Flowers are flying everywhere in the city of spring, and the east wind of cold food keeps the willows slanting.
After two rounds of rain, the Cold Food Festival has arrived amidst the poplar flowers flying all over the sky.
Inside the Yaoguang Hall, Xu Wenchan, who was dressed in a bright yellow dress, was drinking Dongling herbal tea, a "limited special drink" for the Cold Food Festival, and was talking about the recent excitement in Chang'an City while drinking it.
"Zhou Muyan from Zuo Xiang's Mansion has been very unlucky recently! I heard that when she was shopping for silk at Tianyi Pavilion, she offended some important person. She confessed her mistake in public, and even received two big slaps. Aha, it's so satisfying!"
The corner of Tao Ti's mouth twitched, "Two slaps...?"
"That's right, I heard it was shot from left to right, bang bang bang!"
"..."
After a moment of hesitation, Tao Ti decided to spread the rumor.
After she told the ins and outs of the day, she added, "The next day, the prime minister's wife went to the palace to meet the empress, and called me to the Ganlu Palace, said a lot of good things, and gave me a lot of gifts. , Said it was an apology. Well, at least this attitude is pretty good."
Xu Wenchan's eyes widened, her chubby face was full of admiration, "Wow, Ati, you are really amazing!"
Tao Ti, "Huh???"
"I have been inquiring about it before, wondering who is the hero who is not afraid of power and dares to fight against Zhou Muyan. I didn't expect it to be you! You really deserve to be my good friend, this time you really helped me out Bad breath!"
"How do you say this? Is there a festival between you?"
"Yes, there is a holiday!"
She responded very simply, took a deep breath, and had a rare seriousness on her face, "Actually, I know that those noble ladies in Chang'an City look down on me, and I know how they arrange me behind their backs...they said Let’s just say, I admit that I look like this. But this Zhou Muyan is really hateful, it’s fine if she makes fun of me, but she also speaks ill of my family! I can’t stand this!”
Xu Wenchan put the teacup away, and angrily recounted the grievances between Zhou Muyan and her Zhenbeihou Mansion.
The matter is actually very simple, Xu Wenchan's seventh brother is over 20 years old and has not yet married a wife. Although the Xu family is a generation of military generals, Xu Qige is a literary young man with chopsticks, poems and poems. He doesn't like those careless and illiterate women in Yunzhou. His biggest dream is to marry a well-educated, gentle, and knowledgeable Chang'an in this life. Talented girl, from now on, playing piano, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, wine and tea, only envy mandarin ducks but not immortals.
Therefore, as soon as Zhenbei Hou's family arrived in Chang'an, Mrs. Hou began to discuss Xu Qige's marriage, handing out invitations from each family and each house, and visiting the young lady from door to door.
It happened that in the fall of that year, Princess Jinrong held a poetry meeting, and Zhou Muyan happened to win the first place in that poetry meeting, so everyone called her "talented girl" one by one.
When Brother Xu Qi heard that the sixth girl from the Zhou family was a talented woman, he asked Mrs. Hou to visit her—
"It's not that my brother has to do with her. He just has the mentality of giving it a try. Let my mother see each other. If you succeed, you won't succeed. We are not stalkers. But she is good. Your lady joked about my elder brother, saying that my seventh elder brother is just a lump of wood, a toad who wants to eat swan meat, and a rough warrior from the north, can he be worthy of her?"
Xu Wenchan said angrily, "The problem is that she has never seen my seventh brother at all! It's not that I am boasting. Although my seventh brother is not as elegant as His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, he is still very personable! The people of Yunzhou City all Praise my seventh brother as a jade-faced young man, if you want me to say, she Zhou Muyan is not worthy of my seventh brother... Sigh, because of her bad mouth, my seventh brother's reputation has been ruined!"
Tao Ti was stunned when she heard this, she was silent for a moment, and asked, "Since your seventh brother is not like that, let your mother take him to the banquet more often, won't the rumors be self-defeating?"
