Garlic, Parmesan and a Pickle Story

Boy, today’s word (Pungent) reminds me instantaneously of my husband, and no, it has nothing to do with the fact that he smells bad, if that’s what you are thinking.  It’s because he is likely one of the most sensitive people who I know of, to scents especially.  If something doesn’t agree with his sniffer, it’s a no-go!  Not so much as a morsel or sip of something will dare to touch his lips, if his nose does not agree.  Clearly, when the big guy upstairs was dishing out snouts, his was given a more than heightened sense of smell.  And, let’s face it, for most of us it is true that smell has a lot to do with whether or not we wish to taste certain dishes over others.   Many things, in fact, are associated with our sense of smell–the good, the bad, and the ugly, and thanks to it, we can even detect danger, etc.  Needless to say, it’s an important part of our human experience.  If you need any convincing, just think back to a time when you suffered from a cold or flu and couldn’t smell or taste anything.  Not pleasant, was it?

Of course, the other things that come to mind with respect to the word pungent are garlic and parmesan–both of which I love separately and together even, but WOWeeee!!!–do they ever stick with you!  I don’t know what it is about them exactly, but they just seem to seep into every pore of your body and then some.  There’s no sneaking around when it comes to those two ingredients.  Everyone around you knows (sometimes for a day or two) when you’ve consumed either, no guessing required–maybe just some extra personal space and/or breath mints;-)  Then again, if you are trying to keep others at bay, a hearty helping of spaghetti and garlic toast might just be in order.  On the flip side of things, if you are ever on a diet, you best not indulge in any secret late-night nibble sessions of garlic or cheese because you will be found out immediately!

Speaking of garlic, I cannot help but share this one quick story that happened a couple of summers ago.  We had had a bountiful crop of cucumbers from our first ever garden out here in the country.  Needless to say, excess cucumbers spelled out only one thing–pickle-making!!  My mom shared a super easy, ice-cream pail recipe that sounded perfect, and so my husband and I got busy slicing and dicing.  Well, lo and behold, the recipe called for four cloves of garlic.  While I love eating garlic, we tend not to buy a whole lot of it for cooking since my stomach seems not to like it as much as my mouth does.  In saying that, we were sure to pick up some fresh heads to make our pickles.  For some reason, I mistook the number of cloves for actual heads of garlic and soon began to question the amount that the recipe was calling for, as the strong, distinctive odour infiltrated not only our kitchen, but other rooms in the house as well.  Luckily, I caught my mistake in time to rescue the pail from the floundering, overpowering frolics of garlic.  I must admit, however, that those would have been some pickles had I have kept chopping away.  Yikes!  As it turned out, the pickles were super tasty and we will be serving them once again today for our annual Grey Cup celebration.

Since company will be here soon, I best get ‘slicing and dicing’ up some appetizers and tasty snacks.  You can be sure that garlic and parmesan will be on the menu, so I will apologize to my colleagues today for my about-to-be pungent trail tomorrow.  Sorry guys and gals!

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