Blissful Days After Widowhood

At the beginning of August, Gu Yin and Wang Shi took Gu Ye to see the doctor.

It's not that he's sick, but that he's grown too much.

A normal three- or four-year-old child grows two or three inches a year on average, and he grows two inches in half a year.

Because she was watching every day, Gu Ye and Wu An often mixed clothes. Gu Yin and Wang Shi didn't notice it at first, but one day Wu An suddenly exclaimed: "Xiaoye, you Why are you catching up with me?!"

Then they noticed that the two children, one tall and the other short, were very distinct, but now they are almost the same height, Gu Ye is only one knuckle shorter than Wu An. He is now wearing the new clothes that Gu Yin bought for Wu An before the summer, and his own new clothes have not been worn for a long time because of the inappropriate size.

Wu An's birthday in April is almost six and a half years old.

Last winter, the old doctor came to see Gu Ye. At that time, the old doctor said that his teeth and bone age should be about four years old. quick.

"Longer is a good thing, but his mother said that growing too fast is also a burden on the body, so please take a look."

The old doctor checked Gu Ye again and said it was all right, "The growth of children is different, although it is indeed common to grow two or three inches a year, but the old man has also seen one A child who is three or four inches older. And this child's body is getting stronger and stronger, and the shortcomings in the past are now invisible. I touch his bones, and he will definitely be much taller than the average person in the future. As for why recently Is it because you have been exercising more recently, or you have a good meal?"

After what he said, it was true. When Gu Ye was adopted, he wandered outside every day. slow.

Then he started to learn martial arts, and in the summer he started to deliver food. Along with a lot of exercise, his appetite also increased. He ate three meals on time and on time. He was tired from studying with Wuan at night, and he had to add more a meal.

Since they knew that he was in good shape, Gu Yin and Mrs Wang felt relieved.

Gu Yin still wants to celebrate Gu Ye's birthday, but because he doesn't know his birthday, he can't be counted as four years old.

In fact, as early as Wu'an's birthday, Wang thought about celebrating the birthdays of the two children together.

Gu Ye was reluctant at the time, Gu Yin thought he was the one who didn't want to be the one who wanted to go by the way, and persuaded Wang not to do that.

Now that I mention it again, Gu Ye is still unwilling, and Gu Yin asks him why.

He twisted his fingers, rarely showing his shy side, and whispered to her: "I want to celebrate my birthday before winter, when I meet my mother.

Gu Yin's heart softened when she heard this, Wang Shi's reaction was even bigger, and her eyes became red.

She responded immediately: "That's fine, then you can pick a date and tell the milk or your mother in advance, our Ono's first birthday, the milk will do it for you!"

Gu Ye's face was flushed red, and he ran away after the next sound.

But when he returned to the store, his shyness was gone.

Because of his appeal, the business in the store in autumn not only recovered to the past, but even improved to a higher level - the children all know that food is his family's home, and when the family wants to eat out , and also ask the children what they want to eat.

Their answer is naturally to eat for the sky.

Because of this, Gu Yin asked Feng Carpenter again to make all the small double tables she wanted to put in the aisle before the opening. Six double tables were added to the store in one go, and the seats were still full in the morning, noon and evening.

The children greeted him when they saw him. When Gu Yin and Wang Shi came back, he became the little adult again.

…

Mid-Autumn Festival is a big festival. From August 12th to 14th, the town will hold three consecutive days of lantern festivals. Every household eats moon cakes.

Unlike the zongzi of the Dragon Boat Festival, people with simple cooking skills generally make them. The process of moon cakes is much more complicated, and they are generally purchased from outside. Even if the family is very ordinary, they will buy one or two moon cakes to share with the whole family.

Hanxianglou and Wangyuelou in front of them can fight like black-eyed chickens for the zongzi gift box of the Dragon Boat Festival. The moon cakes that every household has to buy has become a battleground between the two.

Of course, because the Dragon Boat Festival and the organization of the delivery team were unfavorable twice, the two did not make any more rash moves, and they are still waiting to see what new tricks Shiweitian will make this time.

Gu Yin is not doing anything new, she is studying all kinds of moon cakes.

There are even more to be counted in terms of taste and other distinctions.

But she asked the shopkeeper Zhou, and the people in the town are still the same as later generations, and they still like Cantonese-style and Su-style moon cakes.

These two classic mooncakes are definitely to be made. Four don’t sound good, and five are too many to control the cost, so Gu Yin only plans to make another snowy mooncake.

Hanxianglou's chefs are from Guangdong and Guangxi, and they naturally make Cantonese-style moon cakes. On the other hand, Wangyuelou has always made Suzhou-style mooncakes, and the shopkeeper Zhou also made Suzhou-style mooncakes. Gu Yin distributed the Suzhou-style mooncakes to shopkeeper Zhou, and was responsible for the other two.

