In the light of dawn, every household is beaming with joy. The big houses are decorated with lanterns and festoons. Lanterns are hung under the eaves, and there are paintings of door gods specially invited to ward off evil spirits and keep the house pasted on the doors.

The poorer people can only buy some red paper and ask the nearby scholar Juren to help write a pair of couplets, which can only be pasted on the gate. Good luck in the coming year.

When Chinese New Year is approaching, many scholars and masters will help people write couplets for free.

The Pei family bought red paper a few days ago and wrote several couplets, which were pasted not only on the gate, but also on the west wing of the main kitchen in the courtyard.

There was even a sticker on the wooden shed next to the kitchen, which said things like good harvests and happy family, and a lot of blessings, which were posted on the door.

The couplet was naturally written by Pei Weixuan, and the handwriting was like a pine branch. Even Xu Qinyu, who didn't know much about calligraphy, could see that his handwriting was very imposing and beautiful.

Xu Qinyu cooked some paste for pasting the couplets, and when the paste was used up, all the couplets and blessing characters had just been pasted.

Pei Jianing exclaimed, "The fourth sister-in-law is really amazing."

The boiled paste is just enough to paste couplets, no more and no less.

Xu Qinyu raised her brows with a smile, that's not true, she can control the portion with ease, as soon as she gets something, she can know how much it is, exactly.

After posting the couplets and blessings, Xu Qinyu simply cooked a morning meal.

Chaoshi she cooked Yangchun noodles, with a poached egg on top, no green vegetables, she just used Chinese cabbage, sprinkled with a few green onions at the end, it was light and refreshing, the soup was clear but tasted very fresh.

Of course there is brother Shao, Zhu Zi came here, Zhu Zi also wore new clothes today, seeing Pei's family, beamed and said auspicious words for the new year.

After Zhuzi left, Xu Qinyu also started preparing the New Year's Eve dinner for Mushi.

This is the first New Year's stay here, and it is of great significance to Xu Qinyu and the Pei family.

So this New Year's Eve dinner, Xu Qinyu planned to make it richer.

It's still early, and she's just processing all the ingredients now, and won't start cooking the New Year's Eve dinner until the afternoon.

She prepared a lot of ingredients, pork belly, old duck, mandarin fish, this mandarin fish was specially asked by Uncle He to help her pay attention to it a few days ago, there is also mandarin fish here, but don’t know if it’s because of the water quality or something, there are relatively few, herring It is the most common with crucian carp, and there are several other fishes.

Mandarin fish has the least fish bones and the least fishy smell among all fish, so some big restaurants will also make mandarin fish, but it seems that not many people like to eat it, and it may be that the taste is not right.

Therefore, mandarin fish is also the most expensive of all fish. Herring and crucian carp cost a penny a catty, while it costs more than ten pennies a catty.

In addition to these ingredients, there is also lamb.

There are six people in the family. Xu Qinyu didn't cook too many dishes. If he cooked too much, he would eat leftovers for several days in a row.

So she made stewed old duck pork belly soup, which was stewed early, put it in a casserole and simmered slowly, until it was twilight, the fresh meat in the soup was rotten, nourishing yin and reducing fire, it can be eaten with lamb .

In addition, there is squirrel mandarin fish, which is made of mandarin fish. The fish bones are separated, the fish meat is carved, seasoned and marinated, hung with egg yolk and fried in oil pan, and finally put on a plate and poured with sweet and sour sauce. It tastes sweet and sour, and children prefer this sweet and sour dish. There is no fishbone, so you can eat it with confidence.

Mutton is more stinky. The mutton here has a stinky smell. The mutton grown in grasslands is not so strong. It can be steamed and eaten with leek flowers or dipping sauce. The meat is tender and not stinky. The mutton here is best fried, stewed or roasted.

So Xu Qinyu stewed radishes with mutton ribs. Stewing can better remove the smell of mutton, and it tastes delicious.

In addition, there are several fried dishes, which can be eaten after being heated in the pot, or the mutton pot can be eaten at the end with some broth, fried meatballs, radish balls, some other side dishes such as bean sprouts and tofu, etc. can be eaten.

In addition to several big dishes, Xu Qinyu also cooked eight-treasure glutinous rice.

