I love garlic. You'll never have to worry about me becoming a vampire because I always have garlic in my blood. If vampires hate garlic I am as untasty a meal as they will ever find.
Fresh garlic is a delight to work with. Once you have crushed your cloves and carved them into tiny little pieces you can mix fresh garlic with almost anything: butter, meat, olive oil, even dry seasonings.
I like to mix a rich garlic-onion-butter sauce and soak bread in it. You can use a good hard French or Italian loaf but even soft white bread (yuck) from the store is improved by a garlic-based sauce.
Once you have soaked the bread fry it quickly in a sauce pan. This creates a wonderful garlic-onion toast that goes with French and Italian cuisines.
If you don't want toast you can mix olive oil, garlic, and basil together. Spread this across a bruschetta. Many people add tomatoes but if you're going to do this only use heirloom tomatoes and slice them by hand. Don't put your tomatoes into a blender or food processor.
If you want to try a garlic cream sauce you'll just need a little butter, heavy cream, fresh garlic, salt, and pepper. Saute the garlic in butter until it softens. Then add the cream and stir for about 5 minutes over low heat. Season the sauce lightly with salt and pepper. You can serve this cream over potatoes, cauliflower, and many other vegetables. It goes well with pasta, too.
