Not to mention how the Hu family complained to the bear child with tears in his eyes after he found out that his son ran out of the room again, not to mention how the brothers and sisters of Haijiao and Haitang protected their little brothers from the Hu family's counting, as the smell of the New Year became stronger day by day, the number of guests who came to Hai's house to test slowly decreased.

Soon, the New Year of the thirty-first year of Deguang arrived.

The Hai family happily spent a year of reunion.

Suzhou City has not had a war for more than half a year, although the surrounding villages and towns occasionally have Hu people and horse bandits to harass, but with the Suzhou Guard increased the number of troops and stepped up the patrol, the life of the people in this area is also much more peaceful.

The heavens were beautiful, there were no major disasters last year, and there was a bumper harvest of grain in the autumn. Many immigrants from Gua and Sha prefectures have filled the villages and towns under the rule of Suzhou, and the state has also flourished. Even if there was a rumor that the imperial court was going to close Jiayuguan and cut off the trade route from now on, at least at this moment, life in Suzhou was still stable.

During the first month, Suzhou City is full of people, many people in the city go around to visit relatives and friends, and residents from the surrounding areas also ride horses and cars to the city to go shopping, and some people inquire whether there are fireworks and lantern displays and other entertainment activities.

It's a pity that in order to build a wine workshop and a glass workshop in Suzhou City, the finances are a little tight this year, and there is not much surplus in the account, so there is no preparation for fireworks, and only a few large businesses have joined forces to run a medium-sized lantern festival. However, according to the usual practice, Suzhou Wei invited a troupe from other places to come back, and sang the opera in Jiayuguan City and Suzhou City for several days, attracting the surrounding military and civilian people to come to listen to the play. From Chinese New Year's Eve to the seventeenth day of the first month, both places are lively.

Haitang won the permission of her grandmother Ma, and together with her brother Haijiao, she followed her cousin Xie Wenzai, Cao Gengyun and Lu Bainian, three elders, to go shopping in the city to see the lanterns, and by the way, all the shops that were still open in the New Year.

In private, she also asked her brother Haijiao to guide the way, and wrote down the locations that might usher in Hu people spies or Jiangyang thieves, just in case.

Of course, that's where it comes in. When she goes out shopping, of course, she still has to focus on her own fun. She took advantage of the opportunity of her grandmother Ma's loose control in the first month to eat all the food shops and stalls in the city, and she could recommend her favorite shop to her family in turn.

Among them, there are a few dishes that satisfy her the most, she has studied the general recipes, and she has directed Jinguo to tinker at home, and she has really made a copycat version. Some of them are not as good as the store, but they can be used to deceive and deceive when they want to eat; Some of them were even more delicious than the store, and grandmother Ma immediately ordered Aunt Cui and her daughter-in-law to copy them, and they also kept the recipes for future heirlooms.

Haitang said to her brother Haijiao in private: "Grandma is a little too exaggerated...... Most of the ingredients used in these recipes are unique to the Northwest, if we go back to our hometown, there is nowhere to buy the ingredients if we want to eat, even if we buy the ingredients, it may not be the taste, what is the use of keeping the recipes? ”

Haijiao thinks it's nothing: "It's better to keep it than not to keep it." What if we don't live with our parents in the future? If I had joined the army, I might not have been transferred elsewhere. If you come back to the Northwest, won't this recipe come in handy? ”

In his previous life, he lost all his relatives, and when he was outcast, he could only miss his relatives alone during the New Year's holidays and the family reunion when he was a child. At that time, he wanted to taste the craftsmanship of his grandmother and second aunt again, and even the noodle soup made by his daughter-in-law, he missed it very much. So my grandmother asked Begonia to transcribe the recipe, and he didn't think there was anything. But he couldn't tell his sister about his mood in his previous life.

He could only say to Haitang softly: "Let's slowly save up the recipes, even if we go to other places in the future and leave our relatives, as long as we can buy the materials, we can make the taste of home with the recipes, and eating it will be like returning home." Isn't that a good thing? ”

Haitang instantly experienced her brother's mood, thinking about the time when she first entered the world of Dachu in her previous life, and when she first entered the palace......

Haitang smiled: "Brother is right. Then let's save up for more recipes! ”

Recipes, she still has a lot in her head. In addition to the recipes that I have eaten and seen in modern society, the snacks I made when my family opened a small shop in my previous life, and the palace meals that I ate after entering the palace...... She memorized all the recipes. Although she is not a female official, she has never eaten pork, and she has seen pigs run. When she was Si Cai, she had a good relationship with the food chef and the female officials of the Shang Food Bureau, and she saw the palace food and wine recipes from them......

However, in this northwestern border city, there are not many materials, and there are not many recipes she can use. Although Haijia spices are abundantly stored, there are not many options for ingredients. Begonia thinks that instead of making some troublesome and expensive delicious dishes at home, it is better to make some more down-to-earth daily food......

She hit the nail on her mind until last year's harvest of a new crop, maize.

Haixiya has been encouraging the whole city of Suzhou to study more ways to eat maize, but from last autumn to the beginning of spring this year, most of the way everyone eats new grain is still boiled, whether it is even the stick to gnaw corn, or the corn kernels are broken off and boiled into porridge, the taste is good, but the gnawing is a little harder - the corn they grow is a hard grain variety.

Some people take the corn cob to the fire and roast it, and the taste is a little different, and it is also delicious - this method is mainly popular in the army, and the soldiers on duty at various piers and outposts love this way of eating.

Some people also found that this maize can be stored for a long time after drying, and some people can continue to eat it after the beginning of spring, which is very attractive. Someone in the health center has already started experimenting to see how long this new grain can last after harvesting.

Of course, it's not that no one has tried to grind corn kernels into flour to eat, but corn flour is different from flour, whether it is to make bread or noodles, it seems that there is something missing, it is too easy to break, and it is a bit troublesome to cook, it is better to boil it directly......

Haitang asked Cui Bo to find a small stone mill for himself, take out the dried corn at home and thresh, grind it into fine powder with a small stone mill himself, and then mix some glutinous rice flour into it, add sugar, salt, eggs or something, make a pot of small nest wotou out, and send it directly to the dining table of the main house when lunch.

Grandmother Ma praised it greatly: "This taste is much stronger than the dead dough cake I tried to make earlier, so write down the recipe!" ”

Grandfather Hai Xiya also carefully asked his granddaughter about the method of wowotou, and when he learned that sugar and eggs were also added, he sighed and didn't say anything, but then sent this food recipe to several generals in the guard.

Haitang knew in his heart that his grandfather must have thought that the cost of the recipe he took out was slightly higher, and it was not something that ordinary civilians could afford. But ordinary civilians can still wrap their stomachs by boiling corn and roasting corn, even if it is mixed with some other materials, it is not that it can't be made as a nest, but it is not as delicious as her method.

Later, she tried to add white flour and salt to cornmeal to make corn noodles, add milk, dried fruits, sugar and other baked corn tortillas, and made iron pot stewed fish paste corn tortillas...... She hadn't finished figuring out the corn she knew, and the corn stored at home had run out first.

Grandfather Hai Xiya was not angry about this, but smiled: "This maize is really good, it can have so many ways to eat it, and it can also raise people." I ate all the fat in the air. After the beginning of spring, I will definitely grow a few hectares of maize, and there will be more new dishes to taste in autumn! ”

Soon after the beginning of spring, he was busy taking people outside the city to cultivate more land. However, as soon as half of the reclamation was completed, new news came from Ganzhou.

The list of officials to participate in the peace talks has finally been decided.