Miao Wan did not forget Uncle Geng and Aunt Geng. Their monthly wages had already been paid, and she gave them an extra month's allowance, which was considered the thirteenth salary.
Then he gave each of them a reward of five strings of cash.
Because Uncle Geng and the others were bought by the Qiao family, it didn't matter that Changshou was still a child, but adults had to calculate clearly, and it was appropriate for the Qiao family to pay the money, so she didn't tell the Zhang family.
As the two of them declined, Miao Wan yawned, tears welling up in her eyes. "Uncle and aunt, you and Changshou have worked hard, so this is what you deserve. You can save it for Changshou's tuition."
Uncle Geng and his wife were stunned on the spot, and then they became even more excited than the three Zhang brothers before.
"Can longevity lead to study?"
Miao Wan took Geng's handkerchief and wiped her eyes, then looked at her mother-in-law. "Didn't mother tell my uncle and aunt? In the future, the profits from our shop will be distributed according to work. If we open another shop, we will definitely give you a contract first. If Changshou is good at studying, he can also take the imperial examination."
Uncle Geng and Aunt Geng:!!!
Geng had mentioned it vaguely, but the two of them didn't even dare to think in that direction.
When the Xiban people massacred their village, they had no choice but to flee with their sons. However, they lost their land and had no choice but to sell themselves as indentured laborers and were sold to wealthy families in Xiping County as servants.
Unexpectedly, the youngest son of that family was naughty and almost beat Changshou to death because Changshou picked up the ink stick that Changshou threw away.
The housekeeper kicked out their family on charges of theft and didn't even give them their monthly wages.
Changshou had a high fever that wouldn't go away, and they were really desperate. By chance, they met a trafficker from the same village who had escaped that year, and he took them in out of pity.
But they were not doing charity. In order to help Changshou cure his illness, they sold themselves again. This time they sold themselves for a death contract. The money was enough to cure Changshou.
Fortunately, Geng came across them and saw that the whole family was honest. They also happened to have the same surname, so he bought them back.
Now, when the couple heard Miao Wan say this, they immediately knelt down in front of them.
As long as they live long enough to escape slavery, they are willing to work for us.
Geng quickly helped them up: "The ground is cold. We don't do this at home. Go back and rest early."
It's very late at night.
Miao Wan was so sleepy that she couldn't open her eyes. She went in, washed up, lay down, and started snoring.
Geng originally wanted to talk to her daughter-in-law about her son.
She always felt that the way the young couple got along was a little strange, but they seemed to be much more cordial than when they were in the capital. She wanted to figure out what was wrong.
But seeing Miao Wan sleeping so soundly, Geng also yawned.
Forget it, children and grandchildren have their own blessings. This is my first New Year in the northwest, and there are many things to do tomorrow.
The next day, Miao Wan woke up because she had to hold her urine.
She had already gotten up twice in the middle of the night, but the frequency of urination for over eight months was shocking to her.
She was so shocked that she lowered her standards for herself to just not peeing on the bed.
Because it was snowing, the room was still quite bright. Miao Wan sat on the maternity pillow in a daze.
"Mom, what time is it?"
Geng helped her get up. "It's just past midnight. Why don't you go to the toilet and come back to sleep for a while? Ruichen hasn't come back yet, and Dazhuang and his two brothers went fishing in the lake and haven't come back yet either."
Miao Wan thought for a moment and said, "Forget it. If I continue to sleep, the children will come and laugh at me. I promised to make them some fresh snacks yesterday."
It’s time to bring out the delicious and simple Shachima!
This is one of her magic tricks to make money during the Lantern Festival. She will make it into a cake in the shape of the word "Fu".
She had read some news that said selling cakes could earn her enough to buy a villa and a BMW.
She doesn't have such high demands. She would be satisfied if she could earn enough to support half of the shop.
After cleaning up, Aunt Geng made some dumpling soup, and Miao Wan thanked her with a smile.
The dumpling soup is made with radish and winter squash, an extra beaten egg, and a few drops of sesame oil. The dumplings are tender and chewy, the radish is sweet, and the winter squash is dried and then boiled, making it softer than eggs and carrying the fragrance of vegetables.
Drink a big bowl of it and you will feel warm in the morning. You don’t have to worry about gaining weight after eating too much. It is especially comfortable for pregnant women.
After breakfast, Miao Wan helped Geng and Aunt Geng to go to Zhang's house. The three of them looked like a string of crabs, and they were quite imposing.
But you can't be careless. It's not a joke after a heavy snowfall. She can be in a lot of trouble, but the most important thing is the baby's safety.
The Qiao family’s kitchen can cook, but she doesn’t have much confidence in her cooking skills, and she estimates that Sun Laohuo will not be too late.
