Author: Julie Laing | Twice As Tasty

Learn how to eat well year-round by preserving, pickling, freezing, dehydrating, fermenting, and more at TwiceasTasty.com.

Spring Greens

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Ingredient, Using1 Comment

Hearty spring greens are delicious raw but can stand some heat. Get spring green recipes at TwiceasTasty.com.
Even in my cold mountain climate, harvesting from the garden has begun. After a winter of eating home-preserved food, I’m ready to start savoring fresh produce in my meals—and of course squirrel away tasty morsels for next season.

In our current social climate, this may be the first time you’re growing your own food, focusing on eating locally grown food, and thinking of saving your harvest for future enjoyment. If so, welcome to the club! You’ll find various ways to eat and preserve many delicious foods on the blog. I’m also continuing my sourdough starter giveaway all month for those who want to enjoy freshly baked bread with their garden goodies. In this post, I highlight some of my favorite early garden treats: spring greens.
Learn to make spring green meals and Wilted Arugula Pasta

Homegrown Hints

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn UsingLeave a comment

These gardening resources and ideas may help as you’re getting your hands dirty. Learn more at TwiceasTasty.com.
If you’re back in the garden this month—or starting a new one—you’re not alone. The Economist reports that 45% of Britons are gardening during the lockdown, and Burpee says it sold more seeds in March than any time in its 144-year history. It’s going to be a tasty season for homegrown food.

Instead of planning meals to eat on our standard spring sailing adventure, we’ve been staying home and preparing the garden. Early seeds are in the ground (greens and peas), and cold-hardy brassica starts are being tested by cold nights. We jumped the gun a bit on starts for heat-loving greenhouse plants and have fingers crossed. It’s shaping up to be a good season.

The ins and outs of growing your own vegetables is a whole other blog, but here I pass on a few resources and ideas that may help as you’re getting your hands dirty. I’ll be sharing recipes this month that use spring crops, whether you have a container garden on your patio, raised beds in your backyard, or a weekly delivery box from a local farmer.
Read more about homegrown hints

Sourdough Giveaway: Extended Edition

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Baking, Fermenting, Giveaway, TopicLeave a comment

Get your free sourdough starter and answers to some of your sourdough questions. Learn more at TwiceasTasty.com.
Sourdough Pancakes by Brenda

The sourdough starter giveaway continues! Last month, I reopened my 2020 Sourdough Giveaway. I’m extending it another month, since many people will still be in stay-at-home mode at least that long. I’ll send you free sourdough starter through May 31. Read on to get Twice as Tasty sourdough starter, as well as answers to some of your sourdough questions.
Read more about starting with sourdough

Adapting Desserts

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Baking, Freezing, Topic2 Comments

Make easy desserts and three-ingredient cookies from your freezer and pantry. Get dessert recipes at TwiceasTasty.com.
I went so big on adaptable dinner ideas last week that I decided to step back and focus on just a few favorites when it comes to desserts. At least that’s my excuse—I actually find it easy to skip dessert, far easier than running out of cheese. When I do crave dessert, I’m often just as happy with a couple of squares of dark chocolate alongside a nightcap. But the rest of my family would disagree that dessert is expendable. My dad just bragged about how since he’s buying groceries less often, he’s cut back to two desserts a day.

So for those with a sweet tooth, I highlight some recipes that can likely be made without a trip to the store. As a bonus, some take minimal prep time, and some don’t require dessert staples, like flour, that may be in short supply. I also give you the simplest cookie recipe you’ll ever find—shortbread—and plenty of ideas for gussying it up.
Learn to adapt desserts and make Improv Shortbread Cookies

Adapting Dinners

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Topic, Using1 Comment

What happens when you combine an unfamiliar ingredient, Web access, and creativity? Gluten-Free Cauliflower-Crust Pizza and other adapted dinners. Learn more at TwiceasTasty.com.
I have a confession: I often cook without recipes. Even when I use them, I alter this and change that to fit what’s in my cupboard and what I think I want to eat. And I rarely make a dish the same way twice. I mainly develop and write out recipes so that I can share my favorite foods more easily with you!

So almost every recipe on Twice as Tasty can be adapted and even free-formed. There are some exceptions: You’ll have greater success with sourdough baking and cheesemaking if you follow the recipe as closely as possible, particularly as you’re learning. For canning and fermenting for long-term storage, using the given ingredients and instructions ensures food safety. But when it comes to adapting dinners and other meals, you can typically use your judgment and experience in deciding how closely you’ll follow a recipe—like I did for my latest adaptation, Gluten-Free Cauliflower-Crust Pizza.
Learn to adapt dinners and make Gluten-Free Cauliflower-Crust Pizza

Adapting Breakfasts

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Freezing, Topic, UsingLeave a comment

Working from home, my first meal of the day is healthy, varied, and enjoyable. Get breakfast recipes at TwiceasTasty.com.
If you’ve been staying home these last few weeks, one of the biggest changes to the way you eat may be at breakfast. If you have a job outside the home, or kids to get to school, or a daily routine that start with a gym or other leave-the-house activity, you likely rush out the door with little thought for breakfast—or perhaps no food in your belly. Cooked breakfasts, and particularly family breakfasts, might be reserved for weekends or even holidays. If you want to turn staying at home to your advantage, using it to break old habits and improve routines, I can’t think of a better place to start than the first meal of the day.

