Catching up

Da has a close-knit group of friends with whom he was schoolmates eons ago. Every now and then, someone in the gang will suggest a "makan" gathering or an outing.

Several years ago, one of the gang members (JK) even took the trouble to arrange a "heritage trail". That was in the old days when we were still able to walk for hours. We explored the Labrador Park, etc. Hey, JK - how about arranging another heritage trail soon? Let's show the next generation that the "old fogies" still have the stamina to hike!

This evening, the gang came over to our home for dinner. Save for SW and his family (who are currently in Perth, Australia), the rest of the gang was available for dinner. Wonderful!

I had actually intended to get up early in the morning, give Da a lift to the MRT station (as Da had to work today) before I adjourned to Marine Parade for breakfast followed by grocery shopping at NTUC. As it turned out, I overslept (by which time Da had left for work), rushed to Marine Parade, quickly gobbled 1/2 a plate of breakfast beehoon (with 1 fried tauhu) and 1/2 a glass of kopi tarik kurang manis before I hurriedly went to NTUC and started grabbing groceries and placing them in the trolley at a frenzied pace.

When I reached the cashier, my mobile phone rang. Gasp! It was Da and he had finished work! I was very behind schedule for the cooking! I paid for the groceries and struggled with the transfer of the groceries from the trolley to the car.

By the time Da and I reached home and I started preparations for dinner, it was past 2 pm.

The night before, I had already prepared the beef cubes in Guinness stout and spices and left them to marinate overnight. I took out the beef with marinade and placed them in an AMC pot to boil before I let the stew simmer for several hours. In between, I added potatoes, carrots and other greens such as celery. To thicken the stew, add some cornflour. If your mouth is watering by now, not to worry - I shall post the recipe soon. (Note: If you are not fond of beef, you can replace the meat with any other red meat although, this being an Irish stew, beef or mutton would be more ideal.)

Last night, I had also prepared my own garlic spread. I would have loved to bake the bread as well but I did not have enough time, so I bought the Gardenia foccacia bread, which is very flavourful and goes well with the garlic spread.

As I had bought some pork ribs, I decided to marinate the pork ribs in char siew sauce and garlic and left the mixture in the refrigerator for several hours before I baked the ribs. As an alternative to baking, you can also cook the ribs in the AMC pot.

I was toying with the idea of making a minestrone soup but I changed my mind and decided to make a clam chowder instead. To thicken the clam chowder, you can use grated mozzarella cheese.

As there would be 4 children joining us for the dinner, I decided to make a chicken and macaroni casserole. Top the casserole with grated mozzarella cheese before baking it and you have a sure winner with the kids! It is something like lasagna but easier to make. In fact, I was told that to make GK stop snacking earlier in the day, his mother told him that I was making lasagna. haha!

What meal would be complete without eggs? I decided to make an otah and egg casserole. The advantage of this casserole is that you can add whatever vegetables that you like.

I had recently obtained from Tiki the recipe to her prawn salad. Being adventurous, I decided to modify her recipe by adding thousand island dressing (instead of coleslaw dressing). (Actually, the truth of the matter is that I could not find any coleslaw dressing in NTUC! grrrr.....) But hey, the salad was very popular and was one of the first dishes to be finished during the dinner!

RT brought along a lovely salad that she made. She even supplied the salad dressing! She and DT chanced upon some interesting salad dressing from the Japanese section of NTUC. I especially like the salad dressing that contains sesame / peanuts.

I was surfing the internet last night for a nice cocktail recipe. I chanced upon a very simple recipe that required equal parts of white grape juice and ginger ale (which, according to my research on the internet, will taste like champagne). I could not find either item at NTUC (which was a surprise because I know for a fact that QOO brand has white grape juice), so I settled for equal parts of grape juice and Bundaberg ginger beer. This combination was very popular as well. For the toppings, simply freeze some blueberries and halved strawberries beforehand and when you have poured out the drink, add some frozen blueberries and strawberries to the drink. The kids and adults loved the drink!

The guests arrived after 8 pm. There was so much laughter and conversation before, during and after the meal. ST joined the adults for after dinner conversation instead of playing computer games with the "other kids" (FK, GK and MT). However, she was so busy sending and receiving sms-es during the conversation that I wonder how much of the conversation she caught! She also displayed her hairstyling skills by plaiting RT's hair. Good work, girl!

We opened a bottle of red wine (which I had bought from the Changi Airport duty free shop when I came back from Hong Kong in May 2008) and a bottle of white wine that SC and WC had brought. DT in particular enjoyed his wine.

After dinner, Part 2! Dessert! FW and JK had brought some swiss rolls from Kandahar Street (if I got the name right). The swiss rolls looked familiar. I think that I may have ordered such swiss rolls through my colleagues in the past. They have many flavours, eg. mango, durian, etc.

Last night, I also made a peach and kiwi cheesecake. I had modified Tiki's recipe (sorry girl, I have a habit of modifying recipes!).

Hey gang, Da and I enjoyed having you over at our place last night. Let's do this again soon! And JK, don't forget about SC and my suggestion of another heritage trail.

Now, for the encore....