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

Loaf-Pan Lemon Cake

On March 13, 2025March 13, 2025 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn cakes, ColumnLeave a comment

The recipe this week in my Twice as Tasty column on the Flathead Beacon website was intended for another Beacon publication: the Flathead Valley Family magazine. The latest edition of the magazine—in all its printed-page, glossy glory—hit the valley’s streets about a week ago. It includes an article that I filled with kid-friendly recipes, with the help of some of my favorite kid chefs.

My “Cooking with Kids!” feature offers breakfast, dinner, pickle, and cookie recipes all easily made by kids (with adult help, depending on the head chef’s age and experience). Be sure to pick up a printed copy of Flathead Valley Family or, if you’re not local, check out the full article online.

The Russell, Steck, and Van Ness families had so many great ideas that I knew we wouldn’t fit all of the recipes in the printed space. I tested and perfected this lemon loaf cake recipe anyway, and the Beacon’s media director, Hunter D’Antuono, took mouth-watering pictures of it during our photo shoot. My niece, who was making cheese with me at the age of 4, is an experienced-enough baker in her middle school years to make this cake on her own.
Learn to make Loaf-Pan Lemon Cake

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

Shaved and Roasted Carrots with Harissa

On February 21, 2025February 21, 2025 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, fresh eatingLeave a comment

Most of the snack recipes I’ve been sharing recently in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon benefit hugely from seasonings, but only with a light hand. Sheets of roasted seaweed and kale baked until crisp easily turn soggy, enough to make them chewy or fall apart, if you introduce too much oil or liquid.

This week’s recipe turns carrots shaved thin with a peeler or mandoline into slightly crisp strips that handle moist seasonings better than fragile leaves. The sturdy root vegetable won’t fall apart even when you toss it with olive oil, maple syrup, and harissa, a North African chile paste.

I included a recipe for my version of this traditional chile paste in my cookbook, The Complete Guide to Pickling. It takes just 10 minutes of hands-on time to make and lasts several months in the refrigerator. It’s worth keeping on hand because its so versatile, giving a little heat to everything from brined olives to grilled shrimp. It’s also a classic flavor in Harira (Moroccan Tomato Lentil Soup).
Learn to make Shaved and Roasted Carrots with Harissa

Oven-Roasted Kale Chips

On February 13, 2025February 13, 2025 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, fresh eatingLeave a comment

It took me some time to become a fan of kale. When I was a kid, it hadn’t yet been popularized by the clean-eating crowd, so my dad never grew it. As an adult, every time I bought a bundle at the grocery store, it seemed overly chewy and fibrous—one of those vegetables you’re supposed to eat because they’re good for you but you don’t really enjoy. It wasn’t until I started growing kale in my own garden and harvesting young, tender leaves that I became hooked on its many varieties.

As I explain this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, an easy way to make kale crisp and chewable—whether the leaves are young and soft, larger and fibrous, or starting to wilt in the fridge—is to roast it. Even the toughest leaves take on a delicate, crispy texture once you remove them from their ribs and bake them as chips. They’re so fragile that when the chip container is empty, tiny flakes remain behind, along with some of the sesame seeds I used as seasoning. I sprinkle these on popcorn to savor every last bite.
Learn to make Oven-Roasted Kale Chips

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

Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls with Buttermilk Glaze

On January 31, 2025January 30, 2025 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, sourdoughLeave a comment

As the 8th Annual Sourdough Month comes to a close, it seems appropriate to end on a sweet note. This week’s recipe is also the culmination of the mother doughs and recipes I’ve been sharing in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon all month. I’ve now shared multiple ways to shape and bake each mother dough: dinner rolls, buns, crescents, loaves, and now cinnamon rolls.

Each mother dough isn’t just adaptable on its own; they’re often interchangeable depending on whether you want a richer, buttery dough or a sweeter, softer one. To put it simply, you can make delicious cinnamon rolls with either Sourdough Brioche Dough or Sourdough Crescent Dough.

Learn to make Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls with Buttermilk Glaze

Sourdough Crescent Dough and Rolls

On January 23, 2025January 23, 2025 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, sourdoughLeave a comment

I originally hadn’t intended to share more than one mother dough during the 8th Annual Sourdough Month in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. But I’ve been playing with a second dough recipe this year that received such accolades when I shared it with friends and family that I couldn’t sit on it until next January. What started as a homemade yeast dough recipe that I then converted for sourdough was popular not just with sourdough lovers but also with those who grew up eating pop-can dough baked into crescent rolls.

I wasn’t one of those kids. When I was young, the only time we twisted open a can of poppin’ fresh dough was around a campfire, where it was a special treat to wrap it around a thick stick, hold it over the open flame until it baked and browned on the outside, and then slide it off and fill the finger-size gap left in its center with jam or cheese. So my memories of the flavor of store-bought crescent roll dough are overpowered by the smell of woodsmoke and a taste closer to wood-fired pizza. I was quite prepared to shape my Sourdough Brioche Dough into crescents and leave it at that.

Learn to make Sourdough Crescent Dough and Rolls

Sourdough Brioche Loaves

On January 16, 2025January 16, 2025 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, sourdoughLeave a comment

With this week’s Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, you now have several ways to shape the brioche mother dough I’ve been focused on so far this month. The first technique shapes the dough into round rolls or slightly flatter buns, which bake freeform on a flat pan. You could turn the dough into larger freeform loaves and bake it the way you would Sourdough Cabin Bread, but such a buttery dough can make a melted mess of a baking stone. So the recipe I share this week bakes the dough in loaf pans—and it works particularly well in a covered Pullman pan.

I own two 1.5-pound Pullman pans from different companies. Both have a corrugated bottom and sides to help improve airflow and reduce condensation, but one also has a perforated bottom. When baking sourdough brioche bread and other buttery recipes in the perforated pan, I line it with parchment paper to keep butter from dripping through onto the floor of the oven.

Learn to make Sourdough Brioche Loaves