"Hey, my seventh brother is not very lively, and especially hates those banquet occasions. He used to talk about the marriage of thousands of miles, but after Zhou Muyan's incident, he took the matter of marriage even more lightly. Talking about the fate that sometimes must be there, and that there is always a time in life, don't force it... Good guy, but I was so angry with my mother, I almost pouted several times."
Xu Wenchan shrugged and spread his hands, "Now you know why I hate Zhou Muyan so much, don't you?"
Tao Ti nodded, if someone dared to arrange her family behind her back, she would definitely be annoyed.
"So, you really took a breath of anger on my behalf this time! But... did you really not hit Zhou Muyan?"
"I didn't hit her, so I used a grappling hand on her, and I never touched her face." Tao Ti had a sincere face, fearing that she would be touched.
"Hey, that's weird. She didn't come to the flower viewing banquet at the Pingguo Mansion a few days ago, and she is most keen on this kind of occasion on weekdays." Xu Wenchan pouted her mouth and thought, "Could it be that she Did you really have spring ringworm, so you didn't go out?"
"Spring ringworm?" Tao Ti was taken aback.
"I don't know where the news came from. It said that Zhou's mansion invited an imperial doctor overnight, and the maid saw that Zhou Muyan's face was red and swollen. It was so scary!" Xu Wenchan said, "The Zhou mansion said She has spring ringworm, but the noble ladies all think that she was swollen by those two slaps, so they made such an excuse."
After hearing such twists and turns, Tao Ti can only sigh, three people become tigers, and the enthusiasm of the ancients for gossip should not be underestimated.
But why did Muyan get spring ringworm all of a sudden this week? And it was the second day they were fighting.
Is this a coincidence
Tao Ti thought for a moment, then thought again, it is spring, and there are quite a lot of people with pollen allergies.
It seems that Zhou Muyan is too unlucky! But for someone like her who valued her face so much, her face was suddenly disfigured, and she might go crazy and jump right now.
Xu Wenchan said cheerfully, "Anyway, as long as she is unlucky, I will be happy."
"Aren't you afraid that others will hear your words, say you are cramped?" Tao Ti teased.
"It's more than cramped. I'm afraid I'm going to say I'm vicious? But that's what I think. I just hate her. Even if she is in front of me, I dare to say that I hate her."
Having said that, Xu Wenchan paused for a moment, then looked at Tao Ti, "Ah Ti, do you... think I'm not good? If you think it's not good, I, I can change it!"
Tao Ti drank the remaining Donglingcao tea in the cup and said, "People's hearts have a good side and a dark side. As long as you can control the dark side and don't harm others, there is nothing to blame. Individuals can become great saints.”
Xu Wenchan blinked her round almond eyes, touched her chin with her fingers, "Although I don't understand, but...you speak so well!"
"Okay, it doesn't matter if you don't understand." Tao Ti stood up slowly, patted her on the shoulder, and smiled slightly, "Let's go, go to the kitchen to cook something delicious?"
As soon as Xu Wenchan heard about the food, he immediately got excited, "Okay, I'll help you!"
The Cold Food Festival and the Ching Ming Festival are very close, and then the two festivals gradually merged. In modern times, more people celebrate the Ching Ming Festival, and few celebrate the Cold Food Festival. But in the Dayuan Dynasty, the importance of the Cold Food Festival far exceeds that of the Qingming Festival. On this day, people will go outing, visit tombs, worship ancestors, drink Dongling grass tea, and eat Zitui buns.
Since three days ago, the dining room has started giving out buns. This is a kind of pasta, which is made of noodles into various shapes, such as swallows, bugs, snakes, rabbits, and tigers, and then decorated with red beans, black beans, pepper seeds, red dates, and peanuts, and served in a pot. Steam it, take it out and eat it.
