Great olive oil

Let me clue you in, my friends, on my favorite olive oil trick. Everybody has one of these bottles lying around, right? If you don't, you should, you can get them at the dollar store so there's really no excuse. We buy extra virgin olive oil at BJ's. I'm not talking the gas can size here, just a large bottle, and we fill up this olive oil bottle from that. Here's what I do:

1. Never fill it more than halfway up. Since these don't really seal closed if you don't use it a lot the olive oil can get stale tasting.
2. Peel 2 large cloves of garlic and cut them in half, or a size that will fit easily into the top of the olive oil bottle and out again. It does get softer sitting in the oil so it comes out easily. Drop them in.
3. Add 1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano and 1/2 teaspoon dried basil to the oil. I like to pour it in my hand and smoosh it between my fingers before I add the dried stuff. It releases the oils in the herbs before you add them to the oil.
4. If you have access to fresh basil throw in 2 or 3 leaves as well.
5. Cover the top of the spout and lightly shake the oil. Trust me on the covering the top part... and the lightly part... yeah...

Now, at this point the oil can be used but it's not going to be really flavorful yet. It takes about a day before you can smell the garlic when you pour the oil. Use as you normally would until you are almost out of oil, then add a new clove of garlic (leave the old ones in for now) and refill the bottle halfway up. I do this every time I fill the olive oil bottle until I'm out of olive oil in the big bottle we got at BJ's, then I dump out all the garlic and start anew.  The oil is wonderful for cooking, grilling, bread dip, pour it over ice cream, whatever. Enjoy!

PS. Seriously, never ruin ice cream like that.