The first is Cantonese-style moon cakes. There is a key thing in making this, called invert syrup.

mix water and sugar in proportion, boil in a pot with good heat conduction and add white vinegar, then turn to low heat, after more than two quarters of minutes the syrup turns light amber, turn off the heat and pour it out to cool , you get a dark amber viscous syrup.

The texture of syrup is very similar to honey. It can be used as a substitute for honey in the cooking process, but the price is much cheaper than honey - after all, honey is not as fake as later generations, and it is limited by With limited medical technology, beekeepers are also considered high-risk occupations, and the price of honey can be imagined.

Get a smooth and delicate dough, refrigerate it for half an hour to an hour, wrap it in the pre-fried bean paste, roll it into a ball, then flatten it, wrap it with a salted egg yolk and round it, then take another dough and wrap it This stuffing.

Gu Yin told Chef Xu who was watching while wrapping, "This crust has no gluten, you have to push it with your palm when wrapping it, and turn it while pushing like this, you can't pull it, otherwise It breaks easily."

After that, put it into the mold to press out the flower shape, spray a layer of water to prevent it from drying out, and then put it in the oven.

In this era, there is only an oven, no oven, but at the beginning of August, Gu Yin had asked the shopkeeper Zhou to find someone in the backyard of Shiweitian to build an earthen bread kiln, which can completely replace the role of the oven .

Kiln baked for a quarter of an hour.

After coming out of the kiln, the sweet aroma of the moon cakes wafted over the face, Xu Cook and Song Shiliu swallowed, Wu An and Gu Ye also stared expectantly.

However, the taste of the moon cakes just out of the kiln was not the best, and they had to return to the oil for a day, so Gu Yin asked them to wait another day, and then started to make other things.

Take out this layer of milk skin and let Chef Xu and his two little apprentices take turns to fight, acting as a human flesh egg beater to stir at high speed.

When they beat the milk skin to a grainy texture, then add a few spoonfuls of ice milk, and beat the milk skin until it is like bean curd dregs, then take it out with a spoon, press it on a filter with fine holes, filter Drain the water, wrap it up and put it in the freezer overnight to set it, and this is the home version of butter.

When the butter was made, it happened to be the day when the moon cakes returned to good oil the next day, and it was also the time when everyone looked forward to tasting the moon cakes.

The moon cakes she made are palm-sized, adults can eat one, and children can share one piece.

"It's so sweet and soft, as expected of Master's craftsmanship!" Chef Xu ate the fastest, and he had already eaten half of the piece.

The eyes of everyone who have no words are bright, but they can't say anything else.

Only the shopkeeper Zhou finally said: "The crust is fragrant and soft, the bean paste is delicate and soft, and the egg yolk is fragrant. Sweet but not greasy, I like it."

Gu Yin was actually baking moon cakes in a bread kiln for the first time, and after hearing this from the shopkeeper Zhou, she calmed down.

Because it is a trial, the number of moon cakes this time is not large, and everyone tastes it and it will be gone.

Wu An and Gu Ye smacked their mouths reluctantly, Gu Ye also said: "Actually, I can finish one."

Wu An nodded, and then the two of them looked at Gu Yin together.

The meaning is obvious, they only ate half of it each, so they haven't eaten enough!

"Don't worry, there is something else to eat today." Gu Yin rubbed them one by one funny, and then started to work.

Put eggs and sugar in a bowl, stir well, then add milk and stir again, then add flour and wheat starch, stir well until there are no dry powder particles, then add the prepared butter to the pot, use a low heat Keep stirring while boiling. Wait until the butter melts and the liquid in the pot begins to solidify. When the water evaporates completely, there is a non-stick yellow dough in the pot. Take it out and let it cool.

During this period, Gu Yin added milk, oil and sugar to the bowl, then added glutinous rice flour and glutinous rice flour after stirring. After stirring the wheat starch, filter it with gauze, then pour it into a plate, and then put another One plate, steam for 2 minutes.

Two quarters of an hour later, she took out the dough, stirred it with a spoon, and set it aside to cool.

Press the pie crust to fold upwards slowly, put it into the mold and press out the flower shape.

Snowy mooncakes do not need to be baked, as long as they are sealed and stored in the ice cellar for half a day, the taste is the best.

This mooncake is made in the morning and can be eaten in the afternoon.

Wu An trotted to school, while Gu Ye finished his martial arts practice early and waited early.

When the two little guys arrived, Gu Yin asked people to go to the ice cellar to take out the snow skin mooncakes.

Snowy mooncakes are white and translucent, only half the size of Cantonese mooncakes, and they are so delicate just looking at them.

Although they were looking forward to the whole day, Wu An and Gu Ye were reluctant to talk, but Gu Yin urged them, and the two of them took a piece and put it in their mouths.

