The cake was not small, and the middle was thick and bulging. Aunt Jing bit half of it, and found that it was stuffed. A stream of sweet cream flowed out. She licked it with her tongue and savored it carefully for a while. She was surprised and said, "Is this the stuffed puff pastry that grandma always told me about? It is indeed soft and fluffy. The ones you made before were already delicious to me, but compared with this, it is really worse. No wonder you said those were failures. What's more, how did you put the cream in? It is not even baked dry and it is so sweet."
"Silly boy, this is not cream, it's called condensed milk, but it's not my work. Second Master sent it to me. He said that all the restaurants out there now use this to replace cream, because they didn't make the cream right, so they made something like this. Fortunately, it has a good flavor. I added it to the cakes today, and it tasted really good. In addition to this, I also added jams, including strawberry jam, apple jam, pineapple jam, orange jam, etc. You haven't eaten yet, right? You're lucky, try it quickly. I have to prepare some more ingredients. When I go to the harem to meet the queen on the first day of the new year, I'll bring some to her."
Aunt Jing smiled and said, "No wonder Sister was so happy even though she was sweating from exhaustion. But why did Master go out? With such good food, why didn't he take this opportunity to eat his fill? Instead, he ran out? It will be difficult for him to eat so recklessly in the future."
Su Nuannuan rolled her eyes and sneered, "Do you think he's crazy? Running out at this time? He's just too full from eating lotus crisps, pork ribs, and rice cakes. Now he can't pretend to eat this cake anymore, so he told me he wants to go outside to do some boxing and run a few laps to digest the food and come back to continue eating."
"Eat...eat too much? Go out and do some boxing to help digestion? Come back and continue eating?" Aunt Jing was so shocked by this tough answer that she even repeated it in a murmur. Suddenly, Zhu Xiu shouted incoherently: "Ah, this...this...Aunt, this is really delicious, come and try it."
"Keep your voice down, you scared me." Aunt Jing finally came to her senses and turned around to see Zhu Xiu holding two things in her hands and coming towards her. Her cheeks were still puffed up. She criticized, "You often come in and out of the Chunfengyuan kitchen. Don't act so ignorant. I just ate the condensed milk shortbread made by my grandmother. It was so sweet that I almost swallowed my tongue. I haven't even shouted yet, what did you eat? You shouted so eagerly."
As he was talking, Zhu Xiu had already stuffed a piece of food into his mouth. He chewed it twice and then shouted, "Why is there still meat? The meat is so tender, yes. Is this the pork ribs and rice cake that grandma mentioned? No wonder Grandpa ate so much that his belly was so full that he had to run around. With something like this, how could he not feel full?"
As she spoke, she took the other piece from Zhu Xiu's hand. She turned it over and over and looked at it twice, then gently broke it apart, and saw the meat on the ribs tear apart under the rice cake. Although it was boiled in oil, it was cooked thoroughly, and the heat was very well controlled. You could still see a little fresh gravy in the meat. It didn't feel dry or greasy in the mouth, but was extremely delicious.
"I don't like eating meat, but I will eat spare ribs. Grandma's cooking really puts a lot of thought into it." Aunt Jing praised while eating. She ate three pieces in one breath before stopping. Then the family members brought other snacks to her for her to try, including crispy fried dough twists, osmanthus crystal cakes, etc., all of which were top-quality snacks with excellent color, aroma and taste.
Aunt Jing had a small appetite, so she was full after picking up one more piece of each. She was touching her belly and saying with a smile that she wanted to go out for a run to digest the food and then come back to eat, when she heard a commotion outside. Then Duan Maochuan, Duan Maoming and several other children came in. Even the two-year-old Duan Caiqin followed her brothers. When she saw Su Nuannuan, she stretched out her little arms and giggled, "Daliang hug me, Daliang hug me." She was still stumbling over her words.
"Oh my little darling, Auntie doesn't have time to hold you right now. When your father comes back, go and ask him to hold you." Su Nuannuan hurriedly shook her hands and said to Duan Maofan, "Brother Fan, take your brothers and sisters to sit in the warm room in the upper room. I will ask the maids to serve you some snacks later. Watch out for me, don't eat too much. These are all greasy things. If you get a stomachache, I will hold you responsible."
"Auntie, we just want to eat fresh food here." Duan Maofan hugged Su Nuannuan's thigh and begged, but she picked him up and put him far away. He heard her scolding and laughing, "Bah! Stop making trouble for me. I don't believe that my snacks are not fresh after just a few steps. It's obvious that you want to make a mess here. Let me tell you, this is not a joke. There is oil and fire everywhere in the kitchen today. If something goes wrong, it will be a disaster. Honglian, take them to the warm room for me, and let the Yang family and the Mi family keep an eye on them. Don't let these little guys make trouble."
