My go to recipe for brining turky is Alton Brown’s Good Eats Roast Turkey brine. It is the #1 searched recipe on the food network site. With good reason. It works. Always.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/good-eats-roast-turkey-recipe/index.html

Ingredients

• 1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey

For the brine:

• 1 cup kosher salt
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 gallon vegetable stock
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped candied ginger
• 1 gallon heavily iced water

For the aromatics:

• 1 red apple, sliced
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 cup water
• 4 sprigs rosemary
• 6 leaves sage
• Canola oil

Directions

*Personally I omit the ginger in the brine and the rosemary in the aromatics. I love rosemary in beef recipes but I am just not fond of it on turkey.

I also like to use butter and fresh sage leaves under the breast of the turkey to create a really lovely looking bird. It looks wonderful on the Christmas table decorated with additional apples and sage leaves on a large platter.

I bbq my turkey in a disposable pan on the Traeger or Egg. I like to capture the pan drippings & juices to form the base for my gravy. The temperature should be 450-500F to begin and then I lower it after the first 45 minutes to 275/300F. I like to use oak and hickory or apple and pecan pellets or wood chunks.  I keep an eye on the color of the breast and if it starts to get a little dark I cover it with foil. Alternatively you can ice the breast first before it hits the grill. Fill up two Ziploc sandwich bags with ice and place on the breast leaving them there for an hour before you grill. This will significantly lower the temperature of the breast.  The reason is pretty simple dark eat and white meat don’t necessarily finish at the same time.  You want the breast to be 165F when finished and the dark meat to be 180F. Lowering the temp of the breast slows down its cooking time.

Heres a great video on how to carve a turkey:

I like to serve my turkey with whipped potatoes, my sweet potato casserole, grilled parsnips, gravy, cranberry sauce, bread, butter and another favorite of mine Stuffing Stuffed Acorn squash & Grilled Brussel sprouts:

Stuffing Stuffed Acorn Squash with Sage chips

4 medium acorn squash split in half and cleaned out
8 tablespoons butter
¼ lb bacon finely diced
1 medium onion finely diced
3 stalks celery finely chopped
8-12 fresh sage leaves
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 boxes commercial stuffing mix

Directions
Preheat grill for use indirect to 350 degrees F.
In a large disposable sheet pan (this will make clean up much easier) place the halves of squash . Place 1 tablespoon of butter in each half. Grill until the flesh is just starting to turn soft (approximately 1 hr)
Make commercial stuffing according to directions and set aside
In a large skillet, cook the bacon until brown and the fat is rendered, about 5 minutes. Remove bacon reserving fat in the pan. Add sage leaves and fry until the leaves are just starting to turn brown at the edges and remove to paper towels to drain. In the same skillet add the onions and celery, and cook for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and transfer to a large bowl to cool.
In a large bowl combine commercial stuffing mixture, onions, celery and bacon. Fill each cavity of the squash half with this mixture. Return to the grill to warm through. Approximately 20 minutes. Garnish each squash half with the fried sage leaves.

Grilled Brussel Sprouts

1 lb Brussel sprouts cleaned and trimmed
¼ cup butter melted
Salt
Pepper
Granulated garlic
Fresh thyme sprigs
1 BBQ buddy™ pan

On a charcoal grill with a medium heat (300F) place bbq buddy ™ pan.
Fill with brussel sprouts and sprinkle on granulated garlic, salt & pepper.
Brush with butter. Turn after 5-10 minutes then brush with butter again.
Remove when brussel sprouts are just starting to turn soft (approx 15-20 minutes)
Garnish with sprigs of thyme.

image via Metblogs

My husband got up this morning and made me some lovely pancakes for breakfast. The children brought me beautiful handmade cards and lovingly made presents from school. I had a nice leisurely morning playing with the kids and writing recipes. I think Mothers Day is such an overrated day. I think everyday should be Mothers & Fathers day. However I will use this day each year to get the house cleaned. I admit it I am shallow like that. Any opportunity to get the house cleaned works for me.

So while the hubby and the kids were cleaning I was playing on the grills. Now in my world a day of playing with the kids and playing with the grills rocks.

My menu for todays meal has been planned since this past Monday. I received an AWESOME present from the food editor of the Toronto Star Jennifer Bain. She also is known as the Saucy lady. I had not seen here for years though we corresponded back and forth. It was fun to grill up some items for her to be featured in a couple of articles in the Toronto Star’s food section. Jennifer brought me a present she knew I would appreciate.

