Foodnetwork.com

[Kristie]

I've been using food network as a "start" to my cooking skills.. so far, I've done 3 recipes

a Korean BBQ shortrib
a spinach, goat cheese with warm bacon dressing
and a faralle pasta with broccoli

the faralle didn't work out so well...the korean ribs works out GREAT and the spinach salad worked out GREAT but i needed to add a lot more spinach since the dressing was quite a bit more saucy.

I'm including the link of the spinach salad simply because it was fairly easy to make and it was mighty tasty!! I couldn't find any dried cherries so I substituted dried cherry flavored cranberries and it turned out just as good!!

Spinach, Dried Cherry and Goat Cheese Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing

so far, i'm really enjoying being more patient and understanding more about what cooking is really all about - it's not *just* preparing food....

but here's a question for those in the know...I can crack the garlic just fine with a knife like the folks do in the show but how the heck do they get the peel off without having to take off sleeve by sleeve of the clove? do you run it under whater while taking the paper off or what's the secret to easily peeled garlic (besides using the canned minced or chopped version.. i KNEW someone would probably suggest that )??