The one from the Yang family was Duan Maochuan's wet nurse, and the one from the Mi family was Duan Maoming's wet nurse, and they were also standing outside at this time. Both of them were reliable, so Su Nuannuan called them, and the two agreed. Without saying anything, they took their young masters away with the other wet nurses. Soon, the sound of firecrackers was heard in the yard.
"What's going on?"
Su Nuannuan straightened up and looked out the door blankly, but saw Xing'er took the time to look out and turned back to say, "Nothing, it's just a few young masters setting off fireworks and firecrackers outside, grandma, don't worry."
"Don't worry about it. How old are they? How dare they put these things? If something breaks, it will be a disaster." Su Nuannuan stamped her feet anxiously and gritted her teeth and said, "These little evildoers, Xing'er, quickly pick up some snacks for their nurse to take them back to eat. How can I take care of them like this?"
Xing Er smiled and said, "Don't worry, grandma. They are just firecrackers. Their wet nurse is watching them. Oh, the master is here too and is playing with the young masters. Okay, grandma, leave them to the master. What else is there to worry about?"
"Amitabha." Su Nuannuan put her hands together and chanted Buddha's name, then smiled at Aunt Jing and said, "That's great. My master's big rat is entangled by a few small rats. I guess it has no time to come and steal food..."
Before she could finish, she saw Duan Tingxuan rushing in, picking up a large plate and a lot of snacks and going out. Then there was no more firecrackers in the yard. He must have taken the children to the warm room to eat snacks. Before Su Nuannuan could finish frying a pot of pork ribs and rice cakes, she saw him rushing in again, picking up a lot of snacks and rushing out again. After several times, not only Su Nuannuan was stunned, but even the servants were amazed. Aunt Jing said, "Grandma, it seems... that... Grandpa is eating more happily."
As she was talking, she saw Duan Tingxuan rushing in again. Su Nuannuan couldn't hold back any longer, so she walked forward with her hands on her hips like a teapot, and said angrily: "You haven't finished stealing food yet, have you? You stole half of the kitchen's production in the past half day. You are a rat, running here to stock up on food."
"Hehe, don't say that. Aren't we going to take some snacks to coax those little guys? Tell them not to play with firecrackers." Duan Tingxuan himself felt embarrassed and hurriedly explained, putting all the blame on his sons. Moreover, the black-hearted father didn't think there was anything wrong with doing so: it was only natural for the sons to take the blame for their father.
"You're trying to fool me with that? Do you think I don't have a brain? The kids are so stuffed, how much can they eat? You've already taken out six or seven plates, right? Even if you all turned into pigs, you couldn't eat so much. Did you hide it in the study and plan to eat it later? Can you be more ambitious? Tomorrow is New Year's Eve, and I'm so busy that I wish I could grow eight arms and eight legs. But you don't help at all, you just steal. Do you still remember that you are the prince of Anping Marquis's mansion?"
"I... I'll go out, I'll go out right now." The young marquis put down the plate dejectedly and ran away. The servants in the kitchen looked at Su Nuannuan in worship, thinking that grandma was getting more and more fierce. She dared to say that the prince was a rat hoarding food... Well, don't say it, it's really a very vivid metaphor.
After such a busy day, all kinds of snacks piled up in the small kitchen. Su Nuannuan didn't have a good lunch. In the evening, fragrant rice and some appetizers were delivered from the big kitchen. Among them, the sour bamboo shoots and chicken soup was extremely delicious. It was said that the daughter-in-law of the Xue family made it specially to honor the grandmother. Su Nuannuan didn't hesitate and drank two bowls of it happily, then fell on the bed and refused to move.
After a long while, she felt something jump up on her back, then lie on it and won't move. She reached back and pulled Zhaocai down, brought him in front of her, rubbed his smooth fur hard, then said weakly, "You beast, don't jump on me to sleep tonight. You don't know how hard I work. My whole body aches. Tomorrow is New Year's Eve, and I need to take good care of myself to celebrate the New Year."
"Why do you have to work so hard? You clearly taught everyone how to make those things and asked them to do them, but you insisted on doing it yourself. It's tiring, but isn't a whole morning enough? You even spent the afternoon in the kitchen. You are the wife of the prince, not a cook. If you don't want to be tired, who would dare to force you to do it? Why do you make yourself so tired?"
Duan Tingxuan walked in from outside and sat next to Su Nuannuan with a distressed look on his face, but he heard his wife snort coldly and said, "Why didn't you think of my suffering when you were eating? Now you are talking about it after the fact."
"I'm serious." Duan Tingxuan shook his head. "Actually, I wanted to say it during the day, but seeing that you were always so happy, I didn't say it. Now I heard you say you were tired, so I said it."
"Haha, then I really have to thank you for your thoughtfulness and attentiveness." Su Nuannuan was too lazy to get up. Anyway, she was wearing a fat and big home-made quilted shirt. She didn't believe that Duan Tingxuan could have any "sexual interest" in such a "bloated" her. This guy was worse than a beast and was not even greedy for beauties like Xue Zhilan and Aunt Jing.
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