What if... just what if, if her hands become clumsy, she can still ask Sun Ada to help make up for it. At least it's the New Year, and the things she makes won't be ugly to anyone.
The question is, mothers also need to save face occasionally.
Shaqima was originally called Sachima. It is said to be an improvement on the Manchurian pastry used for ancestor worship. It is one of the Beijing-style four-season pastries in later generations. It is very appropriate to make it at this time of year.
Miao Wan never opened any of the live streaming apps because of overly complicated methods. Most of the titles she opened were -
“Wow! It’s so easy to make shachima at home!”
"Teach you three steps to make delicious and sweet shachima!"
…
So she would just do it the simplest way.
Of course, she occupied the most open position at the kitchen door, and there was a group of children around her to help her, waiting to let Sun Ada shine during the process.
"Yanjing Sui Shi Ji" says that shaqi ma is made by kneading eggs, cream or oil with flour, then cutting it into long strips and frying it in a frying pan. After taking it out, dip it in sugar made of malt sugar and honey, mix it evenly, put it in a mold and let it cool thoroughly, and it is done.
This is the ancient method of making delicious shachima in three steps.
When dipping and stirring with sugar, you can also add some raisins, sesame seeds, dates, etc.
But now there is nothing.
There were dried fruits on the list she wrote to Qiao Ruichen. Uncle Geng and the others had been looking for them in Xining Town for a long time but couldn't find any, and she didn't know how much Qiao Ruichen could buy.
Her belly is now almost as big as it was before Sun gave birth. It's not that big, but it's still troublesome for her to bend over and stand up. So although she said she did it, it was actually Yu and Yang who did it.
Since Yang was strong, she was responsible for kneading the dough. After adding eggs to the flour, she kneaded it into a smooth dough and then let it rest for about an incense stick of time.
There was no honey at home, so Yu melted malt sugar in a clay pot to make the dipping sugar.
Miao Wan was afraid that the children would be burned when frying, so she simply gave each of them a handful of pumpkin seeds and let them eat them.
"You can't eat the melon seeds. Wash them and sprinkle them on the shaqima. They will taste better then." Miao Shiren announced to the children cruelly, "I'll just lend you my mouth, but don't swallow them."
Children: “…”
When the kneaded dough was ready to be cut, Sun Laohuo also came, still carrying a shoulder pole.
Madam Sun, who was following behind, probably had been beaten before, and now she looked obedient and silent.
She just looked around for a while and felt a little disappointed when she didn't see Sun Yaozu. She didn't want to be annoying, so she went to Sun's room to see the child.
Sun Laohuo was terrified when he saw Miao Wan holding a knife. "Can your belly touch the chopping board? Put it down quickly, I'll do it."
Miao Wan: "..." She was just handing the knife to her sister-in-law.
However, it was more convenient for her to hand it to Sun Ada. Miao Wan smiled and handed the knife to Sun Laohuo, and skillfully instructed him to do so.
"Sun Ada, cut it into thin strips half the thickness of your little finger, and the length of your dog eggs should be just as long as your palm."
"The oil temperature should be high enough to fry the thin strips into a crispy golden brown, but not too crispy..."
Sun Laohuo: “…” You have quite high requirements for frying a few dough balls.
If Miao Wan said this to other people, it would probably be as confusing as seeing the words "a little" or "appropriate amount".
But the chef knew how to cook these things with his hands. After a short while, Sun Laohuo fried out a basket full of thin noodles.
Qiao Ruichen also came back. He was even more exaggerated. He directly asked someone to pull a mule cart back.
"Oh, what did you buy? Why so much?" Madam Zhang heard the sound of the door sill being opened, followed it out and saw the mule cart, and asked in surprise.
It was still snowing, not as heavy as yesterday, but with fine snowflakes floating in the air. Qiao Ruichen lifted the oilcloth to reveal what was underneath.
The lamb and beef chops that Miao Wan wanted to buy were all available, and two buckets of milk were also given as a gift.
The dried fruits and dates she wanted were all available, and there was even a basket of mung bean sprouts, two large bags of dried vegetables, as well as black fungus and white fungus.
"Husband!" Miao Wan stood at the kitchen door, holding her belly, and called out crisply.
Geng pushed her in, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "I know you want to praise your husband. Wait until he comes into the kitchen before you praise him. It's snowing while you two are talking, and you took off your coat. Don't catch a cold."
Miao Wan: "..." She just wanted to motivate Qiao Bailao.
The children were clinging to the door and laughing, and the adults couldn't help laughing too.
Qiao Ruichen touched his ears, feeling particularly happy. He remained expressionless and moved things from the mule cart into the kitchen swiftly.
Just then, Mrs. Yu had finished making the malt sugar. Miao Wan waved to Qiao Ruichen, "Husband, come here quickly. I'll give you something delicious to try."
