Sweet Potato-Mushroom Salad

On December 7, 2023December 7, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, saladsLeave a comment

The sweet potato salad I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon is one of those recipes that has cycled in and out of my diet over the years. I started making it more than 20 years ago, when it became a go-to, packable workday lunch. After I moved to Montana, I stopped making it as my garden grew. I haven’t been successful in growing sweet potatoes or mushrooms, so my root-vegetable salads shifted to homegrown potatoes with fresh and pickled vegetables.

I brought this salad back to my menu when we started multiweek sailing trips. This salad has become one of my staples for launch day. I make it the night before, keeping the dressing separate, so that it’s ready to eat after we hoist sails and start cruising away from the mainland. It makes a large enough batch and keeps well enough in our ice chest that the leftovers can be enjoyed as a second meal a day or so later.
Learn to make Sweet Potato-Mushroom Salad

Vegetarian Mushroom Gravy

On November 16, 2023November 18, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, saucesLeave a comment

Earlier this month, a friend asked if I had “no-fail, hearty amount holiday gravy recipe for incompetent gravy makers.” It might seem like a tall order for someone who has always preferred cranberry sauce to gravy, even before giving up turkey, but I actually have a recipe that fits the bill: a mushroom gravy that comes together quickly, thickens effortlessly, can be made ahead and reheated just before the holiday feast, can be easily made in a double or trip batch, and bursts with flavor. I share it this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon and for the first time here on the blog.

You can certainly serve this gravy with any holiday meal. It’s so tasty that the carnivores and vegetarians at the table will all thank you. I primarily make it to serve on poutine with homegrown oven-fried potatoes and homemade fresh cheddar curds. It would also be delicious on a lentil loaf or meatloaf, mashed potatoes, or roasted root vegetables.
Learn to make Vegetarian Mushroom Gravy

Seared Shrimp in Garlic Oil

On November 9, 2023November 18, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, fresh eatingLeave a comment

We grill outdoors year-round, but not every evening is ideal for stepping out and firing up a chimney of charcoal. On icy nights when I don’t want to be more than a few steps from the woodstove, I pull out the recipe I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. I think of seared shrimp bubbling in hot oil as a Spanish dish because it reminds me of meals I enjoyed in Spain’s tapas bars. This dish is incredibly simple to make, and if you always keep a bag of raw shrimp in the freezer and a head of garlic on the counter, you can make it on a whim.

I like to serve these shrimp over Cinnamon Couscous, a recipe I picked up on my travels in Morocco, as a quick fusion meal. You can also simply cut some hunks of Sourdough Cabin Bread or the crusty white baguette in my new sourdough guide for the The Old Farmer’s Almanac website and dip them into the oil to munch alongside the shrimp, tapas style.
Learn to make Seared Shrimp in Garlic Oil

Roasted Golden Beet and Garlic Salad

On October 19, 2023November 18, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, saladsLeave a comment

I plucked my first beets in August, but somehow I always think of them as a fall crop. Earlier in the summer, I toss them into all sorts of mixed-vegetable recipes and no-recipe-required meals. They then become pickles when a large batch is ready; they keep so well in vinegar that I included four beet recipes, from quick to canned, in The Complete Guide to Pickling. Yet I often wait until fall to make the salad I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon.

The wait is primarily for our apples to fully ripen. Even though I like slightly tart ones in this salad, the ones on our trees typically have a starchy, chalky texture when picked too early. If you’re buying apples or grow ones that ripen early, this salad really can be made with the season’s first beets.
Learn to make Roasted Golden Beet and Garlic Salad

Beer-Infused Potato Chowder

On October 12, 2023November 18, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, soupsLeave a comment

When I made a batch of potato, beer, and cheese soup so that I could take photos for my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, I immediately knew I’d have to write about my favorite potato varieties: The photos showed the rosy tone imparted by throwing a couple of my favorite red-fleshed potatoes into the pot.

Ever since we started growing them, we’ve been fans of Terra Rosa potatoes for their prolific plants, creamy flesh, and long storage life, with their pure red coloring inside and out a fun bonus to growing and eating them. They look so pretty alongside white-, yellow-, and purple-fleshed varieties when chopped into a potato salad or breakfast hash. But expect their bright color to also shine through in homemade gnocchi, mashers, and this week’s beer and cheese chowder recipe.
Learn to make Beer-Infused Potato Chowder

Sunshine Risotto

On September 15, 2023November 18, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, grains1 Comment

The risotto recipe I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon started out as a from-the-freezer meal. It tastes of summer, but the grated and frozen summer squash, burst yellow tomatoes, and dried basil and parsley aren’t nearly as photogenic as fresh, barely cooked tomatoes and thin slivers of fresh squash and herbs. I altered my original recipe just so I could photograph the fresh dish, and it’s become a summertime favorite, especially when I’m cooking for family or friends.

