Best DIY Salad Dressing

On September 24, 2022September 22, 2022 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Topic, UsingLeave a comment

After the heat of summer sent lettuces bolting, recent cool fall temperatures and rain mean salads are back. If you don’t grow your own salad fixings, you may not have noticed the shift from sweet, tender greens to bitter, coarse leaves. But home gardeners will be well aware of the change and have transitioned from lettuce-based salads to ones featuring heat-tolerant or late-season vegetables.

In a piece for Clean Pates earlier this summer, I shared my technique and ratio for making a collection of salad dressings. Even if you don’t grow salad greens, I’m a firm believer that you should make your own dressings. Among disappearing food traditions, one of the most lamentable is scratch-made salad dressing. As Mark Kurlansky writes in The Food of a Younger Land, “What could better spell the beginning of the end than bottled salad dressing, the manufacture of a product that was so easy to make at home?”

Easy is right: Using a basic ratio, you can make so many dressings. A pinch of this and dab of that completely change a dressing’s flavor. My technique clocks in under 60 seconds, and I can now eyeball the proportions without even dirtying measuring spoons.
Learn to make the Best DIY Salad Dressing

Crunchy Cabbage Salad

On September 23, 2022September 22, 2022 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, Ingredient, UsingLeave a comment

Growing cabbage always presents challenges. In my short growing season, each plant produces one head but doesn’t really have enough time to form a second flush. It has a big garden footprint, and I have to protect it under a cover all season if I want to keep cabbageworms and loopers from calling it home. Some varieties need to be harvested midsummer, when everything else is begging for attention in the garden, so I need to check carefully for number of growing days to ensure a long, extended harvest.

Is it worth it? Clearly I’ve answered yes, because as I share in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, I now grow several cabbage varieties. Some I enjoy fresh, especially as young, raw leafy greens. Others I ferment to have on hand all winter. But my favorites remain the raw crunchy heads that I shred for salads.
Learn to make Crunchy Cabbage Salad

Drying Fresh Herbs

On May 19, 2022May 19, 2022 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, Dehydrating, TopicLeave a comment

Almost everything I cook has a fresh or dried herb in it—and even if you barely cook, I’d bet you have at least a couple of jars of dried herbs in your kitchen. But as I explain this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, drying fresh herbs yourself, whether homegrown or store-bought, is an easy DIY project that will result in far better flavor and cost far less than commercially packed jars of dried leaves.

The column focuses on tips that will help you successfully dry a range of fresh herbs, but the first step may be to grow your own. Many herbs grow well in pots on a windowsill or deck. If you have more space, you can plant many types of perennial herbs now and see them pop up on their own year after year. Some can even grow until they produce seeds that you can save to cook with or to replant, such as fresh cilantro and its seed, coriander. And like sourdough starter, herbs love to be used: the more you cut them to use fresh or to dry, the more they grow and produce.
Learn about drying and using herbs

Home-Spiced Nuts

On December 23, 2021March 28, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, Topic, UsingLeave a comment

I love home-spiced nuts at the holidays. I reach for them long after I’ve tired of the endless sweetness of cookies, and they’re just as tasty on a cheese and pickle platter as a eaten straight from the jar with a cocktail.

The recipe I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon not only explains how to make your own spiced nuts but also gives you plenty of options. From my favorite homemade sweet-and-spicy blend, to a premixed garam masala, to an infused salt variation, there are ideas for every occasion.
Learn to make Home-Spiced Nuts and my Sweet Spice Mix