Her husband is a bison rancher in Alberta. I was thrilled to see her digging out packages of meat from her bag. A gorgeous tri-tip and some other cuts to be used at a later date. I knew in an instant what I would be making for Mother’s day. I love tri-tip. Love it. I do not have it often enough. To get a bison tri-tip was really special. I can’t wait to get together again. She is a walking encyclopedia of food knowledge and funny as hell.

For those of you not familiar with Tri-tip Whitetrash BBQ had the following article and image on Santa Maria Tri Tip:

My tri-tip started its journey today in a marinade of dried rosemary, minced garlic, canola oil, and red onions.

While the tri-tip was getting happy I moved on to the side dishes. Artichokes are another one of those items that I do not eat often enough. They are labour intensive but so worth it. I started out with quite a lot of artichokes.

Then I got to trimming them with some scissors to take out the tough sharp outer leaves. I used a large knife to cut off the ends just above the choke.

They are so pretty.

I needed to trim a little faster these were browning up quickly.

Cutting them in half and using a melon baller is the easiest way i have found to clean them out quickly.

I also like eating the stem. I used a paring knife to trim out the harder outer layer.

One of the most important steps is placing the trimmed artichokes in some acidulated water. Thats a fancy schmancy way of saying some water that has some lemon juice in it. So glad I am finally putting those college degrees to use. Basically if you skip this step you will end up with very gray blotchy looking artichokes. It won’t affect the taste but they will look like crap on a plate.

After soaking them in the acidulated water for half an hour I drained them off and placed them in one of my large stock pots filled with fresh water. I boiled them in salted water for approx 1/2 hour till they were just started to tenderize. Now you can skip this step but you better be prepared to stand beside your charcoal grill for a good hour or so while they get tender. Since they are not a rib I am ok with boiling.

While they were getting their happy bath I moved on to the last side dish – corn. I love corn. If given a choice between corn or potatoes corn for me wins out every time. I remember once when I was a kid I got my a$$ seriously reprimanded for eating corn raw right in the field of the farmer that lived near us. Not only did I get the displeasure of my parents bestowed upon me for stealing our neighbours corn I had to go work for the farmer and make up for it. Sheesh I mean really to an 11 year old kid was the farmer really going to miss a couple of ears??? I still think brat (baby brother) ratted me out for that one.

Ok so getting back to the corn. I keep it simple flavorful and fresh. I peel back the husks and I remove the silks and I go right to the grill with it. I don’t season it at all until it comes off. I really find if you use a good charcoal like Basques a lot of the flavor is imparted by the charcoal itself.

When it came off I simply sprinkled chipotle powder, lime zest, salt and pepper on it with a tiny bit of butter. (please note this is the truth the Paula Deen in me didn’t come out today y’all!)At the last minute I always squeeze lime juice on as well.

As the corn was finishing it was time to get the artichokes on the grill to get a bit of char on them. It was quite windy in my backyard today.
**Ahem – note to husband a Q bana may be in my near future. Just saying its something to think about.

Please note this picture should also be proof that I do on occasion wear something other than black. Bright orange neon capris at home are perfectly acceptable grilling clothing.

While all this veggie madness was going on (see Peta I do eat veggies….) on went the tri-tip on the new Traeger 300. I am really loving this grill. Awesome color on everything and great taste too.

Today I employed the reverse sear method. It worked well again. Here is another reference to reverse sear as well.
I held it at 225F for approx 1/2 hour then I finished it at 450F. I took it to medium rare. That way everyone in our house is happy. rested it for 15 minuted lightly tented.

I sliced the tri-tip fairly thinly and served up the corn and the artichokes with a curry aioli (curry powder, good quality mayo, s&p, lemon juice, a wee bit of garlic powder, and a few pinches of turmeric).
Dinner as a family is always great and we try to eat together as much as we can. We are coming up to soccer season in our house this week. That means 3-4 times a week (for the next 12 weeks) we are either at a soccer game or at a soccer practice. I am going to cherish this dinner with family. Let me tell you it was goodness on a plate. #GOAP It was a wonderful meal for mothers day.

For all you Mom’s out there you rock. Happy Mother’s Day to you all.

Their BBQ showrooms are incredible. They carry everything you can imagine and more….

So many BBQ’s ……………….

There was a great selection of BBQ Companies there to demo their products and to provide tastings..Traeger’s menu for the day was ABT’s  Grilled Asparagus with a curry aioli, and hot & fiery chili dipping sauce, pulled pork sliders, Bacon Bombs (Ill be posting about those next week!!) and of course a little bit of chocolate heaven. All done on Traeger BBQ’s

Celebrity BBQ & grilling chefs Ted Reader (Teds BBQ World) and Rob Rainford (Food Network- License to Grill) were also on hand making some incredible food (pulled pork and foie gras burgers from Teddy!- so decadent)

Rob looking as stylish as ever and he always has the megawatt smile.

