The Answer to Old Age

Many, many years ago while in Georgian Russia I was fortunate to be a small village called Tqvarch'eli just east of the Black Sea. I spent a month there working for Uncle Sam (another story) when I noticed that there was an extremely large population of seniors walking the streets. I was always under the impression that this harsh area was rough on the body. My interest peaked until one evening around a fire and much vodka later with some of the locals, I was enlighten to the village people's long life. I will share this with you so you will be able to try it for yourself. One proviso, you must like or at least tolerate garlic. If you don't like garlic I will send my little friend over to destroy your computer...just a little humor.

I have the recipe for all to try..

* 50-75 cloves of peeled garlic

* 1 cup of Extra virgin olive oil

* 1/2 cup Fresh lemon juice or Balsamic vinegar

* 1/2 teaspoon of Salt

* 1 teaspoon of Freshly ground or cracked black pepper

* 1 tablespoon of Herbs (oregano is nice or create your own mixture) I use an Italian Herb mixture

Start by peeling all that garlic. Now bring a saucepan of water to boil. Once the water is boiling, turn off the heat and drop garlic cloves into the hot water. Let sit in water for 3 to 5 minutes. ( use the shorter time if you like a sharper raw garlic flavor; the longer the time results in a much milder garlic flavor.) Remove garlic and plunge into (or rinse thoroughly with) cold water to stop the cloves from "cooking" any further.

Dissolve the salt into the lemon or balsamic vinegar. Now make a "vinaigrette" with the olive oil, vinegar or lemon juice, salt, pepper and herbs. Place garlic into jars and pour oil mixture to the top of the cloves. Refrigerate for a minimum of 1 week.

After 1 week, eat straight (or, for the faint of heart, slice up garlic and mix with you salad greens). Be sure to keep refrigerated. I don't know how long this will last in the refrigerator because I eat it up too fast.

Some of my Cape Estes residents have tried this and seem to enjoy with a favorite beverage. Until next time enjoy..

Etcetera, etcetera.....