About Garlic

Here is an indepth Wikipedia article on garlic and here are some suggestions I have for using garlic.
A useful guide to growing your own garlic can be found here.

For most uses garlic should be pressed and for that a good garlic press will be needed.
You can mince it finer, all the way to a sautée, if you wish.
The easiest way to remove the skin from garlic cloves is to smack them with a mallet.
I use a short piece of 2x4.
The skin then pretty much falls off as seen here.

Fresh whole garlic is a powerful aromatic seasoning.   Used raw it has a sharpness that in some
dishes is desirable.   For other dishes you may want to blunt this sharp edge and there are a few
ways to accomplish this.   Just sautéeing in oil for a minute or two, which is often the opening
move in cooking, will do this.   Roasting a whole pod of garlic at 400F (200C) for forty to forty
five minutes will caramelize the flavor and color it beautifully while softening the cloves to a
spreadable consistency at the same time.   Serious garlic lovers enjoy spreading the roasted
garlic on toast rounds and eating them just as they are.   For a nice presentation cut the stem
end of the pod off with a serrated knife before roasting.   Any foam that bubbles out of the pod
and then hardens should be discarded as its taste will be harsh.

Simmering unpeeled cloves in water for ten or fifteen minutes will soften the flavor so much
you may want to use ten cloves where you are used to using two. However, the garlic is not
just diminished in strength; When the sharp and perhaps harsh edge is gone the underlying
flavor is revealed in a way that many find quite pleasing.
If you are using garlic powder the conversion is three minced garlic cloves are equivalent
to one half teaspoon garlic powder.
And finally, here is a poem about garlic.