In the words of Cab Calloway, “Everybody eats when they come to my house.” As I mentioned when sharing my cover story in last week’s blog post, I’ve joined one of our local newspapers, the Flathead Beacon, as a food columnist. My first Twice as Tasty column was published this week under a headline from Mr. Hi-De-Ho’s swinging song. You can find it in this week’s print edition or read it online here.
Read more about my new food column
Tag: meal planning
One Prep, Two Meals: From the Grill
Earlier this week, as I prepped for a boat-based spin on my Fine Dining: Front Country workshop, I was reminded how much I love grilled meals. Especially when I can create two dinners from one prep session. And especially in the middle of a heatwave.
This month, I’ll be sharing recipes perfect for blazing summer days. They require minimal stovetop time and instead have you firing up the grill. They also let you maximize your summer playtime by prepping the next night’s meal, using the same base ingredients but putting a new spin on their flavors. Instead of eating tiresome leftovers, you’ll enjoy a fresh dish with minimal added effort.
Read more about one prep for two meals from the grill
Choosing Grilling Vegetables
At the peak of harvest, the biggest challenge when firing up the grill is choosing what to put on it. Do I want to roast that basket of peppers or let them sit longer to develop more color? Should I work through those giant bowls of tomatoes and tomatillos? Did I harvest eggplant, or broccoli, or corn? Is there extra room for vegetables that will keep longer, like onions, beets, and garlic, but would be tasty tonight?
When the pace of harvest slows, the question often becomes, What can’t I put on the grill? The answer is surprisingly little. From fruit to breadsticks and pizza to fish, it all tastes delicious when cooked over coals. Vegetables by far make up my largest grilling category. Hopefully this list will remind you of favorite options and inspire you to try new ones.
Read more about choosing grilling veg
Fired Up
This time of year, I’m always fired up about preparing food on the grill. Just this last week, I was grilling sourdough pizza aboard the Blue Mule and smoking cherries to infuse in bourbon and to pickle. Although I throw plenty of more traditional foods on the grill, like shrimp and fish, I increasingly fill my beat-up Weber kettle grill with vegetables and fruit.
The Twice as Tasty collection of grilling and smoking recipes has grown large enough that I recently broke it into its own category on the Recipes page. But many preparations are so simple and adaptable that once you get the hang of how your grill or smoker handles produce, you’ll realize you don’t need a recipe and can use the tool to prepare multiple meals and even frozen or canned treats.
Read more about grilling and smoking your harvest
Taking Stock
Growing food has been on my mind: I’ve been busy prepping for a sprout-growing workshop this week and organizing next month’s Free the Seeds event. You too are probably noticing the steady march toward spring as bright seed catalogs arrive regularly and storage vegetables beg to be front and center in your meals. Now’s the time to take stock of what you’ve saved from your last growing season, particularly what you’ve used and what’s left.
Read more about taking stock of stored food
Winding Down Year 4
Twice as Tasty will officially turn 4 next June, but the approaching end of 2019 has me reflecting on the past year and pondering the directions to take the blog and Twice as Tasty Live in the year to come. It seems that this past year was all about settling in: The blog has found its rhythm, and the models I’ve developed for workshops and other live events keep them running smoothly. (Read on, and you’ll see what I mean.) Things are running so smoothly that I’m tossing around ideas that will put more on the 2020 table. (Skip down the page to read about the year to come.)
Read more about what to expect in 2020
One Prep, Two Meals: Potatoes
A surprise project has me taking a break from preserving recipes this week: Waggoner Cruising Guide decided to publish a Twice as Tasty recipe. It’s online now and will appear in the annual guide and a cooking ebook next year. I’m so excited to share Twice as Tasty food with cruisers that this week’s post includes a paired recipe that I often make when we’re on the water.
The Waggoner Guide is considered the bible for Pacific Northwest cruising. It’s flagship tome, updated annually, has been guiding marine travelers for 25 years. You’d be hard-pressed to find a boater from the Puget Sound to Alaska who doesn’t have a copy.
For Waggoner, I chose a recipe that I make almost every time we spend a few days aboard a sailboat: potato bowls. This variation on stuffed baked potatoes doesn’t need an oven. They also fit my one prep, two meals plan, with extra potatoes rolling into a next-day salad with minimal effort. And some prep tricks make both dishes ideal for outdoor adventures.
Learn to make Potato Bowl with Black Bean Sauté and Quick Potato Salad
One Prep, Two Meals: Risotto
Risotto may seem like an unlikely candidate for the one prep–two meals formula: it has a reputation as a fancy meal that requires time and special care. But if you keep the right rice on hand and understand the basic technique, it simply becomes another fabulous way to stretch leftovers—and impress your friends at the same time.
These recipes build on the ratios given in Fresh Improv Risotto. So if you’ve already made versions of that recipe, or participated in one of my risotto workshops, familiarity will make your meals come together quite quickly. If you have yet to experiment with risotto, follow the recipes here and then check out the improv post for other risotto ingredient ideas.
Learn to make Garden Risotto and Last-Minute Shrimp Risotto
One Prep, Two Meals: Fish
If we’re lucky, Monday nights are free nights in summer: we are home and can prepare and enjoy a meal without other obligations or projects. It’s the one night of the week that I might make a more labor-intensive meal, like fish cakes. But I always know Tuesday will be a picnic before racing sailboats, and a bit of extra prep Monday night means I have a second meal ready to grab and go.
These fish cakes call for some chopping and mincing and two stages of cooking, but they’re worth the effort. The first time I served batches at a house concert, the host said I could have made three times the amount and the platter would be emptied. They’re less greasy than fried fish cakes and more flavorful than potato-based ones. The recipe here easily serves 4, which means I can reheat the leftovers later in the week. To avoid eating the same meal two nights in a row, I set some fish aside and prep a marinade and the extra vegetables while the fish cakes are cooking. On Tuesday, grilled skewers require minimal effort.
Learn to make Mediterranean Fish Cakes and Grilled Fish Skewers
One Prep, Two Meals
In my corner of northwest Montana, July 4 is the unofficial start to tourist season. The University of Montana’s Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research reported that more than 2.4 million people visited Montana last July—more than double the state’s population—and that half of those visitors entered Glacier National Park, Yellowstone, and a long list of other stops. Those numbers downshift quickly: By October, there are again more residents than visitors in the state.
Like these tourists, I try to cram as much as possible into this short summer season, both in the garden and on a sailboat. I’m harvesting and processing at least 3 times a week and sailing just as often. This requires some intensive scheduling and as many shortcuts in the kitchen as possible.
One of my key tricks is to prep once and eat twice. I’m not just talking leftovers, although I make plenty of oversize meals to reheat later in the week. Instead, my “one prep, two meals” plan creates two separate meals from similar base ingredients and freshens them with new flavors. It’s the easiest way I know of to avoid feeling like you’re eating the same meal day after day yet speed up later-meal processes.
Read more about one prep for two meals