Especially suitable for children's taste.

The two of them each took a small plate and divided them into three, and let Gu Yin share the rest for Shopkeeper Zhou and Chef Xu to taste.

Chef Xu likes sweetness. Cantonese-style moon cakes were his favorite. After eating these snowy moon cakes, the order in his heart changed.

It's just that he was too embarrassed to fight with the child, so he could only lick his fingers aftertaste.

Seeing him like this, Wu An and Gu Ye looked at each other, and each gave him one.

He blushed with embarrassment, and he waved his hand and said, "No, no, no, I'll just have a taste."

Gu Yin let the two children go out to eat, and then said to Chef Xu: "If you want to eat, don't worry about it now, the Cantonese style and snowskin mooncakes will be handed over to you for half a month. Do it, if you don't do it well, you eat it yourself."

"Do it for...for me?" Chef Xu became excited, and his breathing became a little heavier.

Gu Yin nodded and said, "Although the two kinds of moon cakes require more attention and the steps are a bit cumbersome, in fact, no step is difficult to disassemble. From this beginning, I will I will assign tasks to you bit by bit."

Shiweitian's business is getting more and more prosperous. Shopkeeper Zhou is in his prime, and his big iron pot can just cook a plate of dishes at a time. In addition to the lunch market and the evening market, he did not find it difficult to fry 10 or 20 hot dishes by himself.

Gu Yin is not, in terms of physical strength, women are no better than men, and the things on the white case are more trivial and take longer. There are more and more customers, and she has to take into account the operation and management of the entire store while cooking, which has begun to feel difficult.

Especially this time Gu Ye grew so much taller, she didn't realize that she was a mother, and she felt very uncomfortable, and she wanted to spend more time with her family.

So this day she made it again in front of Chef Xu. She made more butter and bean paste, so that Chef Xu could start from half-finished products.

And after Gu Ye and Wu An left the big kitchen, he asked Wu An to ask for a snowskin mooncake.

Although he knew that there were still three pieces in his hand, Wu An generously distributed his own to him, and did not forget to say to him: "It's going to be dinner soon, so don't Eating too much."

Gu Ye took the moon cake but didn't eat it, but took a small plate out of it.

As soon as he came out, Fan Jinsong and Xiaopang rushed up.

In the summer, they delivered food together every day. Recently, the delivery team was disbanded, and the children were not used to it without him taking the lead.

"Why did Brother Ye come so early today?"

"Is Brother Ye tired of learning martial arts?"

Everyone asked questions, Gu Ye shook his head and said no, then took the moon cakes in the bowl and shared them with everyone.

He bought a lot of toys with his own wages. At first, it was natural to cause trouble for the delivery teams of Hanxianglou and Wangyuelou. After the goal was achieved, he gave these toys for free Divide it for everyone to play, and it is precisely because of this that the children in the town follow his lead.

Now that the snowskin mooncake is brought out, the children's eyes light up, but no one reaches out to touch it.

Gu Ye finally gave the small plate to Fan Jinsong and asked him to distribute it.

So the No. 8 person who followed Gu Ye first, of course, could get a small piece, and the others could only get a little bit of a taste, and the later ones were even full of fillings can not eat.

However, as he spoke, he swallowed and swallowed the melted moon cake into his stomach.

"I haven't tasted it yet!" Little Fatty cried and grimaced, if it wasn't for Gu Ye watching, he would have wanted to cry.

With his negative example, Fan Jinsong and the others didn't dare to finish it in one bite, only small bites.

"It's really fragrant and sweet, and the stuffing inside is the best, sweeter than sugar!"

"I didn't like the taste of milk, but the milk in this is too fragrant!"

"Woooooooo, I only have a little crust, what is the taste of the filling, who will give me a bite?"

"It's called Snowskin Mooncake. Our family sells this on Mid-Autumn Festival." Gu Ye finally said.

After saying this, he let everyone go away, now the children know what to do.

The first thing I did when I got home was, of course, to tell the adults to eat that snowy mooncake.

Although Shiweitian has only opened for less than half a year, after a series of publicity for the opening, Dragon Boat Festival and summer takeaway, the people in the town have heard of it even if they have never eaten.

We all know that food is not very expensive, and rich or generous parents immediately agreed. Those who are not so rich and generous, of course, let their children stop being greedy, and eat their own meals before thinking about it.

So the next day, Gu Yin received more than a dozen parents who asked about snowskin mooncakes.

The steps of snow skin moon cake are not complicated, but the cost of materials is high, and the price of a small piece is only ten cents.

The number of people who made reservations has been endless since this day. Seven days before the Mid-Autumn Festival, hundreds of snowskin mooncakes have been ordered.