Eight-treasure glutinous rice has different recipes in different places. What she makes is sweet, which is a traditional famous dish in Ningbo. It is made of glutinous rice with bean paste and jujube paste, several other dried fruits and lard. It is made, the color is beautiful, and the taste is even sweeter and softer.

Finally, stir-fried bean sprouts, fried with scallions, crisp and refreshing.

When Xu Qinyu was cooking the New Year's Eve dinner, the Pei family also stayed in the kitchen either helping or watching the fire. The family was very warm.

Today's New Year's Eve, the family specially changed into new clothes. Although they bought thin jackets, they all wore other clothes inside, so it wouldn't be cold.

In the past, the Pei family didn't wear any kind of silk and satin, even the most precious silk brocade was tired of wearing it, but now the two children touched the new clothes from time to time, Xu Qinyu couldn't help feeling a little sad.

When it was evening food, every household remembered the sound of burning firecrackers.

Naturally, there is no gunpowder and no firecrackers here. Firecrackers are burned during the Chinese New Year. Bamboo will make a crackling sound when it burns. There are legends of Nian beasts.

The food was ready, and the Pei family helped to bring the food to the main room, and Pei Weixuan went to the yard to burn bamboo.

The bamboo is sun-dried. bought it on purpose a few days ago, and someone sold it during the Chinese New Year, and it cost two for one penny.

When Pei Weixuan lit the bamboo with a torch, the bamboo burned and made a crackling sound, not to mention, it was really similar to setting off firecrackers.

Xu Qinyu pursed her lips and smiled, which reminded her a little bit of when she was in the orphanage, the dean's mother would set off firecrackers during the Chinese New Year, a group of children hid in the dining room and chattered, and when the firecrackers were set off, a group of children covered their ears and their eyes were full She looked brightly at the dean's mother setting off firecrackers outside.

In fact, even though their group of children always had fights when they were young, there were no children who didn't fight when they were young. After they grew up, they were quite close. A few of them also kept in touch frequently, and they were one of her few friends.

After burning the bamboo, everyone went into the main room to eat.

All six of them sat at the table, even Brother Feng and Sister Xian sat at the table.

Xu Qinyu also made glutinous rice wine a few days ago. Glutinous rice wine is also called sweet wine. Soak the glutinous rice for several hours, steam it and put it in a wooden barrel. Just come out and wait for the fermentation of sweet wine.

The most important thing for liqueur is to ferment at temperature. The weather is too cold, so she ferments it on the kitchen stove.

There is also wine koji here, but it is quite expensive.

The sweet wine tastes sour and sweet, and the glutinous rice wine she fermented has a particularly positive taste, almost no alcohol taste, and can be drunk as a thirsty drink.

Yinzi thirsty water almost means drink.

Of course, after all, it is fermented with koji, so it is considered wine if it is low in alcohol, sour and sweet.

Children can't touch it at all.

Of course their adults can drink a few bowls to their heart's content.

Pour sweet wine into the bowls of several people. Xu Qinyu picked up the bowl and said with a smile: "Mother, sister Ning, fourth brother, brother Feng, sister Yuan, happy new year, I hope everyone will be healthy in the new year." Be healthy and good luck."

Several people held up the bowls in front of them, the eyes of Mrs. Wen and Mrs. Ning were a little red, they said auspicious words, and everyone drank the sweet wine in the bowls in one gulp.

Brother Feng and sister Xian can't drink sweet wine, Xu Qinyu made them sugar water.

I haven't seen milk and goat milk for sale, otherwise can make some milk tea for the two children.

A sumptuous New Year's Eve dinner, accompanied by sweet liqueur, everyone had a great time, and there were not many dishes left.

The favorites of Brother Feng and Sister Xian are squirrel mandarin fish and glutinous rice eight-treasure rice.

Xu Qinyu didn't dare to let them eat more of the glutinous rice eight-treasure rice, so each person had a small bowl, otherwise he was afraid of food accumulation.

After the New Year's Eve dinner, Wen Shi went to the kitchen to wash the dishes and let Yu Niang and the others go out for a stroll.

Wen didn't go, she stayed at home to watch the night.

It's rare for Xu Qinyu to rest, and it's Chinese New Year, so he naturally wants to go out for a walk, not to mention that there will be a night market in the town during the Chinese New Year, which is not available on weekdays.

