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, 2024May 16, 2026 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, potatoesLeave 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

Homemade Vanilla Extract

On May 10, 2024May 10, 2024 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, dry storedLeave a comment

I’ve been working on pieces lately with recipes that are so simple but that have become more common as store-bought items for most people, including salad dressings, herb salt, and the latest recipe in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon: homemade vanilla extract. Beyond all of the reasons I give in my column for turning vanilla beans into extract, I’ve found that the process essentially acts as my vanilla bean storage system, keeping the expensive pods from spoiling.

Most grocery stores sell vanilla beans a pod at a time, the long, thin, dark shape tucked into a vial. Depending on how well it’s been sealed, the bean might be oily and pliable or dry and brittle. Sellers recommend keeping the bean as packaged until you need to use it but airing it out if you still have it 3 to 6 months later. I hadn’t realized how crucial this was until a friend who had bought oily, pliable vanilla beans in a vacuum-sealed pack opened the bag one day to find they had molded. But if you store the beans in alcohol, they not only create vanilla extract for you but also stay mold free. Just make sure they’re completely submerged.
Learn to make Homemade Vanilla Extract

Salt-Preserved Herbs and Herb-Infused Salt

On May 2, 2024May 10, 2024 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, dry storedLeave a comment

If you’re a fan of flavored salts, for your own kitchen or to give to others, the recipe in my latest Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon is for you. Herb-infused salts are so simple to make, can be flavored with almost any homegrown herb, and keep a year or more. You can use them like plain salt when cooking or at the table, or you can intentionally showcase them as a finishing salt on any dish, sprinkling them on just before serving.

You can also swing the salt-and-herb pairing the other way, with more emphasis on using the herbs than the salt. Whole herb leaves preserved in salt stay soft and pliable, letting you use them like fresh leaves long after their parent plants have died back and gone dormant under a blanket of snow. The salt keeps bacteria and mold at bay and picks up hints of the herb’s flavor, remaining usable after you’ve pull the last leaf from the jar.
Learn to make Salt-Preserved Herbs and Herb-Infused Salt

Bagna Cauda-Style Mashed Potatoes

On April 12, 2024May 16, 2026 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, potatoesLeave a comment

This time of year, I’m always pairing what remains of last season’s harvest with the first of spring’s perennial edibles. As they push through the ground and show off their bright green tops, I can’t help but snip a handful at a time onto whatever I’m trying to use up from dry storage or the freezer.

That approach to homegrown produce applies to this week’s Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. In my unheated mudroom, the last of the potatoes that we dug and cured in October have begun to sprout in their storage box, an old, lidless cooler with a few shims in the bottom to allow air circulation and a towel thrown over the top to keep the light out and the potatoes from turning green. They’re still firm and ideal for mashed potatoes. The final garlic heads and onion bulbs are also trying to sprout but haven’t softened. All it takes is a sprinkling of the emerging onion tops cut from perennial walking onions to make the storage vegetables worthy of a spring meal.
Learn to make Bagna Cauda-Style Mashed Potatoes

Russian Kasha (Multigrain Hot Cereal Mix)

On February 15, 2024March 15, 2024 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, dry storedLeave a comment

Some recipes act less as precise instructions that need to be followed to successfully complete a dish and more as reminders for the possibilities that can be created. I share one of the latter recipes this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon.

When I adopted hot cereal into my regular meal schedule, the mix of grains I used opened up options for a range of recipes. I rarely bother to measure out portions these days, just combining the various grains by sight to come up with a blend that I not only cook into Russian kasha but also dehydrate for granola and use as a rolled oat replacement in other recipes. The various flakes add more flavor and texture than a single grain and can be easily and affordably combined at home.

Learn to make Russian Kasha (Multigrain Hot Cereal Mix)

Maple-Glazed Carrots

On November 22, 2023November 22, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, dry storedLeave a comment

My Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon went live early this week so that you have ample time to add its recipe to your Thanksgiving meal. Maple-Glazed Carrots slide in easily among traditional dishes, offering a hint of sweetness and touch of spice without overfilling a plate or adding excessive time to your prep. Their simplicity belies their flavor, which is rich enough to nestle against more complex holiday dishes or gussy up a weeknight meal.

Because they’re made in one pan on the stovetop, they don’t need space in an oven already claimed by a Thanksgiving turkey, dressings, or pies. Best of all, if your feast numbers swell and you have a bag of carrots in your refrigerator, you can glaze them quickly using kitchen staples and add this stress-free side dish to the holiday spread at the last minute. If you just bought carrots with their tops intact, take a nibble of their greens: Those that were recently harvested and remain sweet can be blended into a delicious herb salsa garnish.
Learn to make Maple-Glazed Carrots

Golden Onion and Potato Frittata

On November 2, 2023May 16, 2026 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, potatoes1 Comment

I was served my first frittata, an Italian dish, by a Spanish woman while I was visiting a Greek island. I loved the meal so much—and it’s affordable price on a backpacker’s budget—that I ate frittata daily during my stay.

Visualize this baked egg dish as a crustless quiche or open-face omelet. When I make it today, the core ingredients remain the same each time I enjoy it. I share that basic recipe this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, but it’s just the start to what you can put into a frittata. During my initial weeklong frittata fest, the chef layered tomatoes and basil, peppers and greens, or eggplant and summer squash over this base, always with feta mixed in. At home, I might use mushrooms, arugula, asparagus, spinach, carrots, and chard, swapping in whatever cheese seems to fit best.
Learn to make Golden Onion and Potato Frittata

Brine-Braised Breakfast Potatoes

On March 9, 2023May 16, 2026 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, potatoesLeave a comment

Two questions come up often when someone lets me ramble on about pickling and fermenting: What do you do with all of those pickles, and what do you do with the leftover brine and whey? In my Twice as Tasty column this week for the Flathead Beacon, I give the basic answer for both questions: Use it.

Pickles can be more than snacks and condiments. I have so many uses for pickles that I created a special recipe collection, The Pickled Picnic, to accompany my pickling cookbook. Once I empty a pickle jar, it still holds brine, a fabulous ingredient for sautés, salad dressings, and more. When I make yogurt and cheese, the leftover whey has multiple uses, giving a two-for-one punch to every gallon of milk I buy.
Learn to make Brine-Braised Breakfast Potatoes

Mason Jar Gifts: Mixed-Bean Soup

On December 8, 2022May 16, 2026 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn beans, Column, soups2 Comments

Every December, I share ideas and recipes that make delicious food gifts. These ideas have ranged from tags and bags to suggestions for food gifts that include homemade treats, kitchen tools, and of course my books.

This year, I’ve added to the food gift ideas with a meal-in-a-jar recipe in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. It was surprisingly straightforward to adapt one of my favorite fresh soup recipes so that it could be gifted in a jar, ready to by pulled from the cupboard and made on a chilly night with minimal added ingredients. It still packs all of the flavor of the fresh recipe without relying on salt-heavy bouillon cubes or store-bought seasoning blends. It’s also easy to scale up or down for larger or smaller households and to make multiple jars to cover everyone on your gifting list.
Learn to make Mixed-Bean Soup as a mason jar gift