One of my favorite ways to use garlic is the simplest way: garlic bread. I cut major, major corners with this one, and have been known to just slather slices of french bread with butter and top them with loads of garlic salt, and then pop them in the oven at 250F until golden brown. 

A more elegant way to prepare garlic bread is to mince a few garlic cloves, saute the garlic in heaps of butter, and then distribute the butter/garlic mixture over the sliced bread before sticking it all in the oven. You might even want to try topping it all off with a bit of lemon zest and chives, as in the picture above. 

Reader Natalie suggests just mixing minced garlic with softened room-temperature butter before toasting, so as to avoid breaking out the saute pans. The leftover garlic butter can be easily stored for future use.  

Photo credit: 101Cookbooks.com