Category: Workshops

Twice as Tasty Turns 4

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Canning, Cookbook, Event, Fermenting, Workshops3 Comments

Twice as Tasty turns 4 this month! Read more about what’s new at TwiceasTasty.com.
I can hardly believe it: Twice as Tasty turns 4 this month! It’s been a year of growth and change, particularly with my focus in recent months on writing my first cookbook. But the blog and Twice as Tasty Live have grown in other areas as well, with a jump in online readership, an explosion of interest in baking with sourdough, and more workshops focused on eating well year-round.

Thanks for being part of the journey—your interest, questions, and feedback keep me returning to my computer each week to share new recipes, techniques, and ideas. Many of these can be found in the ever-growing recipe index. If you’ve been following along steadily, let me jog your memory with a few of the year’s highlights. If you’re new to the blog or have missed some of the latest news, here’s your chance to catch up. Skip down the page for more on what’s in store for the rest of the year.
Read more about what’s new at Twice as Tasty

Top to Root: Savoring It All

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Refrigerating, Using, Workshops2 Comments

In a workshop at Free the Seeds, I shared ways to eat from top to root. Learn more at TwiceasTasty.com.
What do Bloody Mary mix, carrot-top salsa, yogurt whey muffins, and roasted raspberry jam have in common? All these delicious recipes rely on ingredients that typically head straight for the compost or sink drain. In the Twice as Tasty workshop at last weekend’s Free the Seeds fair, I shared ways to eat from top to root. Here I share my notes from the workshop, which include ways to give trimmings a second life, ban “discard” from your kitchen, and ultimately look at what heads for your plate versus your compost bin in a new way.
Read more about eating from top to root

Free the Seeds

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Topic, Using, WorkshopsLeave a comment

Top-to-root eating is at the heart of Twice as Tasty. Learn more at TwiceasTasty.com.
Are you ready for Free the Seeds? It’s on its way! The 5th annual fair is happening Saturday in Kalispell, Montana. You can find the details here.

As one of the members of the organizing committee for this free event, I’ve been busy talking about it all over town and on the air. I’ll be presenting just one of the two dozen workshops at the fair, so if you’re local, I hope you’ll join me. But if it’s too far to travel, don’t worry: all this month, I’ll be expanding on my Free the Seeds workshop right here on the Twice as Tasty blog.
Read more about Free the Seeds!

Obsessively Orange

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Baking, Event, Topic, Using, Workshops2 Comments

Naturally orange foods are loaded with carotenoids, so they taste good and make you feel good. Learn more at TwiceasTasty.com.
Happy Halloween! It’s not every year that the final day of birthday month (yes, birthday month) and Halloween align with a Twice as Tasty post day. But you won’t find any cake cutely decorated with Oreos or candy corn here. Instead, I was inspired by the “Halloween” display at Vashon Bookshop when I visited the island earlier this month. The theme was simple: all orange book covers. At first glance, it might seem like an obsessive—or lazy—way to dress a table, but perusing the titles revealed a fabulously varied trick-or-treat bag of goodies.

So today I highlight some recipes featuring, or easily altered for, orange foods. I also suggest some workshops you should consider attending or scheduling in your own home over the next few weeks that will put some extra flavor in your holiday season.
Read more about orange obsessions—and winter workshops

Eating Well Outdoors

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

When I plan an outdoor adventure, I start with what’s in my garden. Learn more at TwiceasTasty.com.
I divide my summer free time fairly evenly between gardens and sailboats. But before I became hooked on sailing, I spent many summer days in hiking boots. I returned to those on-foot adventures last weekend, spending 3 days in Glacier National Park covering 19 miles while climbing and then descending 4,500 feet.

