If you are in the New York area and love garlic, there is a festival just for you: the Hudson Valley Garlic Festival. It will take place Sept. 23 and 24 in Saugerties, and will feature all sorts of garlic-associated goods from food to clothing. Tickets are $7 at the gate or $5 in advance. Check out the website for more information on that.

Now check out the food:

Garlic Food Court

Chow Down! You won’t believe the many different ways garlic can be used to enhance food. The full list is too long to include here. Here’s a tasty sampling of the foods available at last year’s festival:

barbecue beef
beef on a stick
blooming onions
bratwurst
garlic bread
broccoli
Cajun crawfish
caramels
blackened catfish
garlic chicken
chicken wraps
garlic chili
clams
kettle corn
corn-on-the-cob
crawfish
egg roll
focaccia
french fries
fried dough
garlic fritters (kachori)
funnel cake
gyros
ham
hamburgers
hot dogs
garlic ice cream (strangely enough, a crowd favorite!)
jambalaya
garlic mashed potatoes
garlic mozzarella
garlic mushrooms
garlic onions
garlic pasta
garlic pork
roasted pork on a spit
garlic pretzels
garlic rice
garlic samosa
garlic sauerkraut
sausage
scallops
shrimp cocktail
shrimp scampi
garlic soup
garlic steak
garlic steak sandwiches
garlic turkey with mayo
garlic veggie sub
venison sausage
and garlic blackened green beans.
What’s better than garlic food for breakfast, lunch and dinner? Come and get it!

Obviously not the place to take a date…unless they are garlic friendly too…maybe.

But um, garlic ice cream??? Are they for real?

Much to my husband’s chagrin, I love garlic. It goes in nearly every main dish I make . . . sometimes in greater quantities then others. And one dish that I love to make is aglio e olio. It’s a classic Italian pasta that combines just cooked garlic, olive oil and pasta in a wonderful symphony of flavor.

I first tried aglio e olio as a child when my friend, Allison, and her family took me with them to their favorite pizza joint in our hometown of Poughkeepsie, NY. Little did I know that this pasta that I raved, ad nausum, about was actually a simple and very inexpensive dish that can be made in minutes at home. As an aside though, I don’t recommend serving it to company . . .

Now about the garlic, garlic is good for you (ha! my husband needs to read this) and also packs a flavor punch.

Health Benefits:
In any case, as far as health goes, garlic is one of those things with an array of health benefits. here’s a smattering:

• Garlic can reduce the risk of pre-eclampsia and raise the birthweight of babies during pregnancy, studies say.
• Garlic can reduce cholesterol levels.
• It’s a powerful antiseptic.

Ways to Use:

• Raw: Garlic used raw has a spicy or hot flavor. It can be used whole, sliced, minced, crushed, etc.
• Cooked: Cooked garlic has a milder flavor and loses it’s antiseptic properties, but it does add nice flavoring to dishes. It can be used whole, sliced, minced, crushed, etc.

How it Grows:

Like onions and shallots, garlic is a root. Cloves are planted in the fall shortly before the first winter frost and begin to grow in the spring. By mid July, they are ready for harvesting. The cloves then have to be dried out before storing in a warm, dry place. For a great tutorial on the whole process, check out Virtual Seeds.

Storage:

There are many products on the market to facilitate the storage of garlic. Here are a few of the ones I located (I cannot vouch for any of the sellers, I simply posted links to some of the more interesting containers out there):

• Garlic Pot/$7.95 – basic crock
• Garlic Storage Jar/$19.95 – handpainted jar
• Vampire Garlic Jar/$9.99 – cute styled jar
• Provencal Garlic Jar/$32.00 - simple, with a natural cork stopper
• Polish Stoneware Garlic Crock/$54.95 – beautiful design

Now, onto the recipe.

Aglio e Olio

serves 2

1/3 cup olive oil
4-6 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/2 lb pasta, cooked
1/3 cup parsley, chopped, or 1 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
shredded Romano cheese

Heat oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Stir in chopped garlic and cook, stirring frequently until just golden brown…do not let it get any darker than that or it will lose it’s flavor.

