Christmas in July recipes
Recipes for a mid-year celebration for a true white Christmas, usually celebrated in July. Recipes include mulled wine, ginger bread and cranberry sauce. Always remember though that this should be a fun and enjoyable time so if cooking really does seem too busy check out some of these restaurants that offer Christmas in July meals , or a roast at a local pub.
For the meals you can buy a lot of winter Christmas meal condiments at IKEA's food store (with a $1 hot dog and a cheap softserve icecream cone) and Aldi. Popular dishes include roast turkey and cranberry sauce with all the roasted vegetable trimmings. Add some gluehwine (Aldi has it for sale at the moment ready to serve).
Gluehwein Recipe
If you want to make gluehwein/mulled wine yourself a simple gluehwein recipe is to put half a cup of water in a saucepan with a stick of cinnamon and some ginger, orange zest, about 5-8 cloves and just over a quarter cup of sugar. Boil the mixture and then simmer until the mixture becomes a thick syrup. Add 3 cups of red wine and continue to heat, but don't boil. You can flavour to taste with more or less sugar and more or less cloves. A mulled wine I had the other day also had almonds added which were a nice addition. To make it easier to keep the cloves out when pouring you can either use a herb bag, or push the coves in to the rind of an orange and so before serving remove the orange rinds. Serve the gluehwein hot before or after dinner.
Toasted Marshmallows
End the night with some toasted marshmallows by the fire. A simple dessert where all you need is a packet of marshmallows (I like Allen's best), a stick and a fire.
Gingerbread is always delicious, so any excuse is a good one to make up a batch of gingerbread cookies shaped like reindeers and snowmen. Most cooking shops will have Christmas cookie cutters all year round if you don't have any.
Sample Menu:
- Gluhwein to welcome guests and maybe a few pretzels/bretzels.
Entree: Roasted pumpkin soup.
Main:
- Roast Turkey or rack of lamb if turkey is hard to find.
- Cranberry sauce
- Roasted vegetables
- Gravy
Dessert: Plum pudding with brandy sauce or bombe alaska or Belgium waffles with chocolate sauce and berries.
With coffee:
- gingerbread, shortbread and yuletide log.
- Toast marshmallows by the fire.
- minced pies
- schnapps
Shop for Christmas foods at eBay:
...