Category: Using

A Little Sweetness

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

Recipes with a little sweetness use what’s in season and in your pantry. Learn more at TwiceasTasty.com.
I’m going to keep this post short, because my mind is still buried in pickles and my forthcoming cookbook. You’ve been hearing about it vaguely for months, and official announcements, giveaways, launch party invites, and more are on their way to newsletter subscribers and blog followers in the coming weeks. (But since you’re reading this, you may want to check out the preorder page on Amazon.) And next month, I’ll be sharing recipes directly from the book.

In the meantime, I thought a break from pickles might be good for me—and you. So this month, I’ll be sharing some sweeter recipes that use what’s in season and in your pantry.
Read more about a little sweetness

One Prep, Two Meals: Grilled Peppers

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

Grilled peppers upgrade many quick, easy meals. Get one prep, two meal recipes at TwiceasTasty.com.
If you search through the blog’s recipe index, it quickly becomes obvious that grilling and smoking are my favorite ways to prepare peppers. Sure, raw peppers add a crisp, sweet flavor to everything from salads to summer rolls. But quickly cut free their cores and place them on a hot grill, and you have an immediate upgrade to salsas, sauces, kebabs, black bean burgers, and even canning projects. Set them on a grill over low heat and smoking woodchips, and you can smoke chilies until they are dry enough to store for winter use or just enough to puree them into my favorite chili paste.

For many of these uses, I’m grilling bumper crops of peppers until I run out of coals. But you can enjoy the same intense flavor with just a pepper or two for a weeknight meal. Better yet, make room for just a little extra veg and you can prep two meals at once. I lean toward pasta on the grilling night: I multitask by cooking the pasta while I’m prepping or monitoring the grill, and then I make a creamy sauce base while I’m waiting for the peppers to cool enough to peel. The next night, all I need to do is chop up the grilled veg before stirring it into batter for savory pancakes.
Learn to make Creamy Grilled Bell Pepper Pasta and Grilled Pepper Pancakes with Goat Cheese

From Garden to Oven

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Topic, Using4 Comments

You can put the heat on unexpected spring vegetables, like lettuces and radishes. Get garden-to-oven recipes at TwiceasTasty.com.
When the first vegetables grow big enough to harvest from the garden, I’m usually focused on enjoying them raw and fresh: leafy greens and herbs, green onions and garlic, radishes and peas. But as the recipes I’ve shared this month have shown, you can think beyond salads, garnishes, and snacks and actually cook these vegetables, whether they’re wilted over pasta or baked into a quiche.

You may already serve some spring produce, like asparagus and rhubarb, hot and sizzling. But it may never have occurred to you to put the heat on other vegetables, like lettuces and radishes.
Learn to cook spring vegetables and make Balsamic-Roasted Radishes

Quiche

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

Quiche is a bit more work than frittata, but it has its upsides too. Get quiche and frittata recipes at TwiceasTasty.com.
When I prepared to share this recipe, I was surprised to realize it would be my first quiche on the blog. It’s one of my favorite springtime dinners: the hens are back to a full laying schedule no matter how cold it was over winter, spring greens and herbs are ripe for the picking, and asparagus is growing by inches every day.

Quiche is a bit more work than frittata, because you have to make and roll out a crust. It also takes longer to cook, because you’re letting the eggs slowly set up in the oven. But it has its upsides too. Because the eggs cook slowly, they come out more like custard, whereas frittata has a tendency to set up more like hard-scrambled eggs and can burn on the bottom of you aren’t careful. The pastry helps to hold everything in place, which can make it easier to enjoy leftovers for a quick breakfast or pack them for lunch. And then there’s the pastry itself: if you’re making one crust, it’s the perfect excuse to double the recipe and bake a crumble-top pie. If you can’t justify a whole pie to yourself, the trimmed edges of the quiche crust can be rerolled into one of my favorite childhood snacks.
Learn to make Spring Vegetable Quiche and a bonus snack