Mashers

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

Everyone has a favorite mash, but you can please them all with 5 or fewer ingredients. Get mashed potato recipes at TwiceasTasty.com.
Happy Thanksgiving! Hopefully your kitchen smells warm and spicy and you have many hands at work preparing the day’s spread. This foodie holiday holds many memories for me—from family gathered around Grandma Tiny’s table to “orphans” meals with friends to today’s version with family and friends and the hope that snow will be in the air. It’s been 25 years since I’ve eaten the main attraction of the table, but it remains a celebration—probably because I easily fill a plate before the turkey passes by.

I rarely think of mashing potatoes outside the holiday season (unless I want to use up yogurt whey). Instead, I bake them, roast them, and braise them; I turn them into salad, soup, curry, and gnocchi. Perhaps it’s the cranberries—a dollop sits so beautifully in a pile of mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes. So when these tart berries are in season, the potato masher comes out to play.
Learn to make Tangy Potato Mashers and Sweet Potato Mashers with Coconut Milk

Fall Beverages

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

Need cold and hot nonalcoholic beverages for your next gathering? Look no further than Golden Milk and Switchel. Get beverage recipes at TwiceasTasty.com.
I first tasted golden milk at a yoga retreat in Costa Rica. Who knew that a warm beverage would be so delicious in that hot, tropical climate? But it was the perfect drink to follow an intense day of working our bodies.

When I moved from just writing about good food on the Twice as Tasty blog to making it for live events, I needed cold and hot beverages, alcoholic and nonalcoholic, to fit every season and occasion. Golden milk immediately came to mind as a warm, alcohol-free brew. I enjoyed it under the hot sun, but it’s just as delicious for fall holiday family gatherings and parties when snow is coming down. For home use, I make just the paste and keep it on hand so that I can make a mug or two at a time. For a gathering, you can prepare a full batch; place it on the table next to a chilled switchel, and you’ll find people happily swapping between the two.
Learn to make Golden Milk and Switchel

Pumpkin Pasta

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Dry storage, Ingredient, Using5 Comments

Pasta–pumpkin combinations are overlooked but fabulous weeknight or special meals. Get pumpkin pasta recipes at TwiceasTasty.com.
When I told George I was planning to share pumpkin pasta recipes this week, his reaction was, “Nice, I always forget about pairing pasta and pumpkin.” It’s a combination even I tend to overlook. Growing up, pumpkin was reserved for jack-o’-lanterns and pie, and other winter squash was served “on the half shell,” drowning in butter and brown sugar. But these winter staples store so well you should have a collection to use in many sweet and savory dishes all winter: cookies, quick bread, soup, risotto—and pasta.

I offer two variations on pumpkin pasta here, one suited to a weeknight meal and a fancier plate that takes a bit more time to put together. I encourage you to look more at the techniques and think outside the ingredients listed in the recipes. Any firm-fleshed winter squash can be used in either recipe, and aromatics, alliums, herbs, cheeses, and pasta shapes can all be changed to suit your tastes. Whatever you use, orange winter squash creates a delicious pasta meal.
Learn to make Pasta with Roasted Pumpkin and Parmesan and Pumpkin–Goat Cheese Ravioli with Butter–Nut Sauce

Multibatch Canning

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Canning, Dry storage, Grilling, Topic2 Comments

Call it impressive or call it procrastination: We sealed up 85 jars of goodness on Sunday. Learn more at TwiceasTasty.com.
Winter came early to Montana this year. The first flakes started coming down at home September 28, while we were sailing in Canada’s Gulf Islands. By the time I got home a month later, more snow and single-digit mornings were just days away.

It made for some interesting fall garden cleanup and canning. We managed to dig the last of this year’s carrots and beets and stuff next year’s garlic before the pre-Halloween storm, but we had to wait until last weekend to do the final round of canning with apples, tomatoes, and tomatillos. Call it impressive or call it procrastination: We sealed up 85 jars of goodness on Sunday. Read on for more about multibatch canning and boxing vegetables on the cusp of winter.
Read more for canning tricks and storage tips

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

One Prep, Two Meals: Potatoes

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

Potato bowls travel well and fit my one prep, two meals plan. Get potato recipes at TwiceasTasty.com.
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

Tomatoes

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Canning, Freezing, Ingredient3 Comments

Grilling and preserving pair perfectly, and their advantages stretch far beyond flavor. Get grilled tomato recipes at TwiceasTasty.com.
You’ve probably noticed that I love grilled vegetables. I also love home-canned goods, and the techniques of grilling and preserving pair together perfectly. The advantages of grilling for canning stretch far beyond flavor, particularly for tomatoes.

