discovered a neat trick today that was "a ha!" enough to remind me of that sage-frying one: turns out you can carefully, gradually, evenly and deeply brown slivered garlic in a mix of olive oil and chile-infused oil until it's the color of almond skins, a sort of gnarled mahogany, to give it a unique, deep flavor without the bitterness of the burnt stuff (i'm not talking about the standard italian sauce-ready brownish-red-tipped pan-fried-for-under-a-minute type of thing). handy! still only takes about 10 minutes, but you have to be watching it vigilantly the whole time. it smells wonderful--once you've got that down you don't need to season the meat you're combining it with beyond the standard salt and pepper, maybe some fresh parsley as a topping, and it will still smell and taste more special than a weeknight dinner normally does. it's all i can do not to prematurely eat my share of the supper i made earlier today for tonight, it smelled so good cooking.