and water-logged beans were all we knew until we had our eyes were opened up to the true flavor of string beans (the name covers haricot verts, wax beans and green beans) that were fresh and properly cooked. But the problem is how to cook them differently. While steaming in a pan or boiling in salted water work well, it can get a little monotonous. So this time, try grilling. The dry heat evaporates the water inside the beans and concentrates the flavor while also picking up char from the flame.

I've recently been diagnosed with genital herpes and treated it with the prescription drug Zovirax.I would rather use something more natural.Have any of your readers found alternative treatments that cure it? I read in an herbal book that olive leaf extract works. Is this true?Herpes infections are caused by a virus that resists cure even by the prescription drugs that control it effectively (Famvir, Valtrex, Zovirax).These antiviral medications speed healing and, if taken preventively, dramatically reduce the number of outbreaks.

Experts recommend buying heads or bulbs of garlic with plump cloves that are still covered with their papery skin. Garlic that is soft, spongy or shriveled should be avoided.Moisture is an enemy. At home it is best to keep garlic dry, cool and exposed to the air. Do not refrigerate heads of garlic or store them in tightly wrapped plastic bags. In a proper environment, heads can last six months.The most frustrating part of peeling garlic may be removing the skin. Chefs simply smash the clove with the broad side of a knife and pull the broken skin away.

October is the month of ghosts and goblins, of witches and vampires. In short, it's a good time to plant garlic.Garlic long has been a pungent tool to ward off evil spirits. Garliplays the same role in the garden, defending plants against aphids and other insects that would suck the lifeblood from my FTC crops, Dracula-style.But garlic's reputation against vampires and garden vermihardly warrants its recent surge in popularity. America's consumption of fresh garlic has doubled in a decade as modern medicine confirms what the ancients knew: Garlic is good for what ails you.The Greeks and Romans prescribed it for wounds and infectionsA Babylonian ruler had 400,000 bushels of the stuff delivered to court.

My first act of spring is a real no-brainer: Dig a shallow hole, drop in a clove of garlic and walk away. No pain, big gain. Come fall, that sliver of garlic will have grown into a handsome bulb, just waiting to be minced in a meat dish.It's that simple. Garlic is so easy to grow, you'd have to be batty not to have it in your garden. Unless you're a vampire.Garlic is the perfect plant for rookie gardeners, an idiot-proof choice for beginners. Even those who mistakenly plant the cloves upside-down, as I once did, are rewarded with harvests: The topsy-turvy garlic somehow manages to right itself underground, a remarkable feat for a legendary herb.

We all know at least one. A meat-and-potatoes person. You know the type, they cling to food judgments founded in early childhood. "Gimme a good steak and baked potato" is their theme song. They squawk for aew food theme. A comfort food that will fill their stomachs with joy and make their taste buds tango. One that will turn them into roast-chicken folks.Succulent roast chicken, that is. With plenty of mellow roasted garlic, fresh herbs and delicious croutons made from rustic bread.One whiff.

Q. I've had high blood pressure since 1985 and have taken many drugs, including Vasotec, Maxzide and others. All of them have side effects such as dry mouth or hair loss, and none has been effective at getting my lower number below 90. About two years ago, I heard about taking garlic for blood pressure. I take two pills a day. For more than a year, my blood pressure has been around 135 / 80. I swear by garlic, even though the doctors say it's not very effective. A. Preliminary research in animals and humans suggests that garlic may have a modest effect, especially on diastolic blood pressure (the lower number)

Portside Tavern in Canton has a new chef, Freddie Melgar. Melgar, who worked for Washington, D.C.'s Madhatter Group and the northern Virginia-based Great American Restaurants, has introduced a new Prince Island mussels menu. The newly released menu features six preparations including the "Mostard," with spicy bison sausage, leeks, Dijon and thyme broth; the "Jalfrezzi" with red pepper, onion, garlic, curry, tomato and coconut milk and the "Baltimore," with Old Bay, garlic, herbs and IPA beer broth.