That doesn’t mean you need to wake up in the morning ready to spend hours slaving in the kitchen while your family eyes you hungrily. If “slaving” is the word that comes to mind over preparing any meal, then something is out of sync. And just because you’re at home doesn’t mean you have any more time to cook breakfast than you would normally. But it does mean you have access to a fuller kitchen than is found in your car or corporate office, and you have at least some ability to stock it with a wider variety foods than will fit in your day bag or desk drawer.

As someone who has worked from home for years, I’ve found plenty of ways to make my first meal of the day healthy, varied, and enjoyable. Here are some of my go-to breakfasts at home.
Learn to make pantry breakfasts and Improv Smoothies

Staying Home

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Giveaway, Topic, Using1 Comment

Be happily occupied in the kitchen and well fed at every meal. Read more about eating well while staying home. Learn more at TwiceasTasty.com.
So much has changed in the last few weeks. As our personal worlds narrow to our homes and backyards, many of us are changing what and how we eat. Most of us are spending more time in our kitchens, cooking more often and trying new recipes. I had no trouble scratching my original plans for this month’s blog posts to focus on eating well while staying home. But with such wide variation in what’s available in stores, in backyard gardens and from local farmers, and in pantries, it’s hard to know what I should emphasize. So I’m spreading my net wide, hoping that you’ll each find something on Twice as Tasty that makes your life a little easier and more enjoyable.

Like you, I have been focusing on staying home and have been spending plenty of time in the kitchen. On the downside, we canceled our sailing adventure planned for this month. On the upside, I’m busy writing my first cookbook! Focused on pickles, it’s scheduled for release before the end of the year. Read on to discover how you might win a copy, as well as to learn more about eating well while staying home.
Read more about eating well while staying home

Quick Stock and Soup

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Topic, Using3 Comments

During your soup prep, you can make a quick stock just for your evening meal—or to share with housebound family and neighbors. Get stock and soup recipes at TwiceasTasty.com.
I always have containers of various soup stocks in my chest freezer, just waiting for me to pull out and add to risotto, sauces, bean dishes, and chowders. But even my 5.5-cubic-foot chest freezer may be a luxury in your home. That doesn’t mean you need to miss out on the benefits of homemade stock.

By tacking just a little extra time onto your soup prep, you can make a quick stock just for your evening meal—no storage required. Quick stocks have many bonuses. They suck extra flavor and nutrients out of your soup scraps. That flavor changes every time you make a quick stock, aligning with the ingredients of your soup. Your soup will taste far better than if you just poured in water and far less salty than if you used store-bought bouillon or broth. All those benefits come at the cost of a few minutes spent on prep and a few cents spent on basic ingredients.
Learn to make Quick Top-to-Root Stock and Top-to-Root Minestrone

Stocks and Scraps

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Topic, UsingLeave a comment

Top-to-root eating seems more important than ever as we think about preparing better for the next crisis. Get stock recipes at TwiceasTasty.com.
As I mentioned in last week’s blog post and at my earlier workshop at Free the Seeds, top-to-root eating focuses on savoring it all by putting tops, roots, shoots, peels, and other scraps to use. This idea seems more important than ever as we think about how we stock our pantry, plan our growing season, and in general prepare better for the next crisis.

If you haven’t explored the Recipe Index, cruise through it now; you’ll likely find plenty of new ways to use the ingredients you do have on hand. Here, I’ll highlight some ways to put what’s left after you’ve made those recipes—the scraps—to use.
Learn to make Vegetable Scrap Stock

Top to Root: Savoring It All

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Refrigerating, Using, Workshops2 Comments

In a workshop at Free the Seeds, I shared ways to eat from top to root. Learn more at TwiceasTasty.com.
What do Bloody Mary mix, carrot-top salsa, yogurt whey muffins, and roasted raspberry jam have in common? All these delicious recipes rely on ingredients that typically head straight for the compost or sink drain. In the Twice as Tasty workshop at last weekend’s Free the Seeds fair, I shared ways to eat from top to root. Here I share my notes from the workshop, which include ways to give trimmings a second life, ban “discard” from your kitchen, and ultimately look at what heads for your plate versus your compost bin in a new way.
Read more about eating from top to root