Garlic chives on the cheap

Garlic can overwhelm many delicate foods such as eggs or potatoes. To get just a hint of garlic flavor, many cooks turn the garlic chives in their herb garden. But what if you live in a condo or apartment with no garden to call your own?

You don't need to plant a clump of chives to get that teaspoon or so of flavor. If you've let your garlic go a little too long in the refrigerator and it has started to sprout, put a clove or two in some potting soil in a little pot on a sunny window sill. Or if your sill is full of houseplants already, nestle a clove in each pot. 

Soon those sprouts will send up slender spears of deep green. When the straws (the leaves are so named because like chives, they are hollow) are about 4" long, trim them down to about an inch above the clove, and snip them into your egg dish or on top of baked potatoes.