I'm very attached to my talent for thin-slicing garlic. I'm trying to achieve a thinner-than-paper state of Nirvana. Smashing the garlic before hand disrupts that quest.

Garlic Lore!

Garlic's secret armory consists of more than 33 active sulfur-containing substances that do battle with enemies such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi. Some of the more familiar compounds are allicin, alliin, cycroalliin, and diallyldisulphide. Allicin, garlic's warrior against bacteria and inflammation, is also the culprit behind its offensive odor. Garlic's antibiotic effect is attributed to alliin, the sulfur-containing amino acid responsible for the manufacture of allicin.

Alexandra Hicks, food writer and avid gardener, reveals garlic's magic best:

"Simply stated, when a clove of garlic is cut or crushed, its extracellular membrane separates into sections. This enables an enzyme called allinase to come in contact and combine with the precursor or substrate alliin to form allicin, which contains the odoriferous constituent of garlic."

I use the rubber tube thing-y to peel my garlic. V. nice.

I'm a big proponent of learning how to use a real chef's knife properly. It kills me watching JZ cutting up garlic with a little paring knife. You need the lever action of a big knife. You can chop, you can slice, you can smash, you can scoop - all in one exciting knife.

My favorite and most-used knife is my ulu. I get the chopping & dicing action with less movement required on my part.

A good knife is a thing of beauty.

My friend has a ceramic knife with a pink handle. It is indeed a beautiful thing (what if one of those little girls in the Tom's link had one in her collection of pink things? AWESOME!)

yeah, that's why the finer/smaller the cutting (from whole cloves down to fine mince/smash), the stronger the flavor...

I'm very attached to my talent for thin-slicing garlic. I'm trying to achieve a thinner-than-paper state of Nirvana.

Seriously, try the ulu. The amount of control is amazing.

You bribe a friend who knows how to cook into helping you with the dinner party, then either remain nicely mum on the subject of who actually cooked, or deflect compliments to you by pointing out your enduring wisdom in choosing the right person to actually cook.

...but I know how to cook. If someone wants me to be a professional chef in the kitchen, they can go pay for their dinner somewhere else.

Or make the food before they get there to ensure they won't sneer at your technique or choice of ingredients!

Sounds like a plan!

My sister is a wizard with the ulu, but I haven't practiced enough to be comfortable with it. in theory, though, I love it - so elegant.

Almost all the cooking in my house is done by my DH. Lucky me. He has two Wusthof kmives we keep on a magnetic strip (along with kitchen shears, which are amazingly handy) and he LURVES them.

I think people are just happy to be fed at a dinner party, so they drink their wine or beer and don't pay attention to anything except the yummy smells.