Working Class Foodies: Garlic

Mmm garlic! I'm curious, why do you bash 'em with the knife first? I've always just chopped them or squeezed them through a garlic press, depending on what I was putting it in.

Have you ever tried roasted garlic and them spreading it on crackers? Mmm! You guys should do an episode on fancy little party snacks like that.

Speaking of garlic, I used two whole bulbs between my main and leftovers recipes.

Main: I made a simple roast chicken. Butter, salt, and pepper rubbed on the outside. A quartered onion, some carrots, and a few sprigs of thyme and rosemary on the inside. Then roasted in the oven for an hour and 20 minutes. I threw in a couple of bulbs of garlic with the tops cut off, and roasted some new potatoes with the chicken. After that was done, I made a simple jus with some wine and butter from the pan drippings. I just microwaved some carrots as an additional side. The chicken was moist, the potatoes were delicious with a little bit of the schmaltz on them, and the roasted garlic was spread on pieces of french bread toast. 

leftovers: I took the last bits of chicken off of the carcass and put the carcass, with all the roasting vegetables inside it, in a stew pot with about 8 cups of water and simmered for about 3 hours to make stock. Then I strained the stock and put it in the fridge overnight to let the fat solidify.
That afternoon, I scooped out the fat, added the reserved chicken back to the pot, tossed in a handful of baby carrots, and about a half of a cup of rice, and let it simmer until the rice and carrots were tender.
In the meantime, I took the leftover roast garlic (about 8 cloves) and about 2 tablespoons of softened butter and a couple teaspoons of dijon mustard and made some garlic butter. I spread some on some simple cheese sandwiches and grilled them, then served them with the chicken soup.

the first meal was delicious, of course, but i have to say the leftovers were even better!

Im always on the go. Could you show us a recipe for a great *health* snack or meal that i could make in advance and would be easy to grab and go?

really only that much i use garlic all the time.

Awesome! What an editing tour de force that was...now if you can manage a garlic ice cream you've got me covered.