Tao Ti tasted it when it was delivered to the dining room on the first day, because it was just steamed out of the pot, and it was quite soft and sweet. But when the bun cools down, the taste will not be so good. But each bun is made lifelike, which is quite suitable for displaying as handicrafts.
"Ah Ti, what are you doing?"
In the small kitchen, Xu Wenchan looked in surprise at the various ingredients in front of him, brown red bean paste, fried white sesame seeds, plump peanuts, red salted egg yolks, marinated dried tofu, pickled vegetables, Fresh bamboo shoots, selected pork leg, rose sauce... A long table is full.
"Make green balls." Tao Ti took the blanched wormwood from the stove and started making wormwood juice.
"Youth Tuan? Isn't that for sacrificial offerings..." Xu Wenchan muttered in a low voice, "That's sweet and greasy, not tasty at all."
"Don't worry, I'll make a few more flavors, there will always be something you like." Tao Ti smiled, seeing that she was bored standing aside, so she asked her to help and do some simple and easy things.
Xu Wenchan wasn't shy at all, rolled up her sleeves and started working seriously. After grinding a large plate of crushed peanuts, a layer of sweat broke out on her forehead.
Tao Ti asked, "Do you want to take a break?"
"No, no, I'm fat, so I sweat easily, and I'm not tired at all." Xu Wenchan's face was flushed, and her dimples were deep, "And I found that making food seems interesting!"
"Yeah, I feel relaxed, and making delicious food is also a very happy thing. Of course, I am happier when I eat!"
"That's right!"
The two snacks looked at each other and smiled, full of tacit understanding.
In modern times, there is a dispute between sweet and salty rice dumplings and sweet and salty bean curd, and naturally there is also a dispute over salty and sweet green dumplings. Tao Ti didn't know the taste of Pei Yan and the others, so she thought about making some salty and sweet.
She arranged a total of four flavors, pickled vegetable tofu filling, fresh bamboo shoot pork filling, rose red bean paste filling, peanut sesame filling, two kinds of salty and sweet, you can choose.
The green wormwood juice, glutinous rice flour, and lard are put into a pot according to a certain ratio, and they are mixed into a soft dough with moderate force. After the dough is about the same level of softness and hardness, divide it into dough balls of equal size, wrap them with various fillings, and knead them into round, soft turquoise balls.
"Ah Ti, isn't this a little too much?" Xu Wenchan stretched out his fingers and calculated, it was almost a hundred.
"It's okay, this can be kept for three days, and most of them have to be given away, not too much." Tao Ti said, asking the palace staff to put the wrapped green balls on a plate and steam them in a basket.
She and Xu Wenchan went back to the palace and drank a pot of honey jasmine tea. Not long after, someone from the palace came to report that the green ball had been steamed.
Tao Ti got up from the couch, and Xu Wenchan jumped down immediately, and followed to watch.
When they arrived at the kitchen, there were several little maids crowding aside, curious to see what the green ball would look like when it was steamed.
Under the staring eyes of everyone, the lid of the steamer was slowly lifted.
I saw a cloud of white mist blowing toward my face, and when the thick mist cleared, small green balls lay neatly in the steamer. The unique fragrance of wormwood comes to the nostrils, as if steaming a pot of vitality and the spring scenery of willows, it is intoxicating.
"Wow, it's so pretty, all of them look like jasper."
"It's really beautiful, this color, this taste, it looks delicious..."
Listening to the whispered discussions of the palace people, Tao Ti turned to Linglong and smiled, "Today's cold food festival, everyone has worked hard, and later you count according to the head, bring out some youth groups and give them to the palace people in our palace Take half of each person and try something new. Take one and eat it yourself."
Tao Ti did not hide her special treatment of Linglong, and the rest of the palace people would not be dissatisfied with this special treatment. After all, Linglong is the personal maid next to the princess, and her rank and qualifications are higher than them. Qualified to eat one alone.
Linglong agreed, and the maids all showed excited smiles, thanking her quickly.