The children ran much faster than Qiao Ruichen, but Qiao Ruichen still had to be quick to hold them still and prevent them from colliding with Miao Wan.
Following Miao Wan's instructions, Sun Laohuo coated the fried thin strips with sugar, and then sprinkled a layer of thin strips on each layer of sugar, and also sprinkled the pumpkin seeds peeled by the children on the thin strips.
Even the dried fruits and dates bought by Qiao Ruichen were chopped up by Sun Laohuo and sprinkled on the food.
He also specially cut the dried fruits into thin strips, and used the same method as when making cat ears to piece together the thin strips to form the Chinese character "Fu".
It was freezing cold, and the shaqi ma in the wooden frame solidified into a block within a cup of tea after being placed at the door.
Because the malt sugar was sticky, Sun Laohuo had greased the wooden frame in advance. Now he only needed to take a knife and cut neatly along the character "Fu" horizontally and vertically to take it out.
The golden shachima has a sweet scent of malt sugar when you smell it up close.
When you take a bite, it is soft and chewy, sweet but not greasy, and the aroma of egg noodles is very rich.
"Ahhh - so delicious! This is exactly the taste!" While eating, Miao Wan quickly grabbed a blessing character and handed it to Qiao Ruichen.
"My husband, you eat too. I wish you good fortune and prosperity in the coming year!"
Zhang Dazhuang and his friends had also returned from fishing. Seeing this, they smiled and joked, "What about us?"
"Sun Ada is still doing it!" Miao Wan said confidently, and glanced at Yu and the others, "Whoever's husband is his, he loves him. If big brother wants to eat, go find big sister-in-law!"
Everyone laughed so hard that Qiao Ruichen couldn't help laughing too. He didn't taste any flavor of the shaqima, but he felt it was extremely sweet.
Although the children didn't know why they were laughing, since the whole family was laughing, they also started to laugh.
The kitchen was filled with the children's silvery laughter, which could be heard from far away.
Other people could not hear it either, because at this moment every household was filled with the lively noise of laughter, quarreling and fighting, which, combined with the misty snow, formed a perfect New Year's Eve picture.
To make a roasted whole lamb, there is a lot of preparation work. After killing the lamb, you cannot roast it immediately. You must first brush the hung lamb with sauce over and over again to remove the fishy smell.
Miao Wan watched Sun Ada work for a while and felt that the steps were a bit similar to those of roasting duck.
She swallowed and thought that once the shop was open, she could discuss with Sun Ada about opening a kiln, and then she could arrange to bake bread and roast duck.
She also has a lot of work to do.
When the whole family gets together during Chinese New Year, if you want to enjoy the meal happily, of course you have to rush to eat it, and how can you miss hot pot!
There is also Boxia Gong at this time, but the soup of Boxia Gong is similar to the Zao Rou soup, which is water with sauce, and at most a little spices and salt to enhance the flavor. Apart from being warm, it is not delicious.
Miao Wan asked Qiao Ruichen to buy a whole lamb and some lamb ribs.
Now wash the lamb ribs, boil them in cold water to skim off the foam, add onions and ginger to remove the odor, and then use them to make a thick soup.
As for the beef ribs, the meat is removed to make beef balls, and after the bones are cracked, they are cooked separately in an iron pot.
She wants to make a shabu-shabu hotpot.
Fish is added to the mutton soup to make it fresh, and the beef bone soup is made with the dogwood oil and pepper oil that Mr. Sun had prepared earlier to make a spicy soup.
As for the side dishes, there were the two bags of dried vegetables that Qiao Ruichen bought.
The dried vegetables are blanched in boiling water until soft, then cut into a plate together with black fungus and white fungus, and then added with various meatballs and vegetarian meatballs, which makes it very rich.
These are not enough. How can hot pot be without crispy pork and mutton rolls? There is no shortage of pork at home, and Chef Sun is here to cut the mutton rolls.
In fact, most of the work was done by Sun Laohuo, with others helping out. Miao Wan's hardest job was to stand in the kitchen with her hand on her waist and give instructions.
"Sun Ada, can you slice the mutton thinner? Then roll it up and freeze it in the snow. Why does it roll up...it looks so good!"
"By the way, can you pound the beef, sir? Wrap it in broth and make meatballs. Hmm...it tastes better this way. Trust me, sir!"
"Sister-in-law, let's not grill the fish today. Let's steam it instead? We should have some leftovers from the New Year's abundance, so let's not make it too tempting..."
…
Listening to her chatter, Sun Laohuo couldn't help but ask Qiao Ruichen, who was silently pounding the beef beside him, "Did you tell your wife everything you said? Isn't she thirsty?"
Qiao Ruichen thought for a moment, put down the knife, went to pour a bowl of water for Miao Wan, brought a stool over, asked her to sit down and talk, and then went back to work.