Here is a picture of Ted’s Ass bending over his grill. You can see it is a much smaller ass now. He has lost a lot of weight.

I have no clue what he was looking for here. You never know with Teddy what will happen next.

I got to try some of his new Apple Brown Betty Grilling Sauce (and I forgot to bring my bottle home) it was damn good. Go get some.

For some serious comedy please watch this video of us chatting after the show on Teddy’s weight loss secrets – they are truly inspirational.

Heres a link to some of the media coverage from yesterday.  It was a really fun day !! Thanks to the folks at Eventrix for organizing the entire event.

Global TV April 2010

]]> http://divaq.ca/ontario-gas-bbq-media-day/feed 1 http://divaq.ca/its-here-the-new-traeger-300-has-arrived-in-canada http://divaq.ca/its-here-the-new-traeger-300-has-arrived-in-canada#comments Wed, 07 Apr 2010 01:34:10 +0000 admin http://divaq.ca/?p=1277 Well today has been a very exciting BBQ day!! I got to see the new Traeger 300 in person right after it was unloaded. It is even more impressive in person. Really solid design. I am looking forward to playing on one in the upcoming weeks.

Here are some pictures of the unit

As soon as I get the spec sheet I will update this post!

Was feeling a bit out of sorts earlier today on a personal level but I will say that spending a bit of time in the kitchen doing some prep lifted my spirits. There is something strangely & immensely satisfying about smashing the crap out of a whole bunch of herbs and garlic using a mortar and pestle. Today’s crust was made with a lot of savory, thyme, 6 cloves of garlic, some beautiful New Zealand sea salt (thanks Angie!!) , black peppercorns and some canola oil. I pounded my little heart out (seriously I really need to bring the mortar and pestle out more often) and came up with a lovely herb mash.

The prime rib was lovely. I just love the look of raw meat. I love seeing the striations of marbling. Just beautiful.this prime rib weighed approx 6 lbs

On went the slather and into the fridge for a couple of ours.

My children were seriously not impressed at this point. At this point they were giving me the oh my goodness you can’t possibly expect us to eat that for dinner tonight looks. Any parent can relate to that.

It was a lovely smelling prime rib and the color was coming along nicely. Off to the kitchen to prep some veggies to accompany our dinner. Had some portobellos with some Wisconsin Parmesan that I picked up on our last travels to the US. Its a nicely aged cheese. Lovely to eat on its own. Not sure I would use it again on the portobellos. Just didn’t have enough oomph.

Then one of my all time favorite veggies – asparagus! Love love love asparagus grilled. So do the kids. Ok 2 out of 3 of the kids love it. The other (Chaos causing , tiny terrorist also known as my son Gabe) child has determined it looks too much like a plant. I grated the rind from a really large lemon and sprinkled it on the asparagus as well as a really fragrant lemon olive oil. Salt & pepper was added as well.

The Natives were getting restless at this point and it took everything in me to keep them all (including husband) occupied until the prime rib had rested for enough time.

Overall dinner was lovely. The prime rib was delicious. I love herb crusts on beef.

They have terrific meat counters that are full service

Great selections of lots of cheeses

Lots of spice mixtures and also BBQ sauces

Plus their owner is an all around great guy who really knows his stuff:

Stop in if you are in the area!

Schinkels’ Gourmet Meats
145 Richmond St.,
Chatham, Ontario.
Canada
N7M 1P1

Ph: (519) 351-2117
Fax: (519) 436-0961

This is the picture of the brand new Traeger 300. It is really cool and I get to play on one next month. I can’t wait. Monday I’ll post more specs on it. Its going to be awesome.

So the cookbook is really quite expansive. This is a big cookbook. 320 pages. It is a gorgeous cookbook to own. The pictures are incredible. The recipes many I have tried and would recommend -Smoke Beef Short Ribs done with hickory chips for example. I have found many of the recipes are easily transferable to other BBQ equipment in addition to Eggs.

Some of the recipes also use the stove top (ex Kale on page 307 with the apple wood smoked bacon). It is a delicious recipe.

I like the format of this cookbook. I enjoyed reading the Chef & Pitmaster Biographies. Overall this has to be one of the best laid out cookbooks for BBQ I have ever seen. Plus God bless them they realize there are Canadians and International Folks that BBQ since they even included a Metric Conversion table as well.

From the Gourmet (ex Roasted Fingerling Potatoes with Creme Fraiche & Caviar) to the most basic (ex Italian Sausage subs) this cookbook has it all for anyone who loves to grill & BBQ. I would highly recommend it for the recipes whether you own a Big Green Egg or other grill/bbq.