Ok before my furnace blew up I had been investing in food items for longterm storage and use. I got a deal on 1pound of vanila beans around new years as well as 2 gallons of peeled garlic last week. Anyway with water turned off in my house all day yesterday (furnace being replaced) I decided that it was a good time to do something about all the garlic and while I was at it make some xmas presents for next year (added bonus time spent in front of the stove means warmth). Onto the stove went the last of the water from my sink at a rolling boil for blanching as well as 2 half gallon bottles of smirnoff vodka in another pot. Over Xmas we collected the 2 sixpacks of the cute 8oz classic coke bottles and now they are going to use...into each bottle I placed a cut open fresh vanila bean and then poured 8oz of hot vodka, I also filled various other bottles that I've collected for home use. Carefully moving 12 bottles of hot vodka to another counter to cool before corking. I moved on to the garlic...How does one preserve 12lbs of garlic? let me tell you I never thought there could be such a thing as too much garlic but....anyway 6-7 lbs of it, blanched 3 times and then put into those little drug dealer sized ziplock and froze them...I filled a quart sauce pan with garlic then topped it with olive oil and set it to simmering (talk about a nice smell) and with a a bunch of the rest wrapped it in foil and roasted it in the oven before freezing it as well. I think I have about 10 cloves that are still raw. The oil cured garlic went into a jar in the frige but most of the oil got bottled for salads and cooking. The funny thing is when my wife got home from work she was convinced, from the smell in the house that dinner was gonna be garlic infused but I barely used any (one clove)...the garlic smell did however completely drive out the smell of a dead furnace (yech)...


Four Replies to happy home maker

Lori Lancaster | February 15, 2008
[hidden by author request]

Denise Sawicki | February 15, 2008
The vanilla vodka sounds like a cool gift idea. I like tasty drinks :) Glad you didn't go and make garlic vodka because that might be weird.

...Although, a google search indicates that people say that is in fact good.

Tony Peters | February 16, 2008
not vanilla vodka that would only take a bean for each gallon and it only takes a few weeks I made vanilla extract which will sit for nearly a year...but now that you mention it I think I'll get a bottle of good vodka next week and make some.

Denise Sawicki | February 16, 2008
OK cool... I obviously don't know much about these things!


vagabond-punk

The musings of Tony Peters, a perpetual child, no matter where I am I will find a way to climb something or go skateboarding Read more »

sure ain't kansas

well I've had my MAC for almost a month now and I'm pretty much converted I received my Education edition of Photoshop last week and it didn't take me a day to realized that CS3 is drastically different that CS2...Time to start learning again (not that that is a bad thing)...Thankfully it comes with video workshop I'm about half way through it, funny thing It's kindled an enjoyment to learn again...I Go »

Life and complexity

After last semester's overdose in writing I have been enjoying not having to write at all this semester. Well that and most of my school time is spent in an Art studio....it is mentally challenging, for the first time in years I'm drawing...it's Go »

argh

I got a phone call this morning from work (I'm on vacation) wondering if I know that I'm transferring in 2 weeks???? SAY WHAT???? yet again (this is the 3rd time) the Navy is transferring me to another job in the same area. Go »

change 2

well I got to work this morning and I got my holiday break back...it seems that our money guys don't want to pay to have 2 groups of people traipsing around the med at roughly the same time soooooo...they want one team to fly from end to end and then back again over a three week period and it's probably gonna end up costing as much if not more than it would for 2 teams to but and here is the part that sucks for me it'll cost less this year, and we are broke this year, Jan 1 starts are next batch of money...so Go »

holiday ruined

My Greek Holiday has been ruined...by an Italian holiday instead. I'm going to Sardinia today instead of Crete on Friday...walked Go »

hot metal

Today the the University of Rhode Island had it's first Bronze pour....it was pretty cool to watch. next year one of those guys will likely be me Go »