Tao Ti brought out two servings of green balls with four flavors, one for her, one for Xu Wenchan, and the palace staff was responsible for serving the rest.
The two snack foodies each held a plate and sat in the courtyard full of peony flowers to eat. The spring was brilliant at that time, and the fragrance of the grass was light and long.
Just as the two were about to eat, there was a sudden noise at the door.
Tao Ti was slightly taken aback, Linglong hurriedly bent over and said, "Princess Concubine, wait a moment, servants go out and have a look."
"Well, let's go." Tao Ti said.
Xu Wenchan has already picked up a green ball and ate it. What happens outside has nothing to do with her. The most important thing is to eat delicious food first!
Open your mouth and bite down, the first thing you touch is the soft, waxy and delicate skin of the Qingtuan. When you eat the rose bean paste filling wrapped in it, the fragrance of roses mixed with the fragrance of wormwood makes you feel like you are in a sea of flowers in spring , bean paste is sweet but not greasy, with endless aftertaste!
Xu Wenchan narrowed his eyes happily, and commented, "The skin on the outside is cool, but the bean paste filling inside is warm, not greasy at all, and has a bit of a rustle in the mouth, and it flows straight into my mouth , This is really the best bean paste cake I have ever eaten!"
Tao Ti smiled and said, "Try something else."
Xu Wenchan immediately picked up another one, this time it was green balls stuffed with fresh bamboo shoots and pork, biting it down, the tenderness of the spring bamboo shoots and the deliciousness of the meat stuffing immediately filled her mouth with juice, the skin of the green balls was fragrant and smooth, while the spring bamboo shoots were crispy It is refreshing and chewy, and the satisfaction of filling the mouth with meat is naturally needless to say. The combination of these ingredients is full of spring breath.
The two of them were eating vigorously, Linglong had already turned back, followed by two... children
Tao Ti knew that little girl, the Sixth Princess Feifei.
As for the slightly older and handsome boy next to Feifei, Tao Ti guessed that he should be the fifth prince of Concubine Xu's family, right
Sure enough, Linglong said softly, "Prince Princess, Fifth Prince and Sixth Princess are at the door... I'm a little embarrassed to come in."
When Linglong said this, the sixth princess's little head drooped even lower, and she called out timidly, "Sister-in-law, all blessings."
The fifth prince stared at Tao Ti several times with his dark eyes, and after looking at Tao Ti, he quickly lowered his head, his ears were red, and mumbled, "Hi, sister-in-law."
Looking at the two shy children in front of her, and seeing that there were no nurses and eunuchs beside them, Tao Ti suddenly had a guess in her heart——
She put down the chopsticks in her hand and asked softly, "Why are you here, are you still not coming in at the door?"
The fifth prince, "..." pretended to be stupid.
The sixth princess, "..." blushed.
Tao Ti raised her eyebrows, "If you don't say anything, I'll let the little eunuch take you back?"
When the fifth prince heard this, he became anxious, and quickly tugged on the sleeve of the sixth princess.
The sixth princess bit her lip, raised her head as if mustering courage, her grape-like eyes sparkled, "Sister-in-law, I, Brother Wuhuang and I...want to eat egg yolk cakes..."
The Fifth Prince was stunned, his cheeks blushed, and he said in a low voice, "Xiao Liu, you idiot, why did you just say that!"
Don't you know how to be more tactful? !
The sixth princess curled her lips aggrieved, "Then why don't you say..."
Tao Ti couldn't help laughing, and it was just as she imagined, these two little greedy cats came here to eat something.
"There are no egg yolk cakes," she said.
For a while, both children were a little disappointed.
"However, you guys just happened to come here. I just made some green balls, do you want to stay and try?" Tao Ti smiled slightly, pointing to the green balls on the table.
The fifth prince and the sixth princess looked at the small bluish-blue dumplings on the white porcelain plate at the same time, and then looked at Xu Wenchan who couldn't stop eating, and the two children immediately turned into star eyes, " Um!"