You know there's nothing like the wonderful smell of garlic. Its great in soups and salads and many people will tell you that garlic has many health benefits for you. Try fresh garlic slathered on fresh bread with butter and bake it for a delicious tasty treat.

Allium Sativum is the scientific name for garlic. Garlic is related to lilies and onions. Be sure when you purchase garlic that the garlic heads are firm to the touch. You don't want garlic that feels soft to the touch or has began to sprout. Keep your fresh garlic in a cool dark place to help it keep its best flavor.

You can easily peel garlic by placing it on a cutting board and place the side of your knife flat side down over the garlic and press down on the garlic. You will then notice that the skin will slip right off your garlic so you can chop it up and work with it.

If you want the strongest flavor of garlic peel your garlic and then puree it in your food processor. Garlic prepared in this way can easily be used in your sauces and cooking. Take note that with garlic prepared this way the garlic flavor will be strong so add a little to your sauce and then taste to see if you want to add more garlic.

Roasting your garlic at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes after you peel it will soften the flavor and you can then puree it and mix it with cream cheese to spread on your bread after toasting the bread for a delightful tasty treat.

You can use garlic to flavor meats you are roasting and I love fresh minced garlic in my lamb stew. I also often make my own homemade french onion soup and add fresh minced garlic to my homemade french onion soup.

We chop up and mince fresh garlic very well and mix it with margarine and a little ground cayenne pepper and spread it on Italian bread and brown it under the broiler in the oven.. We then serve it with the lamb stew or make croutons from it to go in our homemade french onion soup.

Another great thing is that garlic is said to keep those pesky vampires away. What great things have you found to do with garlic. Do you have a great recipe using fresh garlic. Why not share it below in the comments section.

There are said to be some really great health benefits from garlic. It is reported to help with heart disease, high cholesterol, cancer, and high blood pressure. There are also claims that garlic can help to maintain blood sugar levels.

So it seems that garlic really is both a wonderful thing to cook with and just may have some wonderful health benefits also. The Cherokee and other east coast American Indian tribes used garlic for coughs and lung illnesses. It was in 1858 that Louis Pasteur observed in his experiments that garlic had great anti bacterial properties. And garlic was used as a antiseptic to prevent gangrene during the First and Second World War's.

In history garlic has been regarded as a force for both good and evil. There is a old European Myth that when Satan was thrown out of the Garden of Eden by God that garlic rose up in his left footprint and onion in the right foot print. Even today in some parts of Europe and Asia garlic is worn , hung in windows and rubbed on key holes to keep away vampires and other evil things. In parts of Asia if a person dies garlic is burned every night in the house of the deceased person to chase away the dead persons ghost and to keep away other evil spirits.

In parts of Appalachia in the mountain regions even today garlic is hung over doorways to keep away anything evil. It is quite often sewn into a very small bag and hung around new born babies necks to protect them from anything evil. These customs it is believed can be traced back to Ireland and the people who immigrated to America and the Appalachia region.