Toss garlic/oil mixture with pasta and stir in parsley, salt and pepper. Top with cheese, if desired.

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Check out Kalyn’s Kitchen later tonight for a round up of great recipes and posts as part of Kalyn’s weekly Weekend Herb Blogging event.

Do you see that? I mean can you really see that? It’s a watermelon – a square watermelon – decorated with ribbons.

Square watermelons?!?

It won’t roll around the fridge, it has a square rind that is easy to cut off….hmm, but a square watermelon?!?

What do you do when you have a bunch of excess kale sitting in your refrigerator and aren’t sure what to use it for? Make an inventive vegetable pasta, of course!

This dish came to me the other night after I assembled what few things I had in the kitchen – ricotta, kale, a red pepper, a can of crushed tomatoes and a little garlic. I figured, “why not?” and into the pan it went.

The result was this pleasing pasta dish, full of veggies with a little added calcium via the ricotta…and the best part? It’s heavy enough to fill you but light enough to be eaten even on the warm days of late summer, early fall.

With kale, red pepper and tomato, this pasta is a great entry for Sweetnicks ARF/5-A-Day Tuesdays. Check out Cate’s site tomorrow night for a roundup of great like-minded recipes.

2 tbsp olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 large red pepper, chopped
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
2 cups chopped kale
1/4 tsp pepper
salt to taste
1 tsp oregano
1/4 cup ricotta

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Stir in garlic and cook, stirring constantly for 1-2 minutes until just starting to brown.

Stir in red pepper and cook for 3-5 minutes, stirring constantly until pepper is just softened.

Pour in crushed tomatoes and stir to combine. Heat to a boiling.

Stir in kale, pepper, salt and oregano and cover. Reduce heat to low and simmer about 10 minutes until kale is softened and wilted.

Remove from heat and stir in ricotta. Serve immediately over pasta (or mix together with a half pound of cooked pasta like I did.)

The other day, I wrote about Kale and how it was a foreign vegetable to me until recently. Today, in honor of Sweetnicks ARF/5-A-Day Tuesdays, I am highlighting another vegetable that is new to me: Swiss chard.

This leafy green vegetable is rich in antioxidants — in fact, one cup carries 52.5% of the recommended daily value of Vitamin C. It’s also chock full of iron, potassium, Vitamin A and Vitamin K, among others.

I resisted trying this vegetable though, fearing the unknown, until I saw an interesting recipe for a pasta using it in the June 2006 issue of Gourmet (“Pasta with Kielbasa and Swiss Chard”). It’s been earmarked for months, just waiting to be used. Finally I assembled all the ingredients this week to try it out. Even my vegetable hating husband said he would be willing to try it again. Truth be told, he liked the greens but disliked the ribs. I didn’t really notice them.

In any case, this recipe, slightly adapted from the Gourmet version, was a winner that will be repeated in this Cucina Bella.

1 lb Swiss chard
1 lb kielbasa, sliced down the center and cut into 1/2 chunks
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp dried red pepper flakes
3/4 lb angel hair pasta
fresh grated Romano cheese

Start water boiling for the pasta.

Wash the Swiss chard under cool water. Then separate the leaves from the stems and chop each, keeping them separate. Prepare the remainder of your ingredients (cut the kielbasa and mince the garlic).

Preheat a large pot over high heat. Add kielbasa and cook, stirring frequently, until it browns lightly, about two minutes. Remove kielbasa from the pot.

Reduce heat to medium. Add the olive oil, salt and Swiss chard stems to the pot. Cook, stirring frequently, for 3-4 minutes, until they are golden. Add the garlic and cook for one more minute.

(You should be putting the pasta into the pot now)

Add the Swiss chard leaves to the pot with the stems. Also add the water and red pepper flakes. Stir well. Reduce the heat to low. Simmer, covered, for 5-8 minutes, until the stems are tender. Stir in the kielbasa.

Drain pasta. Toss with the Swiss chard mixture.

Serve immediately with freshly grated Romano cheese for sprinkling.