Guide to the Best Outdoor Winter Party | Winter Warmer Recipes

Are you looking to take your backyard party to the next level? We share some of our favourite winter warmer recipes to help you get the party going in winter when enjoying the backyard and lawn.

Hot Chocolates for the kids and parents

Hot chocolates are the ultimate crowd favourite across all ages! One of our favourite hot chocolate choices here at Lawn Solutions Australia is the Cadbury Drinking Chocolate! Simply whisk milk and your favourite hot chocolate mix over a stove top until warm, then serve.

For the parents, you can add some of your favourite spiced rum, Kahlua, Baileys, or chocolate liqueur for an extra twist!

If you have some free time when preparing for your guests, why not give making hot chocolates from scratch a try!

What you will need:

• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ cup baking cocoa
• Dash of salt
• 1/3 cup hot water
• 4 cups milk
• ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
• Optional – miniature marshmallows, sweetened whipped cream or cinnamon sticks

In a saucepan, combine sugar, cocoa, and salt. Add water; bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes. Stir in milk; heat to serving temperature (do not boil). Remove from the heat; stir in vanilla. Whisk until frothy. If desired, garnish with marshmallows, cream, or cinnamon sticks.

Recipe by Taste of home

Mulled Wine (adults only)

Mulled wine is another easy to make drink that is great when entertaining outdoors. This is traditionally seen at Christmas markets across Europe, but is more commonly consumed here in Australia throughout winter. It is easy to make recipe and is best shared with a group of family and friends, especially on a cool winter night.

Ingredients:

• 2 oranges
• 1 lemon
• 1 lime
• 200 g caster sugar
• 6 whole cloves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 fresh bay leaves
• 1 whole nutmeg, for grating
• 1 vanilla pod
• 2 bottles Chianti or other Italian red wine
• 2 star anise

Method:

• Peel large sections of peel from the oranges, lemon and lime using a speed-peeler.
• Put the sugar in a large saucepan over a medium heat, add the pieces of peel and squeeze in the orange juice.
• Add the cloves, cinnamon stick, bay leaves and about 10 to 12 gratings of nutmeg. Halve the vanilla pod lengthways and add to the pan, then stir in just enough red wine to cover the sugar.
• Let this simmer until the sugar has completely dissolved into the red wine, then bring to the boil. Keep on a rolling boil for about 4 to 5 minutes, or until you’ve got a beautiful thick syrup. The reason I’m doing this first is to create a wonderful flavour base by really getting the sugar and spices to infuse and blend well with the wine. It’s important to make a syrup base first because it needs to be quite hot, and if you do this with both bottles of wine in there you’ll burn off the alcohol.
• When your syrup is ready, turn the heat down to low and add your star anise and the rest of the wine. Gently heat the wine and after around 5 minutes, when it’s warm and delicious, ladle it into heatproof glasses and serve.

Recipe by Jamie Oliver

Roasted Leg of Lamb

When entertaining you can’t go wrong with a roasted leg of lamb and veggies. If it’s your first time cooking a leg of lamb, don’t be intimidated, it is a simple and easy dish to cook up especially when preparing for a crowd on a cold winter night.

This recipe uses the Weber barbecue. You can use this recipe for a normal oven, but you may need to adjust your cooking times.

Ingredients:

• 1 x 2 to 2.5 kg leg of lamb
• 3 garlic cloves, sliced
• Fresh rosemary sprigs
• ½ lemon
• Sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions:

1. Prepare the barbecue for indirect cooking over medium heat (190°C to 230°C). If you are using a Weber Q barbecue, set up your barbecue with a convection tray and trivet.
2. Using a sharp knife, cut 10 to 12 small slits into the flesh of the lamb. Push a piece of garlic and a small sprig of rosemary into each slit.
3. Squeeze the lemon juice all over the lamb. Season with salt and pepper.
4. To estimate the cooking time, measure the meat through its thickest part and cook for 1 minute per millimetre for medium. For example if the roast is 90mm thick, cook for 90 minutes.
5. Roast the lamb over indirect medium heat for 1 ¼ to 1 ½ hours, with the lid closed, or until cooked to your liking.
6. Once the lamb has cooked, remove from the barbecue and leave to rest for 15 minutes before carving.

Recipe by Weber

Dessert

Now time for everyone’s favourite, dessert! This caramel pear self-saucing pudding recipe is just the right mix of warm and sweet for a cool winter night. Here’s what you will need…

Ingredients:

Caramel sauce:

• 1/2 cup (110g) firmly packed brown sugar
• 3/4 cup (180ml) boiling water
• 50 gram butter, chopped

Caramel pear self-saucing puddings:

• 425 gram can pear slices in natural juice, drained
• 3/4 cup (110g) self-raising flour
• 1/3 cup (75g) firmly packed brown sugar
• 20 gram butter, melted
• 1/3 cup (80ml) milk
• 1/3 cup (40g) pecans, chopped coarsely icing sugar, for decorating

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to moderate (180°C / 160°C fan-forced). Grease four shallow ovenproof dishes (1 1/4cup / 300ml capacity). Place dishes on an oven tray.
2. Divide pear slices among dishes.
3. Combine flour, sugar, butter, and milk in a small bowl; mix well. Spread the mixture evenly over pear slices in dishes. Sprinkle batter with pecans.
4. To make caramel sauce, combine all the ingredients in a medium heatproof jug; stir until sugar is dissolved and butter melted.
5. Pour caramel sauce slowly over the back of a spoon over mixture in dishes. Bake in a moderate oven for about 25 minutes or until firm.
6. Dust lightly with sifted icing sugar, serve immediately with cream or ice-cream, if desired.

Recipe from Womens Weekly

If you need to get your lawn looking great quickly for when entertaining outdoors, why not try a lawn pigment product like ColourGuard Plus!

We hope these winter warmer recipes give you some inspiration for when you are hosting your party or gathering this winter. Make sure you check out our other blogs for more yard inspiration here.