Grilling combined with freezing makes it easy to start processing vegetables as they ripen throughout the growing season, making preserving seem more like a habit than a chore. During tomato season, we pull the ripest fruit from the vine every few days. That evening, we fire up the grill and cook off a rack or two of tomatoes; the hot halves go straight into a colander set over a large bowl to drain off the juice—usually while we’re enjoying a grilled dinner. Once they’re cool, I pour the separated solids and juice into separate containers, weighing and labeling each before adding them to the freezer.

When the freezer’s full, I have two products ready for processing: solids and juice. Because the juice was drained off, any sauce or salsa doesn’t have to cook for hours to thicken. Because the solids have already been pulled out of the juice, I can quickly apply it to any recipe, from beverage to soup. In just a couple of hours, I can have several canner batches processed for long-term storage. The freezer is ready for the next round of preserving, and the canning shelves are full of delicious fire-roasted flavors.
Learn to make Grilled Tomato Pasta Sauce and Tomato Juice Soup

Pears

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Canning, Ingredient1 Comment

Lower-sugar, fruit-forward spreads easily last a couple of weeks in the fridge once open. Get pear recipes at TwiceasTasty.com.
Over the years, I’ve experimented with many ways to preserve pears. They don’t keep as well in dry storage as apples, and I rarely used them when frozen, so they don’t yet have a home on my quick-save list. Dehydrating works well if you want them for backpacking or snacks. My mom always canned them in syrup when I was growing up, and when I have a bumper crop I’ll put up a few jars in brandy syrup or lightly sweetened pickle brine.

Mostly I save pears as preserves. The first time I made marmalade with ginger and pears, I followed a Ball recipe that used 1 part sugar to 2 parts fruit and found it to be overly sweet. I’ve since discovered that because the natural acidity of pears makes them safely shelf stable, the sugar primarily keeps the jam from molding once it’s open and sitting in the fridge. By melding Ball’s recipe with other lower-sugar versions, I came up with a fruit-forward marmalade that easily lasts a couple of weeks in the fridge once open, as well as a jam that pairs pears with tart cranberries.
Learn to make Pear–Ginger Marmalade and Pear–Cranberry Jam

Quick Saves

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Canning, Dehydrating, Dry storage, Freezing, TopicLeave a comment

This primer brings together ways I quickly save the last rounds of in-season veg. Read more about quick-save vegetables. Learn more at TwiceasTasty.com.
As the growing season winds down, I get plenty of questions about what to do with the last weeks of homegrown harvests and the last crops from farmer’s markets. By now, you’ve likely eaten your fill of your favorite fresh dishes and processed your favorite canned and frozen goods. If you’re like me, you’re torn between wanting to be done with the labor of weeding and harvesting and wanting to capture those last few tomatoes, those last few broccoli stalks, to enjoy after snowfall.

I’ve already shared many of my favorite ways to save excess and end-of-season produce. This month, I’ll continue to share some of my favorite fall canning recipes. But this week, I wanted to bring together in one post some of the ways I quickly save the last rounds of in-season veg.
Read more about quickly saving vegetables

Traveling Snacks

On By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Topic, Using1 Comment

Crunchy cravings when you’re not really hungry can be satisfied with simple home-baked snacks that are healthy and delicious. Get homemade snack recipes at TwiceasTasty.com.
Do you ever get the craving to just crunch on something even when you’re not hungry? Or find yourself reaching for a bag of potato or tortilla chips when you’d rather munch on a healthier snack? These cravings are what drew me to seaweed snacks, particularly when I’m on a full-day road trip and just eating because I’m bored of being behind the wheel.

Although I quickly developed a love for packets of toasted, flavored, seaweed chips, I just as quickly found I hated the excessive layers of packaging used to keep them whole during transport and on store shelves. They require few ingredients and no special equipment, so I soon began making my own. Then I decided to take it a step further: Could I satisfy my crunchy craving with something from the garden instead of seaweed, which I have to buy? Kale and chard chips became easy homegrown substitutes. Now I tend to make some of each, particularly when I’m prepping for a road trip or sailing adventure, to keep a mixed bag of flavors within reach.
Learn to make Homemade Seaweed Snacks and Roasted Kale Chips