Tangy, Garlicky Mashed Potatoes

On November 27, 2025November 27, 2025 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, dry storedLeave a comment

The garden has been tucked away, with one final visit this week to pluck spinach blanketed by our first real snow. We’re finishing off the last of the box-ripened tomatoes too, and my meals have started to feature dry-stored fruit and vegetables: apples, cabbage, carrots, beets, squash, and potatoes.

The mashed potatoes recipe that I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon lands nicely on a Thanksgiving or other holiday table. Although still a starchy side dish, potatoes taste lighter when mashed with vinegar instead of cream. The vinegar, roasted garlic, and chives pack flavor into these potatoes, so vegetarians can skip the turkey or beef gravy or contrast the tang with rich mushroom gravy or tart homemade cranberry sauce. To make these mashed potatoes vegan—and extra fluffy—use extra-virgin olive oil instead of butter.
Learn to make Tangy, Garlicky Mashed Potatoes

Homemade Pumpkin Gnocchi

On October 30, 2025October 30, 2025 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, dry storedLeave a comment

Look online for gnocchi recipes, and you’ll find all sorts of variations on the classic potato dumplings, from easy substitutes like sweet potato to more unexpected ones like spinach, ricotta, or semolina. Of the replacements I have tried, I have the most success with pumpkin and other winter squash, as I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon.

Culinary experts who prefer store-bought pumpkin puree to homemade for pie generally give the same recommendation for gnocchi. But with repeated draining and the right accompanying ingredients, Roasted Winter Squash Puree works as successfully in dumplings as in Creamy Roasted Pumpkin Pie. A 3-pound sugar pumpkin or other squash usually creates enough puree for a batch of gnocchi.
Learn to make Homemade Pumpkin Gnocchi

Homemade Pan-Fried Potato Gnocchi

On October 24, 2025October 24, 2025 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, dry storedLeave a comment

It can be easy to write off certain recipes as too much work, but sometimes the effort really is worth it. That’s how I feel about the detailed recipe for gnocchi that I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. When I crave gnocchi, only the scratch-made version satisfies me.

Gnocchi take both hands-on and rest time, and even with a large batch, the results only last a couple of meals—although they do freeze well. Once I start the project and get my hands right in the dough, I find it soothing to feel how it comes together and to repeat the roll, cut, and imprint process until I have dozens of neat rows of dumplings lined up on baking sheets.

Potato gnocchi also became more fun to make when I found just the right balance of ingredients and techniques to use my homegrown potatoes yet keep them light and fluffy. When testing showed that a local chef’s recommendation to pan-fry the dumplings produced less gummy gnocchi than boiling, along with a lightly crisped surface, making gnocchi became one of my favorite rainy day kitchen projects.
Learn to make Homemade Pan-Fried Potato Gnocchi

Homemade Triple Sec (Orange Liqueur)

On August 14, 2025August 14, 2025 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, dry storedLeave a comment

Who spotted that two Twice as Tasty columns went live on the Flathead Beacon website last week? I think the staff members were too excited about Homemade Triple Sec to keep the recipe to themselves any longer. If you spotted the article and have already started a batch of the orange liqueur, you’re on your way to using it in the cocktail recipe I’ll share next week.

If you didn’t jump on the recipe, now’s the time. Triple sec is easy to make but needs about 3 weeks to infuse the citrus flavors into the alcohol. Once you have a bottle in your liquor cabinet, it keeps well for many months. I start to infuse a fresh batch well before I run out of the liqueur so that I always have some at hand and don’t have to resort to a cheap corn syrup–based commercial bottle or splurge for an expensive one.
Learn to make Homemade Triple Sec (Orange Liqueur)

Vegan Oven-Baked Beans

On March 27, 2025March 27, 2025 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, dry storedLeave a comment

I dare you to make the recipe for baked beans in this week’s Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon and tell me you can’t taste the difference between it and a store-bought can of baked beans. That can might be convenient, but it has nothing on the flavor and texture of beans you bake yourself in the oven. The canned version probably wasn’t even baked; instead, it was boiled or steamed before being tossed in sauce and sealed.

