The Red Devils are on top again!

It was a crucial game for the Red Devils today. Other teams such as the Reds and the Blues were catching up in points in the English Premier League. There was only one permitted outcome for Manchester United's match tonight against Sunderland - a win.

Da had to work this morning. As we had invited the family of the Three Musketeers to our home for dinner today, I woke up early and started preparing for dinner. To simplify my cooking process, instead of slaving over a stove top stirring a chicken stew, I decided to cook the chicken stew using my slow cooker. In order for the vegetables such as carrots to be soft by dinnertime, I had to have a head start in the cooking process.

I marinated the chicken pieces and set them aside. In the meantime, I prepared the rest of the stew ingredients and started cooking them in the slow cooker. I only added the chicken in the early afternoon so that the marinade had time to be absorbed into the chicken.

While the chicken stew was being cooked, I made a bread pudding with caramel topping. To make it more presentable, I ladled the pudding into wine glasses (instead of bowls) and I garnished each pudding with a slice of strawberry and a slice of grape.

As I had the whole afternoon to spare (ah... the convenience of a slow cooker!), I decided to bake some dinner rolls and some otah lasagne.

Da and I had a simple lunch. He went to a vegetarian stall at a coffeeshop in Eunos and bought:-

(a) vegetarian mee goreng; an

(b) vegetarian fried rice.

The vegetarian mee goreng was fried Indian-style instead of Malay-style, that is, it was spicy instead of sweetish. As for the vegetarian fried rice, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that there were slices of olive in the rice.

Each time the Three Musketeers come to our home, they will swim at the swimming pool located at our development. However, by 4 pm today, there was a very heavy downpour. I told Da that the Three Musketeers may not swim today.

Lo and behold, at about 6 pm, the family of the Three Musketeers turned up all decked in swim wear, ready to have a dip in the pool. Supercute was feeling a little under the weather, so he opted to surf the internet while the rest of the family went swimming. This wonderful boy helped me to create a pet society account on facebook and he even played some games using my virtual pet. I have a problem though - who is going to maintain my virtual pet when Supercute is not at our home? Unless I learn the ropes of pet society quickly, I envisage that my pet will not have a smiley face soon. *grin*

When the swimming session was done, the swimmers took turns to bathe while the rest enjoyed some pre-dinner snacks.

Dinner-time! What was the menu for dinner? Let's see...

(a) curry chicken - cooked by ET. The gravy was so "lemak" that I thought that there were peanuts in the gravy. ET explained that he used US potatoes and boiled them first so that they became so soft that they broke up and thickened the gravy.

(b) chicken stew - the stew was a hit with Nining, who enjoyed the button mushrooms in particular.

(c) garlic bread - the wholemeal bread and garlic spread were both made by me.

(d) otah lasagne - I experimented with Muar otah, eggs, some vegetables, a piece of lasagne and mozarella cheese. Tau Suan found the dish a tad too spicy for him, due to the otah.

(e) dinner rolls - Supercute and Tau Suan were very innovative. They dug out the bread, leaving the crust. They then ladled the gravy of the chicken stew into the crust and ate it.

(f) baked finger food - this is always popular with children.

After dinner, as we sat down to watch the Manchester United vs Sunderland English Premier League match on television, dessert was served. SY and Lin had baked a delicious durian cake. We also ate the bread pudding and the steamed chocolate cake that I made.

The perfect end to a lazy saturday came when the Red Devils won the match 2 -1. Phew! Otherwise I was planning to call Sir Alex to ask him what is going on. My favourite boys have been having a losing streak lately and it is time to fight back. The recent Manchester United matches have shown that the Red Devils are handicapped without Rio Ferdinand. Get back into action soon, Rio!