When I belonged to a share of a CSA, we got a lot of garlic in the last few weeks. I wasn’t sure what to do with it at first because although we do use a lot of garlic, I tend to buy in already minced in a jar. We use so much that the extra convenience is worth a bit of expense not to have to chop or waste some of it for a bit in a recipe.
One thing I have learned though, with that bounty of garlic is that it is much cheaper and just as convenient when you make your own minced garlic in a jar. It is easy to do.
Just place your garlic cloves in a food processor and chop or mince the garlic. Put the garlic in a jar with a lid (a clean pasta sauce or jelly jar works well) and then cover it with olive oil. Place the jar of garlic in your refrigerator. Your garlic will last for weeks.
Now here is what might be the best part. When you use up all of that garlic, guess what is left? You have garlic-flavored olive oil! You can then use this oil on salad and in pasta. Or try using it one of my favorite ways: on crusty bread to make garlic bread or on pizza dough before you add the sauce.
The minced garlic made me realize that as much as I try to be frugal, I just take some things for granted, such as the fact that garlic comes magically minced in a jar. I have to still learn sometimes that there are often money saving ways to make even what I might normally think of as a staple in the house.
Now if I could only figure out how to make instant yeast. I’m off to learn about “starters” for bread.