Dry and wet swimming

This morning, as I was making preparations for the dinner gathering at our home, Da forwarded to me a text message from his sister, GN, informing us that MIL has been warded at Changi General Hospital for a knee infection condition.

As we were about to leave the hospital, SY called my mobile phone to inform us that the gang had arrived at our home. Oops... I was behind schedule in my dinner preparations. Not to worry, thank goodness for the wonderful invention known as "crock-pot" (slow cooker).

I had already prepared the main dinner item (spaghetti sauce) this morning and it was cooking in the slow cooker.

The ingredients for the lasagne and pizza were cooking in a separate slow cooker. Phew!

I asked the gang to proceed to the swimming pool for wet swimming, the first of the two types of swimming that they had come to our place for today.

On the way home from the hospital, I planned in my mind the order in which I would finish up the dinner preparations. When we reached home, I put my plans into action:-

(1) I boiled water in the frying pan and inserted the linguine to cook.

(2) I greased the bottom and inside of my AMC pot, placed a pizza base (I would have preferred to make the pizza base from scratch using SC's recipe but I did not have the luxury of time) in the pot and topped the pizza base with the cooked ingredients and mozarella cheese. I cooked the pizza in the AMC pot at low to medium heat until the dial on the lid of the pot reached "M".

(3) I sliced some focaccia bread and spread my homemade garlic spread before baking the garlic bread in a conventional oven at 180 degrees celsius for 15 minutes.

(4) I prepared the lasagne in a loaf pan and baked it in a conventional oven at 180 degrees celsius for 45 minutes.

(5) This morning, I had baked a fruit cake. Calla Lily helped me to slice the cake cross-section. I spread vanilla fudge on the top of the bottom cake layer and placed slices of kiwi fruit on top of it before I sandwiched it with the top cake layer. I then spread the remaining vanilla fudge all around the cake and sprinkled chocolate rice all over. The cake was then refrigerated.

By then, the gang had finished showering after their swim. While waiting for the dinner table to be set, Tau Suan helped me to pour a packet of tapioca chips into a serving bowl for everyone to enjoy.

Finally, dinner was ready. I placed a bowl of baby tomatoes on the dining table. Nining enjoys eating this.

Supercute poured the fruit cocktail that I concocted into wine glasses while Tau Suan set the glasses on the dining table.

Dinner was a very enjoyable experience. Conversations and discussions were free flowing (BH, did you know that the secret to increasing one's chesty assets before reaching the age of majority is eating fish soup with tomato and sliced ginger? I suggested to ET that drinking milk would achieve the same effect but he had not heard of this before.). SY and I were, of course, busy taking photographs for our respective blogs.

After dinner, we decided to watch the DVD of the movie "Red Cliff". Thank you, ET, for adjusting our DVD player such that we can now watch movies in colour!

I prepared a tray of coffee with a bowl of whipped cream. It is very decadent and fattening but coffee mixed with whipped cream is absolutely divine!

Tau Suan was not keen on the coffee and he drank a can of Coca-Cola Light instead.

Da brought out a square table and everyone started grinning. Yes, it was time for the 2nd type of swimming - "dry swimming".

Dry swimming @ choo-choo-train @ MJ is none other than... mahjong! Supercute and Tau Suan learned how to play MJ about two weeks ago and now they are hooked! I find that playing MJ keeps one's mind alert (it trains one's skill in calculation and strategising) and it is also good for bonding as it is usually played by 4 players (although you can play with 3 players but it is not as fun), not including the spectators who stand or sit around giving friendly advice to the players! Also, it is a better alternative to playing computer games.

After a few rounds of MJ, it was time for a break. Cake time! Supercute displayed his potential to be a dinner host and cut the cake expertly into slices of equal proportions.

The vanilla fudge that I used to spread over the cake was a pre-made fudge that I bought off-the-shelf at the supermarket last night. We all found the fudge a little sweet. I think that if you have a sweet tooth, you will like the fudge but if you are trying to watch your diet, you may want to substitute with light whipped cream instead.

After such a heavy meal, everyone decided to drink Chinese tea. It is believed that drinking Chinese tea aids in digestion.

The wet and dry swimming sessions today were very enjoyable, weren't they? Let's do this again soon!