Besides a return to gorgeous vistas and sore muscles, the weekend brought me back to the enjoyment of eating well even at 6,000 feet. I’ve always been convinced that meals out of a pack, kayak, canoe, car, camper, or sailboat don’t have to feature Ramen, instant rice, or even ever-improving yet increasingly expensive pouches of freeze-dried dishes. When I plan an outdoor adventure, I start with what’s in my garden and how I can bring it fresh, dehydrate it, or otherwise process it so that it can be incorporated into a woodland, mountain, or ocean meal plan.
Read more about eating well outdoors

One Prep, Two Meals: Couscous

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Ingredient, Using, WorkshopsLeave a comment

Quick meals don’t get any easier than boiling water, pouring it over couscous, and adding fresh veg and canned beans. Get couscous recipes at TwiceasTasty.com.
Hopefully you’ve been inspired by all of this month’s recipes to look beyond leftovers and use the one prep–two meals formula. If couscous isn’t a staple in your pantry, this week’s post may surprise you as much as risotto did last week. But once you try these recipes, you’ll stock up on couscous for plenty of quick, easy meals. Just as fresh pasta outshines dried in any meal, instant couscous can’t compete with semolina grains steamed in stages in a couscoussière. But for quick meals at home, in the woods, or on the water, it doesn’t get any easier than boiling water and pouring it over the couscous. Add some fresh veg and canned beans, and you have lunch and dinner ready in a snap.

Speed and ease are just two of the beauties of the recipes you’ll find here. As I shared with more than a dozen sailors in a workshop this week, the two recipes here can spawn many days of meals cooked in a galley or over a camp stove and grill: I always travel with several heads of preroasted garlic to serve on grilled pizza, sandwiches, and other meals. The extra half-batch of chermoula can be used as a shrimp marinade. Bonus cans of chickpeas can be mashed into hummus. Extra veg can be grilled or sliced for dinner sides or between-meal snacks. And homemade feta disappears so quickly into hungry mouths you could never travel with too much.
Learn to make Vegetable Couscous with Chickpeas and Feta and Couscous Salad with Raw Vegetables

Twice as Tasty Turns 3

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Event, WorkshopsLeave a comment

Twice as Tasty is now 3! Read more about what’s new at Twice as Tasty.
It’s hard to believe Twice as Tasty is now 3 years old. Like a quickly growing child, it seems that just yesterday this blog was taking its first baby steps. But a scroll through the recipe index makes the 3-year growth spurt clear. Whether you’ve just found this blog or have been part of the core group of supporters, thank you for joining me on this adventure.
Read more about what’s new at Twice as Tasty

Learning to Eat Well

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

Want to get a jump-start on the summer season? Take a Twice as Tasty workshop. Learn more at TwiceasTasty.com.
It’s time: Uncover beds, clean up the garden, thin the berry patches, pull the season’s first weeds, and plant seeds and starts. Gardening season has begun.

Although your mind might be reeling with the to-do lists that will get your garden up and running, give a little thought to where its bounty is going: table, fridge, freezer, pantry, and more. I’ve already loaded the blog with lots of information to help you enjoy what you’ve grown—now and later. But you’ll get an even bigger jump-start on the season with a Twice as Tasty Live workshop. You’ll learn more, faster, among friends, and with my personal help. This week’s post highlights some of the best workshops to get on your calendar this summer. As days grow longer, my schedule gets tighter, so pick your topics and contact me soon to set up your personalized workshop for the summer season.
Read more about learning to eat well

Summer Vegetables

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Canning, Dehydrating, Fermenting, Freezing, Grilling, Topic, WorkshopsLeave a comment

Summer means filling bellies not just with the freshest produce possible but also with preserved vegetables the rest of the year. Learn more at TwiceasTasty.com.
If your garden isn’t in full swing yet, it’s about to be. Even here in Montana, with our long winters and short growing season, spring produce is beginning to wind down: Lettuces and spinach will soon be bolting, the asparagus crop has tapered off, and the strawberry bed has been picked nearly clean. In their place, summer produce is ready to burst forth, launching itself into the annual race to grow faster than I can harvest and process.

If you’ve been following along on Instagram, you’ve seen how I deal with spring’s vegetable bounty: #dailysalad. But with a large garden, summer vegetables need a different approach. The next few weeks are not just about filling bellies with the freshest produce possible but also about preserving those vegetables so that they can fill bellies the rest of the year. Here’s how I’ll be spending the next few weeks.
Read more about enjoying summer vegetables year-round