Potato, Mushroom, and Spinach Curry

On December 6, 2024December 6, 2024 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, dry storedLeave a comment

Many of my most popular workshops began as requests from readers, including one of my favorites: Indian Spices: Marvelous Masalas. The techniques I share apply to all sorts of spices, whether you’re making a spice mix for pumpkin pie or one for a curry. You can get a taste of these techniques in the recipe I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon.

The blend of spices that go into this curry recipe often feature in preground masalas, but here the whole spices are mixed directly into the dish for bright bursts of flavor. Whole spices hold onto their flavor far longer than ground ones, so transitioning to keeping whole ones in your kitchen not only lets to grind them at home in small batches that stay fresh and fragrant but also gives you a ready unground supply for curries, pickles, your own spice blends, and more.
Learn to make Potato, Mushroom, and Spinach Curry

Spinach Salad with Cranberry Sauce Dressing

On November 28, 2024November 28, 2024 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, saladsLeave a comment

Cranberry sauce goes on so many dishes on the holiday table that it’s always worth making extra. If you have more left over than you anticipated, the recipe I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon converts the sauce into a salad dressing.

I love the tartness of cranberries so much that as a teenager, I would thin cranberry sauce with oil and vinegar to make a personalized salad dressing right at the Thanksgiving table. The dressing and salad recipe in my column simply formalizes the process. So you don’t have to wait for leftovers to enjoy it. If you made Orange-Infused Cranberry Sauce to serve with your feast and have a palate-cleansing salad to accompany the meal, whip up this dressing straightaway.
Learn to make Spinach Salad with Cranberry Sauce Dressing

Orange-Infused Cranberry Sauce

On November 21, 2024November 20, 2025 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, saucesLeave a comment

As you shop for your Thanksgiving feast, pick up a bag of fresh cranberries and an orange to make the sauce that I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. It’s about one of the easiest upgrades you can put on the Thanksgiving table, and you can prepare it far enough in advance that it doesn’t take up stovetop space on the big day.

Homemade cranberry sauce goes with all of your holiday leftovers, but I also use it as the base for a salad dressing that can be served with the holiday meal or for weeks afterward for a fresh-greens fix. I’ll share that dressing recipe and a salad to put it on in next week’s column, so if you want to serve these on Thanksgiving Day, add a second orange, shallot, red onion, spinach, almonds, and blue cheese or feta to your shopping list.
Learn to make Orange-Infused Cranberry Sauce

Baked Rice Pudding

On November 15, 2024November 15, 2024 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn baked, ColumnLeave a comment

Rice pudding tops my list of easy desserts that can be made from kitchen staples and leftovers. I prefer the baked version that I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon over a stovetop pudding that more closely resembles a porridge in texture. Baking achieves the same creaminess but provides more structure in each bite. As a bonus, the dish prefers to be left untouched while in the oven, whereas you need to keep an eye on stovetop rice pudding and stir it occasionally to prevent it from burning.

The name is a bit of a misnomer, because this dessert has more of the features that define a custard than a pudding. The starchy rice does provide a little thickening power, but it’s really the eggs that make rice pudding set up properly. That’s partly why it puffs slightly in the oven and then deflates again as it cools. Rice pudding also has the firmer texture associated with custard, especially when it’s baked in the oven, rather than the softness of a pudding.
Learn to make Baked Rice Pudding

Mixed Vegetable Stir-Fry

On November 7, 2024November 15, 2024 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, fresh eatingLeave a comment

Stir-fry, the technique and the dish, seems so straightforward and adaptable to so many ingredients that you don’t need a recipe. But a quick Web search pulls up endless recipes and varied methods for making them. Some geek out with tools like a wok burner, blow torch, or outdoor grill to mimic the ultrafast, high-heat smokiness achieved by a commercial range. Others vie for the title of easiest stir-fry by tossing sautéed vegetables with store-bought teriyaki sauce.
Whether you trend toward geeky or easy on the stir-fry scale, the recipe I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon fits into your regular meal rotation. It runs through the essential dos and don’ts and includes a quick, flavor-packed homemade sauce. The fresh vegetables you use make each one-dish meal unique.
Learn to make Mixed Vegetable Stir-Fry

Crispy Pan-Fried Tofu

On October 31, 2024October 31, 2024 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, fresh eatingLeave a comment

When I see recipes that aim to make tofu crispy, I’m often surprised by the various ingredients and effort applied—and even more surprised when I find they don’t achieve the desired effect. As I explain this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, the process of making tofu crispy is simple. It requires just two ingredients, tofu and oil. It can be broken into just four key steps: remove excess moisture, use a hot pan and splatter shield, leave space around each piece, and wait to flip the tofu until it releases easily.