The night market is also run by the wealthy and squires on the other side of East Street and West Street. Some lantern riddles guesses are free. As long as they can guess the lantern riddles, they will send lanterns. If Pei Weixuan is there, the lantern riddles can be guessed correctly. Xu Qin Yu, Ning Jie'er, Feng Ge'er and Qian Jie'er were all holding a lantern.

There are also many small vendors selling food, jewelry, and all kinds of small clay figurines. After walking around, everyone went back.

Then, on the first day of the new year, Xu Qinyu had a better relationship with the Xia family here, and the two families paid New Year's greetings to each other.

In the next few days, Xu Qinyu didn't have much work to do, and was resting at home.

...

Besides, the Pei family has been warm this year, but the Wen family is different.

It was also the first year for the Wen family to celebrate the New Year in the border town. There were no servants and cooks in the family. The New Year's Eve dinner was cooked by the three houses and two old aunties together.

The master of the third house is a concubine, born by Concubine Bai, and married to the Meng family. Meng’s status is not high. She was also a girl from a small family. A daughter, daughter Wen Yuntao, is one year younger than Wen Yunling in the big room, and she is almost fifteen years old.

So Sanfang also made the New Year's Eve dinner for Mrs. Meng, Wen Yuntao and two old concubines, preparing the family's New Year's Eve dinner for the past 30 years.

Wen's family of more than 30 people ate the New Year's Eve dinner in the living room, and they were also divided into three tables.

Concubine Gui and Concubine Bai were sitting together in the third room. The taste of the New Year's Eve dinner was really not that good.

The third master Wen Zixiao was not there. After he came to the border town, he went out to find work by himself. Although he was in his thirties, he had a bit of martial arts and did all kinds of work. He occasionally went to the mountains to catch some prey to sell. Every time I take it home, the money is not too much. I don’t have 2 taels of silver a month. Mrs. Wen always wondered if he secretly earned the money but didn’t turn it over. Don't come to this.

Wen Zixiao wasn't here for the New Year either, so he didn't know what to do outside.

Hearing that the old lady was eating these tasteless New Year's Eve dinners, she was in a bad mood. Seeing that the third child was not there, she couldn't help but ask Mrs. Meng with a stern face, "Why hasn't the third child come back yet? Wife's don't care about their men."

Meng Shi said softly, "Back to my mother's words, I don't know what the master is doing outside. I should still make money outside, and I don't have a livelihood at home. The master is also worried that the family is sitting on the mountain, although I get it back every month. There is not much money, but it is much stronger than ordinary people, so you have to take your time."

Mrs. Wen did not want to talk to Mrs. Meng. No matter what you said to Mrs. Meng, she was gentle and gentle, but the words she said in a gentle tone always made people feel uncomfortable. You continued to train her, and she bowed her head. It's up to you to admit mistakes.

Mrs. Wen originally wanted to train the two grandsons of the third house, but Wen Shun became Wen Shun Gong, because they left Sister Ling on the road a few days ago, and they managed to catch them during the Chinese New Year. , It's New Year's Eve again, and if she wants to teach her grandson against this bad guy, Mrs. Wen won't give her a face.

Don't look at Mrs. Wen who doesn't make much noise on weekdays, but Mrs. Wen is still quite afraid of him.

Mrs. Wen could only give up.

The whole family ate the New Year's Eve dinner in silence.

Wen Yunling was reluctant to eat after two bites. It was too unpalatable. It was better to buy food from a small stall outside.

Concubine Gui sat at a table with the third room.

Aunt Gui kept coughing while eating. She was afraid of being heard, so she could only lower her voice and cough, but everyone was eating in the same room, so how could they not hear? Madam Wen was really annoyed and couldn't help but say, " Concubine Gui, what's the matter with you, you keep coughing, is there any rule for you to cough like this, so that no one is allowed to eat?"

Concubine Gui said in a low voice, "Perhaps there was some air leakage from the windows of the penthouse two days ago, and the wind was blowing at night and it was a little cold. It should be fine in two days."

Mrs. Wen wanted to say something, and Mrs. Wen frowned and said, "It's done, it's a big New Year's day, don't talk about it, let's eat it quickly. After eating the vigil, the children can also go out to the night market, remember to go early. return."

The family then continued to eat and dared not speak.

Aunt Gui still coughed a little, and Aunt Bai gave her a worried look.

