That was hilarious!

So my wife bought me the Chosen collection and we started watching the first few episodes last night. A few observations:

They were so young back then. Besides Buffy, Xander, Willow and Cordelia, we see "young" Angel, Darla, and Amy. Joss points out that while SMG and AH had like a decade of acting experience by then, NB and DB were relatively green, but they leveled out nicely. In these first episodes, SMG is outstanding, NB and AH are good although they don't seem natural yet, and DB's first scenes are not his best.

Giles tells Buffy that as a Slayer, she should be able to "sense" vampires. Did that power ever manifest?

Buffy tells Xander that garlic works, and we even see garlic in her weapons chest when she gathers supplies before hitting the Bronze. But we don't see a whole lot of garlic use during the rest of the series do we?

Did that power ever manifest?

her secret power is PMS! ( sorry couldn't resist)

I don't think that it manifested in an obvious way.

Buffy sussed out a few deep cover vampires over the years, but I think it was more due to growing experience and expertise than anything supernatural.

I think Joss gave up the whole "sensing vampires via menstrual cramps" thing. Instead Buffy spotted them via her keen fashion sense -- vampire fashion sense tends to be centered around the time they were killed. Buffy can spot the out-of-fashion. I wonder how many live people who are simply out of date this resulted in her killing? Plot bunny for anyone who wants one.

But we don't see a whole lot of garlic use during the rest of the series do we?

This is such a vague memory that it's hardly worht sharing, but isn't there a scene where Buffy is sad because she just broke up with either Angel or Spike and she has garlic around the room to keep him out? I can see the image in my head, but I don't remember the story at all. Anyway, it's the one time I remember seeing garlic.

yep. that was after Angel's breakup. After Spike, she got Willow to put a spell on the house as if he were never invited in in the first place.

Actually, she got Willow to do that for Angel, in "Passion" if I'm not mistaken.

She may have again for Spike, with me missing it due to my eyes rolling like a Vegas slot machine.

I sort of remember the garlic after Buffy and Spike had sex in Wrecked (or was it Smashed, I get them mixed up).

I think the reason she did not use garlic much is that garlic repels rather than kills or disables vampires, and mostly she wants the vampires to get close enough that she can kill them.