When I make tofu in this way, it comes out perfectly crisp every time, whether I’ve cut the tofu into cubes for a stir-fry, thick rectangles for a satay, or flat slabs for a sandwich. I typically reach for my largest cast-iron skillet, but any well-seasoned or nonstick pan that can be safely set over medium-high heat does the job. I prefer a mesh splatter shield to a silicone one; the latter tends to collect condensation that then drips back into the hot oil.
Learn to make Crispy Pan-Fried Tofu

Smashed Bean Pasta

On October 24, 2024October 24, 2024 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, grainsLeave a comment

We often put a meaty protein on pasta—fish and shellfish, chicken breast, all sorts of meat ground and shaped into meatballs. Yet we tend to overlook the pairing of pasta and beans, a prime vegetable source of protein. Whereas Mexican restaurants have made rice and refried beans an American staple and the Southern population has long served up red beans and rice, the Italian tradition of pairing pasta with beans hasn’t caught on.

That will hopefully change in your household with this week’s recipe in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon. It’s an easy, filling meal that can be made at the last minute from ingredients in the pantry. Leave off the cheese for a vegan version, and pile in olives for a little zing. By smashing some of the beans, they find their way, along with the tomato juices, into the pasta’s holes and pockets.
Learn to make Smashed Bean Pasta

Tomato–Basil Mac and Cheese

On October 18, 2024October 18, 2024 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, grainsLeave a comment

Mac and cheese lands firmly in my comfort food category, and I do my best not to feel guilty about biting into that cheesy, gooey pasta—especially when I make a pan that feeds eight people for our household of two. As I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon, one way I decrease the guilt factor while boosting the flavor is to load vegetables into the dish. This works in summer and fall with the garden harvest and in winter and spring with homegrown produce that I preserved for just such uses.

In fact, I originally wrote this recipe for frozen cherry tomatoes, frozen cubes of basil pesto, and grilled and frozen onion. Sometimes I use home-canned tomatoes instead or, when I deplete my stash, store-bought cans of diced tomatoes. Dried basil works well too. Still, when you have fresh in-season options, they give the best flavor and the prettiest meal.
Learn to make Tomato–Basil Mac and Cheese

Hot and Sour Shrimp and Noodle Soup

On October 11, 2024October 11, 2024 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, soups2 Comments

This week’s Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon takes the recipe from the prior week, Hot and Sour Broth Base, and walks you through one of my favorite ways to turn it into a full-fledged soup. Just looking at the photo makes me want to fix a bowl for lunch today.

That’s easily done: At lunchtime, I’ll rehydrate a couple of dried shitake mushrooms in hot water and thaw a few shrimp in cold running water while I gather the other ingredients. Cubes of broth base and Homemade Shrimp Stock pulled from my freezer go straight into the pot, as do the noodles. A handful of shrimp take seconds to peel, and I’ll add their shells to the bag in my freezer awaiting my next stock-making day. Shallots, garlic, and cilantro also take seconds to prep in such a small amount. By the time my prep is done, the mushrooms will be soft and I can fill the soup pot, with lunch ready in about 15 minutes.
Learn to make Hot and Sour Shrimp and Noodle Soup

Hot and Sour Broth Base

On October 3, 2024October 3, 2024 By Julie Laing | Twice As TastyIn Column, frozenLeave a comment

The recipe I share this week in my Twice as Tasty column for the Flathead Beacon is all about the balance between effort and result. When you make real meals from scratch, the result can be phenomenal. But those meals usually take more effort than an off-the-shelf substitute.

I’ll always remember one of the comments I saw about my first recipe in the Flathead Beacon, 30-Minute Tomato Soup. Someone was appalled that it would take so long to make tomato soup when she could just pop open a can and heat it in the microwave. She completely missed the point of the recipe—and to this day is likely missing out on its rich flavor.

That reader will likely be just as snarky about this week’s recipe, even though its point is to achieve the equivalent of popping open a soup can by doing the bulk of the work ahead of time and keeping a hot and sour soup base in the freezer. But if you make that advanced effort, the result tastes amazing, even if all you do is heat up a couple of frozen cubes in a mug of stock.
Learn to make Hot and Sour Broth Base