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How about roasting it? Cut off the top 1/4 inch of the head, drizzle a bit of olive oil on top, wrap in foil, then cook in a 400 degree oven for about 30-35 minutes. Once the bulb has cooled to the touch, pop the cloves out with your fingers. You can spread the garlic on toast for a light snack. I store my roasted cloves in a clean glass jar covered in olive oil. When the garlic is used up you're left with garlic infused oil!

have you come and gone, themanchesterkitchen? I'd love to know where you ended up eating.

@LiveToEat, I do the same thing! And learned it from the same source!

I saw JP mince a clove of garlic, sprinkle salt on it, mince a little more, then use the flat part of a chef's knife to smear the garlic across the cutting board. This is step 1 in my technique to make vinaigrette or for use in any type of prep where garlic is not cooked as it combines thoroughly through the other ingredients.

I do tend to chop garlic for sauteing, vs. mashing it to a paste. Sometimes I just halve the cloves and I generally don't remove them from the cooked dish, instead opting to enjoy the softened, sweet garlic.

Easiest way to prepare fresh garlic (aka, not standing around with a pairing knife and fiddling with the filmy bits of papery skin), IMO is to break the head into cloves, then give each glove a good solid smack with the back of a heavy chef's knife. This will crush the garlic, releasing the aromatic oils and make it all but fall out of its skin. You can chop up the garlic from there to desireable size, or just use the smooshed garlic as is. This way, the pieces remain large enough to pick out of food if you don't wish to eat it later.

Rachel Ray's been known to do it this way, but I got it from my mom!

A super easy way to jazz up veggies is to perfume hot oil in a pan with smashed garlic cloves, then toss in blanched greens and stir fry. Almost disgustingly simple, yet its hard to imagine why anyone dislikes veggies when they can be prepared this way.

I don't have a garlic press, so when I want to mince the garlic really small, I hold a fork flat on a cutting board, then I scrape the clove of garlic on the prongs of the fork. Then I use the fork to mash up any bigger garlic bits into a sort of paste. I learned this from a Jacques Pepin appearance on the Martha Stewart show. It's really quick and easy.

mmmm garlic... I love garlic!

I've just discovered the trick of using garlic on a microplane, what a fantastic way to break down cloves!