Good baked beans are a multilayer process. The techniques I shared earlier this month for Brined and Seasoned Pot Beans help to speed up the steps and intensify the flavor of the final dish. I pair these with my favorite shortcut when cooking dried beans at home: using one pot of cooked beans as the base for several distinctly different meals.
Learn to make Vegan Oven-Baked Beans

Brined and Seasoned Pot Beans

On March 20, 2025March 20, 2025 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, dry storedLeave a comment

When people tell me they never cook dried beans, their most common excuse is that it takes too much time. I get it. When I need a quick dinner, I often pop open a store-bought can of beans. But the more I cook dried beans, the more I savor the improved texture and expanded variety compared with commercially canned beans. The techniques for preparing dried beans that I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon play a big part in my preference for home-cooked beans.

I make the best beans when I soak them for at least 6 hours in a cold-water brine and then simmer them on the stovetop. They keep their plump shape and have a consistent, creamy interior once cooked. I sometimes quick-soak them in warm brine or cook them in a pressure cooker, but only when I don’t mind that the skins will split.
Learn to make Brined and Seasoned Pot Beans

Sweet Spice Mix

On March 6, 2025March 6, 2025 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, dry storedLeave a comment

We had such fun playing with spices in my Free the Seeds workshop last weekend. Attendees watched as I toasted, ground, and bloomed a spice blend, and then they sampled the results on Zesty Baked Chickpea Snacks. Afterward, I could smell the aroma of the spices emanating from the classroom almost all of the way down the college building’s long hall. I hope I made the people attending the next workshop in that space hungry and curious.

The curious can find the handout from my Seeds of Flavor workshop here. I share a bonus spice blend recipe this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon.
Learn to make Sweet Spice Mix

Zesty Baked Chickpea Snacks

On February 27, 2025February 27, 2025 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, dry storedLeave a comment

Shell beans and other legumes form such a versatile and nutritious food group that we should all be eating more of them. They go in everything, whether blended into smooth, creamy hummus; softened in hearty soups; or left whole and slightly chewy in salads. It was only a few years ago that I discovered they also can become crunchy homemade garnishes and snacks ready for all sorts of seasonings, as I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon.

I’ll be using a variation on this week’s recipe to demonstrate the magic that happens when you toast, grind, and bloom spices in my free Seeds of Flavor workshop at Free the Seeds this weekend. Join me Saturday, March 1, in Kalispell in Flathead Valley Community College’s Arts and Technology Building. The free daylong event will be packed with workshops, a giant seed giveaway, booths hosted by local farmers and organizations, and a special keynote speaker to celebrate a decade of this fabulous educational and family-friendly gathering. Find all the info you need (like the full workshop schedule) on the website of the event’s organizer, Land to Hand Montana.
Learn to make Zesty Baked Chickpea Snacks

Homemade Roasted Seaweed Snacks

On February 6, 2025February 6, 2025 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, dry storedLeave a comment

I’m planning to share some crispy snack food recipes this month in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. They’re great for those days when you can’t seem to get rid of the munchies but aren’t really hungry. I often make them before road trips, when it’s easy to plow through a whole bag of potato chips as dull miles of endless farm fields roll by.

My crispy homemade snacks are healthier than that bag of chips, seasoned for flavor, and made from ingredients available year-round. The ones I share this week pare down sheets of seaweed into bite-sized squares—just like the roasted seaweed snacks that have become popular on grocery store shelves but without all of that single-use plastic packaging. Making your own lets you control the flavor too. I often make mine from the scraps left after trimming the sheets down for homemade sushi rolls.
Learn to make Homemade Roasted Seaweed Snacks

Potato, Mushroom, and Spinach Curry

On December 6, 2024December 6, 2024 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, dry storedLeave a comment

Many of my most popular workshops began as requests from readers, including one of my favorites: Indian Spices: Marvelous Masalas. The techniques I share apply to all sorts of spices, whether you’re making a spice mix for pumpkin pie or one for a curry. You can get a taste of these techniques in the recipe I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon.

The blend of spices that go into this curry recipe often feature in preground masalas, but here the whole spices are mixed directly into the dish for bright bursts of flavor. Whole spices hold onto their flavor far longer than ground ones, so transitioning to keeping whole ones in your kitchen not only lets to grind them at home in small batches that stay fresh and fragrant but also gives you a ready unground supply for curries, pickles, your own spice blends, and more.
Learn to make Potato, Mushroom, and Spinach Curry