JESUS LOVES PEBBLES: Happy Mothers' Day

Mothers' Day is celebrated on the 2nd sunday of May each year. This year, Da and his sister (GN) celebrated Mothers' Day today instead.

The venue for this year's Mothers' Day dinner with MIL was at our home. As such, I got up early today and started making preparations for dinner. Other than FIL and MIL, other persons attending the dinner at our home today were:-

(a) GN, her two daughters and their domestic helper;

(b) GN's mother-in-law (ie. mother of GN's husband, YK). YK was unable to attend the dinner today as he had a prior appointment; and

As I was preparing the entire dinner from scratch, Da thoughtfully bought a packet of nasi lemak from our favourite coffee shop at Jalan Tua Kong for my breakfast. In between bites of my meal, I was making preparations for dinner. As it turned out, I took several hours to finish the nasi lemak. Now, this is truly a case of "savouring one's food slowly". *grin*

In case you are wondering why I had to start preparations for dinner from as early as morning, it was because other than the fish nuggets and satay, both of which were bought, the rest of the food was coooked by me. The menu?

(a) chicken stew

(b) baked chicken fingers

(d) garlic bread - I did not have time last night to bake the bread and as such, I had to rush this morning to bake a loaf of onion and cheese bread (which I later sliced and spread with home-made garlic spread and toasted in the oven)

(e) otah bergedel

(f) brown rice - Da helped to cook this for me - thanks, Da!

(g) fish nuggets - Bibik's brand of fish nuggets is delicious

(h) satay - Da bought the satay from the corner coffee shop at the junction of Joo Chiat Road and Dunman Road

In the evening, I packed a container of home-made goodies for the three handsome boys who live on the same floor as Da and I. Oh, JT, do you recognise the toffee squares at the bottom right hand corner of the photograph below? I made them using the recipe that you gave me! The dinner guests sampled the toffee squares tonight and we all enjoyed it.

Da's niece, SCT arrived shortly after 5 pm today. I have the dear girl to thank for the beautiful Mothers' Day cake that you see in the photograph below. I had baked two 8" round coffee cakes this morning and SCT took over from there. She levelled the two cakes (as there was uneven rising of the cakes in our relatively new convection oven), prepared the cream cheese frosting, sandwiched the frosting between the two cakes, spread the frosting on the exterior of the cakes and decorated the cakes with chopped pecans, chopped walnuts, chopped pumpkin seeds, sliced green kiwis, sliced strawberries and chopped chocolate.

When SC and WC arrived, I got a shock when I saw that they came with a marketing trolley! Inside the trolley were a bottle of fruit wine, some cheese and many types of fruits. Goodness me! Thanks so much, my dear friends!

GN tossed a large bowl of salad - her specialty. She also brought along a bottle of Japanese salad dressing that contains groundnut. Yummy!

When all the dinner guests had arrived, the usual "Let's eat, let's eat" could be heard. Due to the number of dinner guests, Da and I decided to have the dinner buffet-style. I took a photograph of the dinner spread below and sent it to Hungribunni via mms. She replied with "Yummy". *grin*

Everyone was ready to partake of the feast. However, where was GN? I found her in the study room, using the computer. Sigh... this SIL of mine is hooked on facebook! She was busy creating a list of quiz questions for her facebook friends to answer to see how well they know her. Hmm... maybe I should give this a try as well. Here is a sample of my list of quiz questions:-
(a) What is my favourite colour?
(b) Which actor do I find very charming even at his age?
(c) What is my hobby?
(d) Am I computer savvy?

Gosh, GN.... this is more difficult than I thought! It is quite an effort to even think of quiz questions.... Looks like I will have to carry a notepad around to jot down quiz questions as and when I think of them.

As dinner was buffet-style, each guest was encouraged to go for second and third helpings. After several helpings, when WC commented that he felt like he was being "punished", everyone burst into laughter. FIL encouraged SC (the wife of WC) to be further "punished" by eating some more.

If the oranges in the photograph below look juicy and sweet to you, that is because they are! SC had brought a bagful of many huge oranges. She sliced 4 oranges to be shared by everyone. As the brand of the oranges comprises 4 numbers, FIL encouraged GN's mother-in-law to buy lottery with the 4 numbers (that is, "4D" lottery).

Yesterday, one of my colleagues went round the department taking orders for Puteri Mas durian puffs to be delivered yesterday. I ordered a box of durian puffs and I offered them to the dinner guests today.

Cake time! MIL and GN's mother-in-law were the guests of honour and they jointly held a knife and "pretended to cut the cake". Thereafter, GN took over and sliced the cake into large slices. Hmm... this is the first time that I baked coffee cake. The cake, eaten with the cream cheese frosting and toppings added by SCT, was not bad, if I may say so!

The previous time that Da and I accompanied FIL and MIL to GN's home for dinner, GN requested that I bake fruit and nut bread. I do not have a ready recipe for this and I have to admit that I have spent some time researching the internet for recipes. I could not find any recipe that I liked and after some improvisation, I baked the fruit and nut bread that you see in the photograph below. I added dried pineapple, dried mango, raisins, walnuts, peacans, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds to the bread. GN's mother-in-law requested for some butter/margarine and she spread it onto her slice of bread.

I hope that our dinner guests enjoyed the food and they had a good time. Even though SCT and her sister, MAT are of the "next generation", they sat at the dinner table and chatted with everyone after dinner.

Happy Mothers' Day to all mothers, grandmothers and god-mothers. The Lord loves you!