1 fresh or thawed, frozen turkey, neck and giblets removed, about 10 lb (5 kg)
1 lemon
1/4 cup (50 mL) melted butter
2 tbsp (30 mL) cracked mixed peppercorns
1 tbsp (15 mL) chopped, fresh thyme leaves
2 tsp (10 mL) coarse salt
1 cup (250 mL) smoky flavored barbecue sauce
1 tbsp (15 mL) brown sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced

Wash the turkey, inside and out and pat dry with paper towel. Grate enough lemon zest to make 1 tbsp (15 mL) and reserve. Thinly slice the zested lemon. Brush the turkey all over with the butter. Sprinkle evenly, inside and out, with the thyme, pepper and salt. Place the lemon slices inside the large cavity. Bend the wings under the turkey and truss the legs together with cooking twine.

Place a drip pan beneath the grate on one side of the grill. Preheat the grill to high. Reduce the temperature of barbecue burner(s) to maintain a temperature of approximately 300 F (150 C). (Check manufacturers directions for recommended ways to regulate the heat.)

Pierce a piece of heavy duty foil several times with a skewer and place on the grill directly over the drip pan. Place the turkey, breast-side-up, on the foil. Close the lid and cook for 1 hour. Rotate the foil 90 degrees. Repeat, rotating the foil every hour, for 2 hours.
Stir the barbecue sauce with the reserved lemon peel, balsamic vinegar, sugar and garlic. Brush the turkey evenly with the mixture.

Grill, basting and rotating the turkey often, until an instant read thermometer registers 180F (82C) when inserted into the fleshy area between the turkey's body and leg. The breast temperature should be 170F (77C). (Total cooking time will be about four hours.) Rest the turkey on a heated platter for 15 minutes before slicing and serving. Makes 10 servings.

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My job as a trend tracker requires that I read voraciously, taste everything I can and comb grocery store shelves for new products and ingredients like a CSI agent searching a crime scene for evidence.

Often I find insight into what's coming next in food in unlikely places. Although I read Canadian and American food magazines often, it's often trade, lifestyle and business publications where I find the tiny references that I put on my radar screen and see migrate from the outside of the circle onto center stage.

Gossip magazines: after a candid photograph of Halle Berry drinking a Hulk smoothie appeared in a gossip rag, sales of green protein drinks soared. Ditto for Madonna's fondness for goji berries.

Pretentious magazines: If it's cool enough for Wallpaper or Dwell to note, it's probably going to be a fad at the very least.

Annoying magazines: Don't get me wrong, I think Oprah has done a lot of good in the world but I'm sick of her being the curator of worthiness for North Americans. Regardless of how I feel, what Oprah and her editors endorse is almost inevitably a hit with consumers.

International Trade magazines: To discover what chefs are cooking up, I turn to food industry mags such as New Zealand-based Cuisine and Food Arts from New York.

New York Times: The New York Time's Kim Severson and her food writing colleagues treat food stories like news. As a result, the NYT food section goes beyond rewording press releases; they report on issues that concern food in all facets of our lives.

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Last fall I got hooked on the comedy 30 Rock, to the point where I decided I wanted to watch some of the episodes more than once. Last night I was watching one of my favourite episodes where Liz Lemon meets "The Hair"; they attend a swish Manhattan party where boxes of truffle-infused air are served in place of actual food. As I guffawed at the fashionistas reverently inhaling the air, I realized that low-calorie pickles are the real-life culinary equivalent of food-infused air.


Biting into a good pickle immediately clears your head and helps you to think more clearly but it also makes you want to eat other foods. In my opinion, the best pickles are appealingly puckering but still offer a range of flavours that linger on your palate and cut the richness of other foods.

While a good crunchy dill will always appeal to the Ukranian in me, the world of pickles is too diverse to pick one favourite. From Korean kimchee to Indian picallili, as I've travelled and learned more about Asian food, I've realized that pickles can be pretty exciting!

Try some of these famous International pickles to challenge your palate:

Kimchee: a Korean staple served at almost every meal occasion, kimchee is pungent, spicy and potent. It is made from fermented vegetables such as turnip, cabbage or little cucumber-like squash. Use it to add snap to noodles, rice dishes and to cut the richness of foods like Korean short ribs.

Gari: (also called beni shoga) is ginger root that has been pickled in a sweet vinegar. Although we're used to seeing a pink version at most restaurants, it can be ivory coloured and taste exactly the same. This Japanese pickle is used as a palate cleanser when eating sushi but it also can be used as an ingredient to add heat and tangy sweetness to stir fries and other Japanese inspired dishes.

