Baltimore, Botulism Benefit & Roasted Garlic

photo courtesy of allrecipes.com. I'll remember to take one next time!

I'm in my hometown of Baltimore, enjoying some time before I head off to Central America for a month (!!!). I haven't been cooking much, although I did make some dill dip for the Baby Bregel-Bausum's Botulism Benefit Bash on Saturday. There was a ton of food and terrific live music (by Earthtone!). Better than that, a lot of money was raised for Sinai Hospital's PICU, where my friend Sarah's baby girl Piper recovered from infant botulism in March. Once the music started, I was completely distracted, so I don't think I actually ate the dill dip I made. I followed my mom's classic recipe, though, so I'm sure it was good.

Perhaps the dill dip recipe will be another post, because last night for dinner I had roasted garlic, and that's what I want to write about. Roasted garlic is incredibly simple to make, tastes amazing, and has multiple uses. I usually eat mine smushed over bread, but you can add it to mashed potatoes, dips or pastas. It's also good on top of pizza, mixed into butter or hummus, or with cheese as an appetizer.

Ingredients
head of garlic (as many as you'd like to make)
salt
pepper
olive oil

1. Pull off most of the garlic skin, leaving the individual skins of the individual cloves.
2. Chop off the end of the head of garlic, exposing the cloves; maybe cut off about 1/2 an inch here.
3. Drizzle with olive oil, then sprinkle some salt and pepper.
4. Bake on a baking sheet at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. You should be able to smell the garlic. You might need + or - about 5 or 10 minutes, depending on the size of the garlic heads and the strength of your oven.
5. Pull the cloves from the skin with your fingers or a fork.

A quick Google search reveals a bunch of different ways to roast garlic, including in muffin tins or ramekins, covered with aluminum foil, etc. I usually do it bare, but I'm thinking using aluminum foil might be smart.