After eating, Mrs. Wen and Mrs. Wen, who had the second room and the second room, evacuated first, leaving the third room to clean up.

Aunt Bai worried, "Aunt Gui, are you alright?"

Concubine Gui shook her head, "It's alright, don't worry little sister, maybe it will be fine in two days." Concubine Bai is even younger than her.

In this mansion, she has the best relationship with Aunt Bai, but she dare not tell Aunt Bai about this matter. When she leaves, Aunt Bai will still be protected by the third child. It's up to people, the Wen family will definitely separate when the time comes.

The family is separated, the third child will definitely take Aunt Bai to live there, even if it is definitely not easy to take her away, I am afraid the third child will also bleed a little.

What's more, Mrs. Wen just wanted to tease her, and didn't want Aunt Bai to be an eyesore to her all the time, because Mrs. Wen doted on Aunt Bai very much when she was young, and Mrs. Wen wanted Aunt Bai to leave.

Aunt Bai nodded and said in a low voice, "Why don't you find a doctor tomorrow, I still have a little bit of money here."

Needless to say, it must have been secretly given by the third child.

Aunt Gui shook her head, "No, just wait for two days and it will be fine. If you really feel uncomfortable, I will ask the old lady to get money to find a doctor."

The two old sisters talked for a while, and then went to the kitchen to wash the dishes. Aunt Bai told Aunt Gui to rest more and not to be busy, but Aunt Gui was unwilling, and wanted to help finish the work early so that everyone could rest.

...

Xu Qinyu rested at home for several days, and she felt much more comfortable. On the sixth day, she planned to rest for a day, and went to the pier tomorrow to have a look and buy ingredients to continue setting up a stall.

I went to the pier to see if the merchant ships were still there. It hasn’t snowed in the past few days during the Chinese New Year, and the weather is warmer than before. If the ice on the canal melts, the merchant ships will definitely leave instead of staying.

But without the merchant ships, there should be other caravans coming and going, and the food stalls should still be able to do it. If there are not many people at the dock, she plans to stop the food stalls for a while, and she can't go to East Street and West Street to sell meat clips. Steamed buns and glutinous glutinous rice intestines will wait for a while, at least wait until Aunt Gui is brought back home, otherwise I am afraid that something will go wrong. After all, Wen's family lives in East Street, and Aunt Gui hasn't brought her back yet, so it's better to be on the safe side.

Just after breakfast in the morning, Xu Qinyu was sitting in the courtyard basking in the sun, when she heard a knock on the door, she went to open the door and saw that it was Xu Kongmu.

She was surprised: "Master Xu, why are you here?"

Xu Kongmu clasped his fists at Xu Qinyu, "You came here to bother me during the Chinese New Year, please forgive me, my lady, I actually want to invite my lady to make a banquet for you today. Don't worry, my lady, I have all the ingredients. When the banquet is ready, I will give you ten For the wages of two silvers, this banquet is also a banquet for Shangfeng."

His Shangfeng is naturally the county magistrate of Yuanbao Town, which is considered an annual practice, and every New Year's day, the county magistrate will be invited to the house for a banquet, which is also a New Year's hospitality.

Before, he had bought food from Donglaiju, but he had eaten the food made by Mrs. Xu, and he was astonished. That's why he wanted to invite Mrs. Xu to make it this year.

Ten taels of silver?

Xu Qinyu's eyes lit up, she worked hard for ten days to set up a stall and barely earned ten taels, and for a table of banquets, she earned twelve taels, so naturally she was willing.

"Master Xu, of course I am willing."

Xu Kongmu's expression also relaxed a little, and he said with a smile: "Then young lady, let's talk to my family first."

Xu Qinyu went back to the house and talked to the Pei family.

The Pei family also knew Xu Kongmu, Wen was worried, so he called Pei Weixuan to follow Yuniang.

Pei Weixuan had nothing to do at home, so he went with Yuniang.

Xu Kongmu also knew that it would not be good for the little lady to follow him to the door, so he felt relieved seeing Pei Weixuan following him, and they nodded slightly when they met.

The three of them left Osmanthus Alley, got into the carriage and headed towards West Street.

The Xu family has a carriage, although they don't use it much on weekdays, Xu Kongmu is driving the carriage himself at the moment.

