New Gadget alert! - Garlic Zoom XL

So, speaking of love and vampires (ok, I really wasn't speaking of vampires, mostly just love this week), but Vampires beware! This year has been a special year.  I know it's only a few months in to 2012 but I have fallen in love.  Yes I have fallen in love with garlic!  I used to hate the stuff, avoided it even.  Now that I am making a lot of recipes from scratch and homemade there is a lot of call for minced garlic here and there.  The key is not going bonkers and throwing a ton in... the key is a little goes a LONG way.  One day I was trying a new recipe and suddenly realized that sauteing garlic with butter gave off such a heavenly aroma! I was wishing I had a grilled artichoke heart or a lump of crab to dip and slather it in.  MAN it smells good and adds such a depth of flavor to the cooking.  So this lead me to a dilemma.  I am a novice garlic mincer, it's messy, and it can stink up your hands (and your breath).  Not to mention peeled cloves of garlic are small and therefore dangerous to chop (if you use inappropriate tools like a near by steak knife like I tend to do).  I had just bought a fancy garlic press a few weeks back, but all it seemed to do was smash the stuffing out of it, not produce much actual garlic to use, AND leave giant chunks of garlic behind I had to fish out with my finger, ug.  I was thinking there has to be an easier way!  Well thank goodness my hubby is a geek, because we get the think geek catalog and there, between the binary clock and the star trek pizza cutter was the answer to all of my prayers for $14... The Garlic Zoom XL.

The garlic zoom lx - isn't she a beaut?

Isn't is the cutest thing?!  So sweet.  My kids took one look at that and wanted to drive it around the counter, and here's the greatest part... they CAN!  Yes let me give you the exciting play by play:

toss a few cloves of garlic in the garlic zoom

So you get a few cloves of garlic.  I used three here.  Also if look closely in the back I have a jar of peeled garlic cloves (a very exciting discovery in the produce aisle with the refrigerated salad dressings.  So handy and ready to go whenever I need them).  Then close the lid and you are ready to roll.  Literally. 

Taking my garlic zoom xl for a drive around the counter

So with three cloves it feels like it's not going to roll at first, but just do a couple of back and forth rolls until the blades really start chopping and BAM, within a few seconds your garlic is being minced before your eyes.

The garlic zoom after zoomage.  Hello minced garlic I didn't have to touch

So now they say to open up the whole zoomer and take out the blade and removed the minced garlic, but I discovered that there is an easier way where you don't have to deal with super sharp blades.  With the whole thing still closed, turn it upside down and tap it into your other hand while holding a dish towel for cushion.  It will make all the garlic fall to the top of the gadget and then all you have to do is just pop open only the top lid (the one you opened to put the garlic in) and all the garlic falls out where you want it.  Note: I didn't take a picture of it, above is the first time I ever used it and was meticulously following the directions. 

perfectly minced garlic... HOORAY

Yes so just keep the thing closed, tip the whole thing over, tap it on a dish towel for cushion and pop up the lid and tap out your perfectly minced garlic. I rinsed the thing out with hot water then, get this, it's DISHWASHER SAFE to boot.  Hallelujah! I do realize Alton Brown would frown upon a "one trick wonder" gadget as he prefers multitaskers, but this one time I would say it's totally worth it!!  A garlic zoom a day keeps the vampires away!


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