Sun Laohuo: "..."
Yu and Yang glared at Zhang Dazhuang and Zhang Erzhuang who were also chopping meat: Look at them!
The two brothers: “…”
Actually, it’s good that Brother Ruichen doesn’t come back.
The whole family was busy in the kitchen. In the middle of the process, Sun Laohuo's three apprentices came over, each of them threw down a bunch of dried vegetables and left quickly.
The Zhang family has no shortage of meat, but dried vegetables are the best thing in winter.
The Chinese New Year is approaching, and the vegetables in the cellars of every household have been eaten for the whole winter, and there are only enough to eat during the Chinese New Year. It is difficult for them to go out and harvest the vegetables.
Miao Wan drank water frantically while thinking, these apprentices look pretty good, but when she sees it later, they will all be forced to work as workers in the shop!
There are seven people in the Qiao family, including Uncle Geng's family of three.
The Zhang family has sixteen members, not counting the baby that Sun just gave birth to.
The Qiao family consists of three people.
There were twenty-six people, so many that two ordinary tables could not accommodate them.
The Zhang family moved the kang tables from their three sons' rooms and put together a large table on the kang of the old couple.
In the main hall, they moved the table from the Qiao family's main hall over and put it together with the Zhang family's table. They stacked the two tables together for people to sit on, and it was just barely enough space for people to sit on.
In other people's houses, men sit at the table and women eat on the ground.
But who would dare to ask Miao Wan, a pregnant woman, to sit on the stacked stools now? The Qiao family and the women would beat them to death.
Fortunately, the Zhang family’s women’s army has a higher status.
Although Sun Laohuo was the head of the family, he followed the crowd and let his wife sleep on the kang.
The eight grown men were eating on the ground with their eldest grandson, Donkey Egg, who was called Eleven after the New Year.
Unfortunately, there is no shuangyang hot pot at home.
Miao Wan felt that her brain must have been affected by her pregnancy, so she forgot about this while taking care of the blacksmith in the Yang family.
There was no other way, so they had to requisition the clay stoves used for boiling medicine from two families and use earthenware pots to hold the soup on them.
There was a clear soup made with fish and mutton on the kang, and a spicy soup made with beef bones in the main room. Yu and Yang sat on the edge of the kang, so whoever wanted to eat spicy food could go over and get it.
The aroma of fresh fish and mutton is also very attractive. At least for children who cannot eat spicy soup, the rich fragrance wafting from the earthenware pot makes them not too envious of the table in the main hall.
In addition to hot pot, there is also charcoal-grilled chicken specially made by Yu, four cold dishes made by Yang, and steamed fish.
In addition, the table is filled with side dishes of both meat and vegetables, which is even more dazzling than the New Year’s Eve dinner of four cold dishes and eight hot dishes in the past.
Others’ favorite was the beef meatballs, which they had never eaten before.
Beef is so rare in this world. If ordinary people want to eat beef, it’s not a matter of money, but they simply can’t buy it.
So everyone put the beef balls into the clay pot first.
Only the naughty Miao Wan smiled and dodged a little, her eyes shining as she looked at the whole lamb that Sun Lao had sliced after roasting it.
She took a bite and found it crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, with a fragrant oil and crispy texture. The aroma of cumin was mixed with the aroma of meat, and there seemed to be a hint of spicy taste from dogwood. She opened her eyes wide and sighed. This roasted whole lamb tastes... Why is it so spicy and looks like lamb skewers!
She suddenly got excited. If she knew how to cook barbecue, she would definitely make spicy skewers first. What could be more popular than barbecue?
But she can make the soup for spicy skewers, and barbecue tastes better when there are many people eating it. When there are many people... no one can watch her do it, so naturally there is no need to watch the live broadcast app.
Besides, the seasonings used on barbecue are all ready-made, and she doesn’t know how to make them.
I wanted to ask Sun Ada after the New Year. Does anyone know the ingredients for this seasoning? Sun Ada has it!
"Wow!" Goudan was an impatient person. He bit into the beef ball immediately and was scalded by the soup inside. He turned around and sprayed Yang's arm.
"Hahaha... beef balls can pee!" Goudan didn't feel the danger of beating the child before the New Year, and pointed at Yang with his tongue hanging and laughed.
Others also noticed it. After thinking about it, it was really like peeing. Seeing Yang slapping Goudan's butt in frustration, they couldn't help laughing.
Miao Wan was the happiest one as she had just discovered the new world. She also held her belly and laughed along with him.
Who knew that just as she started, she felt a sudden rush of emotion, and her lower body became wet instantly.
She froze. God, please tell her she's going to give birth!
The author has something to say:
Note: The production method and related introduction of Shaqima are from Baidu information.
Hahaha, well, the baby is still more than a month away.
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