Tag Archives: gas

How to Organise the Perfect Indoor BBQ In Winter

There is one thing we all miss in the winter: the ability to invite people around for an afternoon of barbecue. If you feel like your social life has suffered as the weather got colder, you might want to get creative and recreate the feeling of summer in your home, and hold an indoor party that cheers you up and makes your weekends more exciting. Below you will find a few tips on how to get started.

House Party

Get a Quality Grill

There are plenty of great quality health fryers and grills you can use, and the results will be the same as on the flames. You might want to get an indoor electric or gas grill set up in your kitchen, or keep it outside, and have the party in the conservatory, if you have one. If you are not sure which type of meat will be the best for your indoor grilling, you can always ask your local butcher or farm shop for advice.

Make Loads of Punch and Mulled Wine

To warm up the atmosphere and your visitors, you might want to get the punch and mulled wine on the hob, instead of cold beer and wine. You can create your hot cocktails yourself, and lay them out for your guests to try and rate. Get your recipes and creativity going, and impress your friends this winter.

Create a Menu and Start Cooking

House BBQ

Get some finger food on the menu, as well as the grilled meat. Offer bacon sandwiches, savoury pies prepared the previous day, and order some pastry from your local shop. Don’t forget about the fresh salad and entree, and get a bowl of soup out, so your guests can help themselves whenever they want to. You can make your own coleslaw, bake your rolls fresh, to go with the meat and the soup.

Get the Caterers In

Depending on the size of your party, you might want to get some help. Caterers can help you out with equipment that keeps the food warm and fresh, as well as laying out the dishes. Check out Singapore caterer ezBBQ to find out what services are available, and how you can make the most out of your indoor barbecue. Alternatively, you can order a hot pudding from a local catering company, and torch your own creme-brulees.

Add Lighting, Decoration, and Music

To get the conversation flowing, and cheer up your friends arriving, you can decorate your home with winter paintings and snowflakes. You might want to get a winter wax melt on the go, and install a mood light. Create a playlist that you can stream from your phone and control the volume according to what your guests are doing.

Just because it is cold and wet outside, your social life should go on. Organise a creative indoor BBQ party, and cheer yourself and your friends up. Make sure that you have adequate extractor fans installed in the house, though, otherwise, your house will smell of barbecue for a long time.

 

Maltese houses heating problem

Maltese houses lack insulation as they are solely made out of concrete. Just to give you a brief idea, the houses absorb a lot of heat during summer. Being inside a house in summer is overall hotter than being outside. Due to the concrete’s heat capacity, the house remains hot during summer nights and makes it impossible to sleep comfortably without a fan or air-conditioning. Exactly the opposite happens in winter. The heat in the house is absorbed by the concrete wall and roof and is emitted outside, because we all know that hot air likes to travel to cold areas. As such, during the night the temperature inside our houses are almost the same as the temperature outside.

insulation

Now the bummer is, that in Malta we do not have a proper heating system in our houses. We buy gas by the cylinder which makes it impossible and unaffordable to have a good amount of heaters around the house, unless we use electrical heating. Let’s face it, no one really has this, unless you are extravagantly rich.

Because of this, every morning I struggle to come out of my cosy, warm bed to the cold reality that is my bedroom and the rest of the house. Especially when you can hear the wind and the rain outside, fighting against one another on who is making the most sound… And then there’s the dreadful traffic… Oh, how I wish I could hibernate during winter and wake up in a more convenient summer spot that is not on the Maltese Islands 🙂

Ode to War

Tear Gas.
Fighting.
Explosions.
Tortures.

The symptoms of war,
Our soldiers endure.

Orders –
Followed;
Enemies –
Destroyed;

Like sheep they behave
They kill and never let live.

Wounds –
Physical;
Psychological;
Trauma

The guilt they burden,
The nightmares they pass through.

Reason?
Peace.
Unity.
Patriotism.

The lie we are led to believe.
Affecting us. Our life, perspective.

How fitting it is
To die for ones country?
When if you survive,
You’ll regret it for all your life.

Knowing that you were just
an insignificant number;
And you will be forgotten
there after.

//By Steffi