Hanxianglou and Wangyuelou both stared at food for the sky. Seeing that Gu Yin had been tinkering for a long time and only tinkered with the moon cakes that children like to eat, the two families dismissed it. Children have small stomachs, how many pieces can one person eat? And no matter how much parents love their children, they will not spend too much money on buying snacks for their children. This profit is really limited!

Moon cakes for adults and moon cake gift boxes for gifts make a lot of money!

At this time, Chef Xu was finally able to make moon cakes that satisfied Gu Yin, and the snowskin moon cakes that were ordered can come to pick up the goods, Cantonese-style moon cakes and Suzhou-style moon cakes made by shopkeeper Zhou. A tasting activity was carried out on Shiweitian.

Cantonese-style mooncakes are sweet and cost eight cents a piece, while Suzhou-style mooncakes are fragrant and crispy, slightly smaller than Cantonese-style ones, but because the filling is solid ham, the price is also eight cents a piece.

As for the mooncake gift box that the guests used as gifts, Shiweitian also made it this time.

A round wooden box is evenly divided into three pieces, one for Cantonese-style, one for Suzhou-style and one for snowskin mooncakes, so that guests of all tastes can take care of it. If you buy it in a box, it will be two cents cheaper than buying it alone, and you can get a small and exquisite wooden box for nothing. Although the wooden box is not valuable, it is very good for small bits and pieces of needles and threads.

As soon as this gift box was launched, the response was very good.

Someone immediately said: "My mother likes to eat Su-style, and my wife likes to eat Cantonese-style. Every year, I go to two restaurants, and my children are clamoring to try this kind of cake crust. , this time is more convenient!"

"Yes, the two moon cakes of Hanxianglou and Wangyuelou are not sold separately, and you can't eat more than one. How can ordinary people like this eat this as a meal?"

There are also impatient and greedy customers. After trying it, I bought a box and ate it on the spot. The three flavors are naturally delicious, and after eating it, he smashed it, and even picked up the oil paper on the bottom of the box and smelled it.

When he picked it up, he realized that it was wrong. There were still characters written on the back, and the four big characters of "Good luck" were written in the corners.

The box of moon cakes sold from Gu Yin was waiting for him to find out. When she saw it, she immediately said: "Congratulations, you won our Mid-Autumn Festival prize! Anyone who eats this" If you have good luck, you can refund ten pennies with a note!"

"There is such a thing!" The guest laughed, "It seems that I have a good luck this year, I don't need to refund the money, I will add a few more coins, and give me another box, I will I haven't eaten enough yet!"

This time he opened the gift box and read the note first, but unfortunately this time there were only four big characters "Thank you for your patronage".

Others saw him lost, and they had to joke: "What good things do you want? Can you give me another ten cents per box?"

"That's right, I think this is just a good luck, ten texts are posted in boxes, do you still want to do business?"

But this kind of publicity method that may eat real money is still a novelty, especially during the festivals, who doesn't want to be the one with good luck?

In order to see the note inside, I did not wait until August 15th to pick up the goods, but came early to get it and eat it directly.

Under this kind of promotion, a total of 200 sets of moon cake gift boxes were sold. Of course, there are also those who don't want the most expensive snowskin mooncakes. As long as the other two are sold, Shiweitian will also sell them loosely. Those are also set for three or four hundred yuan.

The day before the Mid-Autumn Festival lanterns, Gu Ye came back and told Gu Yin that the two big restaurants had started to sell moon cakes in bulk. The lantern festival is well promoted, and a group of children have been hired to sing nursery rhymes at the lantern festival to promote how delicious their moon cakes are.

This time they didn't know anything about it. If it wasn't because Li Dachun told Gu Ye, he might not know it yet. And this time, both of them came prepared, and the selected children had all undergone secret training, and would not be so easily hooked by him to play.

Gu Ye felt that he couldn't handle it, so he came to talk to his mother.

"We have a lot of people, but we don't have training. I'm afraid we can't compare." Gu Ye's face was sullen, and he was already thinking, if his mother didn't let him fight, he still had a way Clean up those people.

This kind of publicity method is naturally born out of Gu Yin's previous measures to hire children to sell cold drinks and deliver food, which is not new to her.

Seeing that her little cub looked like a big enemy, Gu Yin couldn't help laughing, and said, "It's okay, mother is already prepared, you can play with your little friends at the lantern festival, and everything else Do not care."

Gu Ye certainly believed in his mother, so he didn't worry anymore.

On August 12th, the first day of the lantern festival, many people gathered in the town center before dark.

And as soon as they get here, they will see a very eye-catching big red banner with a large line of words on the banner—

"Welcome to the Mid-Autumn Festival Lantern Festival in Hanshan Town, exclusively sponsored by Shiweitian Mooncakes!"

The signature is still the official seal of the county government!