The Dogwood sent over its new four-course summer "market" menu. It goes for $45, and a vegetarian version goes for $40. A 4-ounce pour of wine with each course can be added for $25. Have a look. First course: Golden and red heirloom tomato gazpacho with local lump crab meat, garnished with local lump crabmeat. (Vegetarian: garnished with heirloom vegetable escabeche) Second Course: Pan-seared Virginia “day boat” scallops,Iowa prosciutto, grilled zucchini succotash, roasted garlic-canellini puree Vegetarian: One Straw Farm sweet bell pepper stuffed with quinoa “tabouleh”, spicy piquillo pepper coulis Third Course:: Lightly smoked pan-roasted duck breast with stoneground white grits, blueberry barbeque Vegetarian: baked local squash and eggplant ratatoullie tian, garlic sauteed greens,  pistou broth.

I was trolling the grocery store last weekend looking for pesto. The kind that sits in a jar on the shelf kind of creeps me out and the fresh options were either nonexistent or too expensive. So, I thought, why not make it myself? Turns out it’s easy to make and takes no time at all! The flavor is also much fresher than what you can find on the shelf. Pesto Recipe 4 C fresh organic basil, packed 1/2 C extra virgin olive oil 1/3 C pine nuts 1/2 C freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano 6-7 cloves garlic 1/2 tsp sea salt   1. Rinse the basil well, pull off any large stems, and dry well.

The Kohilas family has been operating Ikaros at the same Greektown address since 1969. That's a very long run for any restaurant, especially a family-owned and -operated establishment. Ikaros is truly beloved by its patrons, who loudly sing the praises of its consistency, its generously plated homemade food and, especially, its hospitality. This is the place we're thinking of when we're talking about ourselves as the citizens of a friendly and gracious city. This is where you should send visitors for the best of Baltimore charm.

Judith Kelly from Guerneville, Calif., was looking for a recipe for pasta with shrimp and cherry tomatoes. She had a wonderful recipe for this dish that she found in a San Francisco newspaper 15 or 20 years ago that she unfortunately lost in the 1995 Guerneville flood. Some internet research on my part turned up a promising recipe from a site called eatbetteramerica.com. Their healthy adaptation of the classic garlic shrimp and pasta dish was delicious. At only 323 calories and 9 grams of fat per serving, the dish was surprisingly rich and full of flavor.

Question: Last year a wild flower appeared in my yard with little white flowers and was about 2 feet tall. Well, this year it’s coming up all over the place! What is it and do I need to be worried? Answer: Yes, stop this plant right now. Garlic mustard is invasive and takes over our parks and woods. A biennial, during its first year it grows under the radar, producing only a small cluster of scalloped leaves. The second year it shoots up multiple flower stalks 1-2 feet tall.

Q. As a physician I usually enjoy your column, but I have serious questions about your claims about garlic. What is the evidence that "Egyptian physicians used garlic"? Even if they did, is that a good reason for us to use it? How do you know that garlic can help prevent blood clots or that it has cancer-fighting properties?I enjoy the flavor of garlic, but I am skeptical about its ability to prevent cancer or heart attacks. Please back up your statements.A. The Ebers Papyrus from 1550 B.C. mentions 22 herbal remedies containing garlic.

Is garlic a health food?Researchers are toying with clues that garlic may indeed offer health benefits beyond its ability to tempt us into eating really delicious food.A review of evidence from five clinical trials published recently in Environmental Nutrition newsletter showed that one-half to one clove per day lowered blood cholesterol levels by an average of 9 percent in people with borderline and high cholesterol.In various studies, garlic powder, aged garlic extracts and fresh garlic have all been known to have some effect in preventing cancer in animals.

This weekend, when you are planting your tulip bulbs and your daffodil bulbs and your crocus bulbs, think about planting a few garlic bulbs. Yep. Garlic. The planting season for garlic starts now in our Mid-Atlantic zone, just when you might be putting the rest of your garden to bed for the winter, and it extends until Thanksgiving. The bulbs will send down roots now and use winter's dormancy to develop. Then they send up shoots in the spring, so that mixing them in your perennial bed is a good idea.

Garlic scapes, the scrapple of vegetables, have gone gourmet. Scapes are the flowering, curly, central stalk of the garlic plant, and growers snip them off around this time of year so the plant puts energy into the bulb instead of the bud. After that, scapes used to land in the compost pile - or perhaps on the plate of an especially frugal farmer, the sort who came up with scrapple because he didn't want to let perfectly good hog offal go to waste....