I never thought I had a dependence upon garlic until I went without it.

I know that it was in there last week when I cleaned out the refrigerator. I’m certain that I put it back in the fridge and I know that I had plenty to spare…. so where did it go?

The weekend consisted of pizza, take-out, and left overs of each. Last night was the first night that I actually prepared a meal. The recipe called for garlic. I go to the fridge, pull out the vegetable drawer, searched inside the drawer, searched high, searched low, and nowhere could I find my beloved garlic.

I thought, “Eh, I’ll just use garlic powder”. For that particular recipe, I could get away with it. It was Lemon-Pepper Flank Steak. Not bad, I think the fresh lemon made up for the lack of garlic but it was still missing something. The garlic powder just couldn’t hack it.

Tonight’s meal was a slow cooker meal. It is somewhat of a Chicken Taco Soup that was loosely based on a recipe called “Fire Cracker Chicken”. I really didn’t feel like preparing said recipe on the stove so I threw all of the ingredients into the slow cooker this morning. All of them except minced garlic cloves. Again, I substituted for it’s powdery version.

All I can say is, “Ugh”. I’m so disappointed in myself. I’ve become, dare I say it, an AWESOME cook these days. Now, I just feel like I’ve hit rock bottom.

Then I realized it, it’s not me; it’s the garlic. Correction. Step 1: Admit your problem. I am addicted to garlic. It is me. But let’s be honest, there are far worse things to be addicted to and garlic actually has some amazing health benefits.

Lesson Learned: Double, no, triple check your fridge contents before taking a trip to the grocery store.

Positive Lesson Learned: Keep on, keepin’ on when it comes to garlic.