Soon they arrived at Xu's family. Xu's family lived in Yangfeng Lane, West Street. The two-entry house was just big enough for a family.

After entering Xu's house, Xu Kongmu stopped the carriage and took the two of them directly to the kitchen.

Xu’s kitchen is very spacious, and he bought a lot of ingredients, such as chicken, duck, fish, mutton and pork, and even a piece of beef. Besides the usual vegetables, radish, cabbage, bean sprouts, tofu, lotus root and yam, there was even a small basket of water chestnuts. Precious things are more expensive than pork, and they can be regarded as fruits. They are not unique to the Southwest. They have to be transported from other places, and they are only available in Raozhou City. They should be bought from the city by Xu Kongmu's trustees. Beef should be the same Bought it from Raozhou City, she had never seen any sold in the town.

In ancient times, beef was really hard to buy. The cattle were cultivated and were very precious. The government did not allow private killing of cattle. Only cattle died of illness or accidents would kill and sell beef. If you die, you are afraid that someone will deliberately kill a cow, but if you slaughter a cow casually, you will be punished and put in prison.

In addition to these, there are some dry goods, and a small basket of river prawns.

Shrimp is eaten here, and only river prawns are eaten, but river prawns are not big. Most people cook them in one pot and eat them with their tails pinched. It’s just a little bit of meat. If it’s too troublesome, just chew the head together If you chew and eat it, the taste will not be very good if you don't know how to cook it, so most people don't like to buy it and eat it.

The price of small river prawns is not expensive, a few cents a catty, but the big river prawns are different, they can be sold for twenty cents a catty.

But even so, most people have the 20 Wen, and they are more willing to buy pork, especially fatty pork. They think it is oily, and river prawns are not oily at all.

But big river prawns are hard to find. The small basket of river prawns in front of me is quite big, even if the prawns are peeled off, they are very tasty.

In addition to these ingredients, there are also seasonings, and there are still a lot of spices.

Seeing these ingredients, Xu Qinyu said to Xu Kongmu: "Master Xu, don't worry, wrap it on me. May I ask what taboos you have when you go to the peak?"

Xu Kongmu thought about it, his family Shangfeng was very easy to get along with, and he had nothing to taboo.

"There's nothing wrong with that."

Xu Qinyu nodded, "OK."

Xu Kongmu's invitation to the peak should be at dusk time, and it is just past time at this moment, and there are still a few hours, so there is enough time.

Xu Kongmu looked at it for a while, and couldn't help but said, "Miss Xu, can I cook fat sausage fish again?"

He ate it once, and he never forgot about this dish, especially for his appetite, and even bought the offal at home.

Xu Qinyu laughed, "Okay, don't worry, my lord, I will wash out the fat intestines in a while and marinate them first."

She plans to process all the ingredients first.

Xu Kong saw Miss Xu started to get busy, so he stopped disturbing and left the kitchen.

When he went to the front yard, his wife Xiangshi hurriedly asked, "But did you invite someone?"

Xu Kongmu nodded, "Come here, I'm already busy in the kitchen."

Xiang Shi still couldn't help being a little worried, "Is it really possible?"

Like Xu Kongmu, she has never eaten other food made by Mrs. Xu, but she has eaten fish made by Mrs. Xu. Those braised fish, fish balls and fish heads are really good. The taste is really good, but she can't help being a little bit Doubt, after all, Mrs. Xu is only fifteen, and she is as old as her family Yunlan, can she really be in charge? Can other dishes really taste better than Donglaiju's chef?

Although she also suggested that Miss Xu be in charge last time, but at the end of the day, she was still a little worried.

Xu Kongmu comforted his wife, "Ladies, don't worry too, Miss Xu will not let us down."

He had eaten the dishes cooked by Miss Xu, otherwise he would not have believed that a lady in her teens could have such cooking skills.

Xu Yunlan next to her listened to what her parents said, and couldn't help being interested in this little lady who was about her age but had excellent craftsmanship.

She peeked at her parents and found that they didn't pay attention to her, so she sneaked into the back kitchen with her little nephew Xi Geer in her arms.

When they arrived at the back kitchen, Xu Yunlan saw a thin but pretty lady busy in the back kitchen.

Xu Qinyu also found the girl at the kitchen door who was secretly watching her with a child in her arms.

She smiled at the girl and resumed her work.