Satisfying dinner... the Red Devils won again!

Da and I had dinner guests tonight - the family of The Three Musketeers. Nining, in particular, enjoys swimming at the swimming pool in our development.

I woke up early this morning and started baking. I had planned to bake some garlic bread for dinner tonight. Nowadays, Da and I do not buy bread as we will use our breadmaker. For the garlic bread, I baked rosemary and cheese bread but I shaped the dough to look like focaccia. I realised that I had run out of garlic spread, so I made another batch of garlic spread.

We had planned a simple menu for dinner:-
(a) crockpot chicken casserole;
(b) garlic bread;
(c) otah patties; and

(d) baked fish nuggets.

Other than the fish nuggets, the rest of the items were made from scratch. I derive a lot of satisfaction in cooking and baking. My culinary skills are mediocre but the interest keeps me going. When you are interested in something, the word "failure" does not exist in your dictionary. Even if you stumble, you pick yourself up, brush off the dust and continue in your journey to success.

Ding-dong! The family of the Three Musketeers had arrived. After they deposited their belongings at our home, they proceeded to the swimming pool. In the meantime, ET and Da did some gallivanting as ET wanted to eat Chinese rojak.

As I was finishing up the dinner preparations, I heard the word "Aunty" being called. I looked up and I saw standing at our door the eldest of the three handsome boys who live opposite Da and I in our apartment block. He gave me a box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates (one of my favourite chocolates other than Cadbury chocolates). Thank you, boys! It is very thoughtful of you.

As our dinner guests took their shower after an invigorating swim, I packed some goodies and gave them to the three handsome boys - chicken casserole, otah patties, garlic bread and some of the cakes and cookies that I had baked today.

Dinner-time! There was an early kick-off for the Manchester United English Premier League match today. They were playing against Middlesbrough. As we ate our dinner, I noticed that Nining was watching the soccer match intently while eating her dinner.

ET had bought some satay from a coffee shop located at the junction of Dunman Road and Joo Chiat Road. The stallholder makes his own ketupat.

ET also bought some satay beehoon (sans the beehoon, that is, rice vermicelli) from the hawker centre at Dunman Road. I declined to give it a try as the dish looked spicy.

After dinner, we relaxed in the living room and continued watching the Manchester United vs Middlesbrough soccer match. Yippee! The Red Devils won again!

For the after-dinner drinks, I concocted a "fruit cocktail" comprising orange juice and sparkling wine.

Dessert #1 was banana kueh. I used mung bean flour to make the kueh.

Dessert #2 was carrot cake that I had baked today. My able assistant, Supercute, expertly sliced the cake for everyone to enjoy.

Tau Suan requested for permission to use our computer and I granted the permission. When I went to the study room, he was watching a youtube video of the performance of "I dreamed a dream" by Susan Boyle on Britain's Got Talent. She is a 47-year-old lady from Scotland and her singing voice is amazing. The judges and the audience were stunned when she started singing.

Dessert #3 was tiramisu ice cream cake made by SY. Again, Supercute demonstrated his skills in slicing cakes. Hi SY, your tiramisu ice cream cake was divine! Do post the recipe in your blog soon.

Nining decided to be cheeky and she played "peek-a-boo" using the dinner chair. I managed to capture her "jail-bird" look using my digital camera. She is full of facial expressions and she is always pleased when she manages to make us laugh.

When Tau Suan asked me what is the "saddest thing" that happened in my life, I replied that it is the death of loved ones. Life is not a bed of roses and we do sometimes encounter challenges in school or in the workforce but if you think about it, all these are temporal. When we look to the Cross and see how our Lord Jesus Christ bore all our sins and carried all our sicknesses and diseases, these challenges in school or in the workforce no longer seem insurmountable.