My column includes both the fresh and the frozen versions, with the steps for adding fresh ingredients in the recipe and notes in the header for making this risotto in winter. Sungold, yellow pear, and other cherry-size tomatoes are so easy to freeze: just give them a rinse and pop them in a freezer bag. For summer squash, you’re getting the prep out of the way by grating and freezing. Drying herbs is simple, especially if you follow these tips. With these ingredients in your freezer and spice rack, along with homemade vegetable stock, this risotto becomes a sunny midweek, midwinter meal.
Learn to make Sunshine Risotto from fresh or frozen vegetables

Tzatziki (Cucumber Yogurt Sauce)

On September 7, 2023November 18, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, sauces1 Comment

Yogurt makes a fantastic base for dips, sauces, and dressings—especially if you ferment it yourself. It adds both a creamy and tangy flavor and can be thinned or thickened as needed. I often sneak a few tablespoons into recipes that lack it or instead use mayonnaise or sour cream, such as Roasted Garlic Hummus and other bean dips, quiche, and sourdough pancakes.

It can also play a more dominant role, such as in Dill-Infused Yogurt Sauce or Dressing, Indian-Inspired Shrimp in Yogurt, and the recipe I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon: the cucumber yogurt sauce or dip commonly known, even in America, as tzatziki.
Learn to make Tzatziki (Cucumber Yogurt Sauce)

Panzanella (Tomato and Bread Salad)

On August 24, 2023November 18, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, salads4 Comments

If you grow your own vegetables, spring salads feature shades of green: various lettuces, herbs, asparagus, scallions, and peas. Late-summer salads burst with color, but most of my lettuces have bolted by the time tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and red onions are ready. At least that’s my excuse for replacing greens with chunks of homemade sourdough bread that can soak up the tomatoes’ juices and oil-and-vinegar dressing.

I share my favorite variation of panzanella, a tomato and bread salad, this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. It’s heavy on late-summer and early-fall vegetables and herbs, but I also throw in cheese and Kalamata olives. If your garden or farmer’s market features other produce, you can swap in plenty of other ingredients, drop the cheese for a vegan option, and replace the olives with capers or skip them altogether for less tang.

For a solo lunch, I use this recipe as a guideline when piling all of the ingredients straight into the bowl I’ll be eating from, only stopping when I reach the end of the list and the bowl is overflowing. The key is to start with a base of bread and tomatoes and build from there.
Learn to make Panzanella (Tomato and Bread Salad)

Summer Rolls with Lime-Chili Sauce

On August 11, 2023November 18, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, fresh eating2 Comments

I grow enough vegetables to cook and squirrel away much of the harvest for winter, but the best part about the summer growing season is rolling all of those fresh flavors into daily meals. This means literally rolling them together in the recipe I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon.

Summer rolls have just a couple of cooked ingredients—noodles and perhaps a protein—but the rest of the filling and wrapper remain raw. This makes them ideal not just for at-home meals when you want to minimize oven time but also at a picnic, on the water, and anywhere else you can spread out some fresh vegetables and set up a rolling space. Summer rolls taste and hold together best when there’s minimal time between rolling and eating. So when we want to enjoy summer rolls on a lake cruise, I cook up the noodles and shrimp and mix the dipping sauce at home, cut up vegetables either before I leave the house or before we start rolling, and have everything spread out to grab and roll before I dampen the first wrapper.
Learn to make Summer Rolls with Lime-Chili Sauce

Pasta That Pops

On July 27, 2023November 18, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, grainsLeave a comment

We typically choose cherry tomatoes for fresh dishes, but they’re delicious when preserved and cooked. The easiest way to save cherry tomatoes is to freeze them, as I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, along with my favorite way to cook cherry tomatoes and intensify their tart-sweet taste.

You can make this week’s pasta sauce with other tomatoes, fresh or frozen, but it won’t “pop” as the skins burst and you may want to stir in a tablespoon of honey or sugar at the end if the tomatoes aren’t as sweet. Larger tomatoes may also release more juice—which means you’ll need more of them to end up with the same volume of sauce and they’ll take longer to cook down. When freezing larger tomatoes to cook into pasta sauce, soup, or stew, you can cut them in chunks and bag them by weight. It takes a little more time than freezing them whole, but tomato chunks need far less freezer space.
Learn to make Pasta That Pops