On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, it is usually a water mill rice ball. This kind www.biquge.info of water-milled rice balls is made of home-grown glutinous rice, mixed with a certain proportion of ordinary rice, and then ground into rice milk on its own stone mill, and then wrapped in gauze and hung under the table to dry the water droplets. The home-grown things are delicious, and almost every household did this in the eighties and nineties, but later the stone mills in the countryside were almost eliminated, and it was difficult to see this kind of glutinous rice balls again.

The bread in the dumplings is also very simple, that is, ordinary brown sugar. At this time, a lot of brown sugar was made using ancient methods, and it was not an industrial product. There are several brown sugar workshops in the countryside, the boss of the workshop will harvest the sugarcane after chopping and rolling, the juice pressed out first remove soil, fiber and other impurities, and then boil over low heat for 5~6 hours, constantly stirring to let the water slowly evaporate, so that the concentration of sugar gradually increases, the high concentration of syrup will solidify into solid lumpy brown sugar after cooling, that is, brown sugar bricks, such a traditional practice maintains the original nutrition of sugarcane, but also makes brown sugar with a special flavor similar to caramel. The longer the boiling time in the production process, the darker the color of the brown sugar bricks, so that the brown sugar presents different shades of reddish-brown.

When this kind of brown sugar is bought at home, it has to be cut into powder before it can be wrapped in the rice balls. When the glutinous rice balls are cooked, all the brown sugar sand inside will turn into a thick brown sugar juice, which will flow out when you bite into it, which is particularly sweet.

When Chen Zhiping was a child, he saw in books that brown sugar was boiled from sugar cane, and he also did a lot of interesting things, that is, he cut a few sugarcane from his own sugarcane field, and then used the tiger vise to pinch out the water and use this sugarcane water to boil brown sugar. Not to mention the brown sugar that I boiled out, which has attracted a lot of friends.

Every year on the first day of the Lunar New Year, Liu Sufen will wrap a coin in one of the rice balls. Of course, there is a saying about this, and it is said that if anyone eats the coin in the rice balls, it will mean that the person has the best luck in the year. In previous years, this coin was either eaten by Chen Zhiping or his younger brother Chen Zhiyuan.

When he was a child, Chen Zhiping didn't know why his parents couldn't eat it, but when he was older, he realized that it was all deliberately done by his mother, and the glutinous rice balls with coins she made would be made a little bigger, and then she would put the glutinous rice balls in his bowl or Chen Zhiyuan's bowl, and naturally only the two brothers could eat them. This is full of a mother's love for her son, Chen Zhiping knows his mother's hard work, and he understands his son's mood very well.

Chen Zhiping found out that there was a rice ball in Xia Xiaomo's bowl that was clearly a little bigger than the others, and he couldn't see it if he didn't pay attention to it, but Chen Zhiping knew it very well. Now his mother regards Xia Xiaomo as her daughter-in-law, and she treats Xia Xiaomo better than herself, and he knows that it seems that he is about to fall out of favor.

The glutinous rice balls that Xia Xiaomo eats at home are not so fragrant, because they are made of industrial glutinous rice ball powder that they bought, and brown sugar is also an industrial product, so naturally there is no handmade fragrance.

Xia Xiaomo ate too quickly, and was scalded by the thick brown sugar and hissed, Liu Sufen hurriedly said: "Xiaomo, eat slowly! The sugar juice in it is very hot, you must be careful." ”

Chen Zhiyuan smiled: "Yes, sister-in-law." You don't know, my brother was like this when he was a child, he especially loved to eat rice balls, and he ate them one by one, and once there was an accident, a rice ball was stuck in his throat and couldn't go down, and the sugar juice that flowed out made him jump on his feet. ”

Xia Xiaomo was better at this time, and after listening to Chen Zhiping's troubles when he was a child, he couldn't help but laugh and said, "Is it? I didn't expect him to have so many interesting things when he was a child!"

Chen Zhiyuan smiled: "That's not it! My brother has done everything, but it's funny." For example, he used sugarcane water to boil brown sugar, used tree bark to mash paper, and even worse, he also dug tunnels or something, and the hole was dug several meters deep, and once it collapsed and almost buried him. If that were the case, you wouldn't have known my brother. ”

Liu Sufen hurriedly reprimanded: "Bah, Zhiyuan, on the first day of the Lunar New Year, don't say those unlucky words." ”

Xia Xiaomo smiled: "Now I envy you a little, there is nothing to play in the city, it's better to be in the countryside!"

Chen Zhiping said with a smile: "Okay, let's eat the dumplings! I don't know who can eat this year's coins, everyone slow down, don't eat the coins in your stomach, hehe." ”

Except for Xia Xiaomo, probably the rest of the people know whose bowl this coin is.

Everyone buried their heads in and began to eat rice balls again, and suddenly, Xia Xiaomo shouted: "Oh, what is this, it almost hit my teeth." ”

Chen Zhiping smiled and said: "Xiaomo, it seems that you are the luckiest person in our family this year, that is the coin, spit it out, don't eat it in your stomach and make trouble." ”

Xia Xiaomo blushed, took out the coin in her mouth, and said, "This, how can it be so coincidental, it's the first time I've come, and I ate the coin." ”

Chen Zhiping said with a smile: "Xiaomo, this shows that the ancestors of our Chen family have recognized you as a daughter-in-law!"

Liu Sufen looked at Xia Xiaomo kindly and said, "Yes, Zhiping is right! From now on, Xiaomo will be a member of our old Chen family." ”

Xia Xiaomo said embarrassedly: "Oh, it seems that the ancestors have spirits, I didn't believe in this kind of thing before, but I didn't expect it to be true." ”

How did Xia Xiaomo know that it was Chen Zhiping's mother who deliberately scooped the rice balls with coins into her bowl.

After the family finished eating the rice balls, they were ready to go out for a walk. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, this is called wandering a hundred diseases, and of course there are many people who will go to the temple fair. Not far from the township, there is a Yaowang Temple, and there are too many people who come here to offer incense on the first day of the new year every year.

Halfway through, Chen Zhiping said: "Let's go to the temple fair, I heard that the Bodhisattvas there are very effective? ”

Xia Xiaomo was very happy when she heard that there was a temple fair, and hurriedly said: "Okay, okay, I haven't seen what the temple fair is like!"

Chen Zhiyuan said: "Sister-in-law, you can go and worship, so that my brother can have a noble son early!"

Xia Xiaomo's face turned red and said, "It's still early! I just want to ask the Bodhisattva to bless our two families to be safe." ”

Liu Sufen smiled and said, "Then let's go to the temple fair." Today it should be more lively than the street, and there are many people who still eat fasting and drink divine water there. ”

Chen Zhiping said with a smile: "Let's go to the incense and worship the Buddha." It's better to eat at home. ”

Chen Zhiping felt that the food and water there were not washed, and the bowls used were not washed, and after one drank it, another person continued to drink, Xia Xiaomo definitely couldn't accept it, not to mention Xia Xiaomo, even he couldn't accept it himself.

The family went to Yaowang Temple, and there were many people who went to pray to God and worship Buddha along the way, of course, most of them were middle-aged and elderly people, after all, young people don't believe in these anymore.