Signs of maturity

This is a memory of garlic.
Long ago, in a distant place and time, when the earth was filled with mist...
OK, back when I lived in the Seattle area...

I once made this really awesome dip many of you have had frequently in the intervening years... artichoke crab dip. Right? It calls for the following.

Crab
artichoke hearts (or bottoms)
Parmesan cheese
Mayonaise
Garlic

With those ingredients who could object (or go wrong)?

So Paul has this little sister. At the time, she was little only from the waist down, but she was still in school at the University of Washington and I was no longer in college so she was '"little."
I made this dip and she said she wanted the recipe.
Crap. I do not use amounts... for instance, what if the only Parmesan you have is from a green can? Use more.
What if the garlic is Italian and very strong. Use less.
But in the absence of such intuition, I decided on a healthy but edible number of cloves to recommend... seven.

Away she went to her dorm room. Where she didn't know that a head of garlic and a clove of garlic are not the same thing. So she made the dip and added seven heads.

Then she went outside. It turns out that being in the room with the dip brought tears to one's eyes. It was inedible.

Nora related this story to me last summer at a Toober reunion in West Seattle. 'Course at the time she was sleeping with her Ex, who was married to the girl he cheated on her with.

I wanted to say she's learned a lot since then, but let's just say, she knows a clove of garlic.