Piccalilli: this pickled vegetable relish can contain all kinds of veggies from cauliflower to cucumber and runner beans. It is usually made in a tomato base and makes a great accompaniment to foods such as a grilled cheddar sandwich or a creamy curry.

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It won't be a surprise to most of you that chicken is one of the top 10 things Canadians eat for dinner. But as with so many things in life, familiarity can breed contempt. What can you do when chicken becomes the food you loathe as well as the one you know your family will eat? Get some fresh ideas!

Chicken is such a popular dinnertime choice because it's so versatile. So, try a new way of preparing the chicken you buy every week or opt for a different part of the bird tonight. Skinless, boneless chicken breasts are a fast, easy and relatively healthy choice, but they're the least flavourful cut of chicken, too. Instead of skinless, boneless breasts, go old school and buy bone-in chicken pieces for a change. They only take five minutes longer to cook and the flavour and juiciness are superior by far.

I often fall back on teriyaki as my favourite chicken flavouring. When that gets dull, I go to my pantry and take a look around. Try one of these easy ideas to amp up your interest in chicken:

-blend mango chutney with a little mild curry paste and finely chopped green onions to make a gooey finishing glaze.

-stir pesto with balsamic vinaigrette and use as a Mediterranean basting sauce.

-blend equal parts melted cranberry jelly and orange juice until smooth. Stir in minced fresh ginger and garlic, salt and pepper to make a fresh, bright tasting glaze.

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When I was approached to become a blogger for Homemakers.com, I was a little puzzled. What qualification does a 41-year-old mom who lives in the suburbs have to stride into this technological domain of the young and tech savvy, I wondered? After all, I'm the person who pasted a post-it note over the flashing clock on her VCR (yes, I said VCR -- I am, in fact, a dinosaur) because I couldn't figure out how to make the damn time display.

But as I noshed on a package of the new dark chocolate covered peanut m&m's (they're quite a bit better than the originals, BTW), I realized I have four qualities that will make me a good blogger:

- I like (make that love!) to share my opinions and knowledge about food.
- I like to hear myself talk (alas, a recurring issue for my real-life social success).
- I often put off doing difficult things like exercise by hanging out in Internet chat groups (I especially like the ones about trashy TV shows -- which reminds me, I wonder how The Bachelorette's Meredith is doing in her cooking career?)
- and by viewing pretty much every blurry photo posted by my Facebook friends.
-And, perhaps most importantly, I type well.

Of course, the people who invited me to post here didn't know I possessed such hidden talents. No, I suspect my professional accomplishments as a food trend expert and cookbook author were behind their invitation.

Some of you will recognize my name because I am a former food editor of Homemakers magazine. Although I hope that experience will help me to post about topics that will interest regular Homemakers readers, you can expect this blog to be more eclectic than my magazine articles.

I'll be able to tell you what is happening right now in the world of food, versus planning magazine pages months in advance of publication. It won't be all business though. You can also expect an occasional digression about other stuff that's on my mind such as how the characters on Lost live on papayas and don't get cankers or how good the empanadas made by Ugly Betty's dad looked on last night's show. So drop by often. We can procrastinate together!

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I think it's great news that the pasta princesses have returned. What is a pasta princess you ask? It's a term I dubbed years ago when I was a restaurant chef to describe a table of women who all order pasta for their entree. Although you may think I was being sarcastic, I wasn't being entirely snarky since I have been a card-carrying pasta princess myself for many a day.

There was a dark time in our reign, however. When the Atkins diet was popular, our kingdom was in jeopardy and being a pasta princess often earned lectures on carbs if not actual scorn. It makes me shudder to remember how society cruelly shunned the noble noodle!

The good news for me and my spaghetti-twirling sisters is that pasta is fashionable again. In fact, my husband Martin Kouprie, the executive chef and co-owner of Yorkville's Pangaea Restaurant tells me that pasta was one of this past summer's best-selling menu items for his ladies-who-lunch clientele (The lobster gnochhi was their overall fav).

Although regular refined-wheat pasta is still a pantry staple for many pasta princesses, whole wheat and whole grain pasta is gaining ground with these aficionados. We recently experimented with some new whole wheat and whole grain pasta products in our test kitchen and the results were delicious! Unlike the whole wheat pastas that were marketed a decade ago, today's versions cook up with a great al dente texture and have a mild nutty flavour that won't overpower the flavour of your sauce.

One of our favs was Healthy Harvest's multigrain spaghetti for both its texture and taste. Regardless of which pasta shape you prefer, consider adding whole wheat and whole grain noodles to your shopping list. You'll feel full longer and reap the benefits of adding nutrients such as Omega 3 to your diet.

Hope to see you around the palace.

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