Homemade Fruit Leather: Most Requested

On April 20, 2023April 20, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, Dehydrating, TopicLeave a comment

Homemade jams and preserves are delicious, but they take hours my garden demands I spend weeding and harvesting. As I explain this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, freezing homegrown fruit lets me keep up with the harvest and save that haul to preserve in a different way when I have more time. Two-step preserving may seem like extra work, but it’s really a time saver when that second process needs some dedicated hours and focus, like canning jam and rolling up dried fruit leather.

Berries freeze particularly well for later preserving projects, as well as for smoothies, baked goods, and more. I always spread them on a tray for a first round of freezing to discourage clumping in the freezer bag. Again, what seems like extra work makes pulling out just a few berries for muffins or a galette so much easier. Even defrosting an entire bag for my nephew and niece’s favorite fruit leather flavors seems to happen more quickly if the berries haven’t frozen into a solid brick.
Learn to make Homemade Fruit Leather

Potato Salad with Pickles and Creamy Dressing

On April 13, 2023April 13, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, Dry storage, Ingredient, Using1 Comment

In the early 2000s, I lived in St. Petersburg, Russia, for close to a year. I’d been traveling through Europe and northern Africa for much of the year before that and was drawn to the local flavors in each country and region I visited. Russia presented an interesting dichotomy: a love of all things pickled yet little tolerance for anything spicy or powerfully flavored.

The salad and dressing recipe I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon shows how this dichotomy can be a complementary pairing, which is perhaps one reason both tangy and mild flavors were so popular in Russia. In contrast, the blend that many Westerners know as Russian dressing, which often contains chili sauce, horseradish, and other hot or sharp flavors, would have been too much for my Russian friends. They even found my homemade mac and cheese, with its dash of mustard powder, too spicy. But the tangy combination of pickled vegetables and sour cream in this potato salad was just fine.
Learn to make Potato Salad with Pickles and Creamy Dressing

Beyond Tasty

On April 7, 2023April 6, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Topic, UsingLeave a comment

I’m excited to announce that my writing endeavors have been expanding to include several new-to-me publications—and going beyond featuring recipes, cooking techniques, and kitchen tools.

When I started this food blog in 2016, I was primarily working as a freelance editor with a few writing projects for some of my editing clients. After I published my cookbook The Complete Guide to Pickling in 2020, I began writing more pieces for other publications. With the launch of my Twice as Tasty column in the Flathead Beacon in 2021, I continued to spend less time editing and more time writing. In recent months, I’ve begun to work with an even wider range of publications.

You can now find my writing and photography on Kitchn, Taste of Home, and Health.com, even as I continue to write for The Spruce Eats and my weekly Flathead Beacon column.
Learn more about my latest projects

Roasted Winter Vegetable “Grain” Bowls

On April 6, 2023April 6, 2023 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, Dry storage, Topic, UsingLeave a comment

In my area, snow and ice continue to cling to shady places and most growing spaces have yet to transition past mud to diggable soil. Spring cleanup outdoors will happen slowly for now, but indoors is a different story, as I explain this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. I’m focused on emptying my food storage spaces before the next round of growing and harvesting kicks in.

In my house, I’m making room in my freezer and on my canning shelves, both of which I filled to overflowing last year. But the main effort is to eat up dry-stored produce that has been keeping well in boxes but won’t continue to do so for long. The recipe in this week’s column uses some of these long-held homegrown vegetables, but they’re also ones that are easily attainable and affordable in grocery stores this time of year.
Learn to make Roasted Winter Vegetable “Grain” Bowls