The Garden Life of a Little Gardener

Today's dinner was still very sumptuous. After seeing the chef's cooking skills at the homestay, the guests were unwilling to waste the opportunity and ordered all well-known dishes.

In addition to the meals ordered by the guests themselves, the homestay also specially presented them with a plate of Chinese rose shortcake.

In addition to ornamental, Chinese rose has high medicinal value. It is a very commonly used Chinese medicinal material. It has the effect of promoting blood circulation, removing blood stasis and reducing swelling. It is suitable for people with bruises, swelling and blood stasis in the body.

In addition, the rose buds soaked in water can be used as a substitute for tea, which can plump the appearance, just remember to avoid the menstrual period.

In order to ensure the taste and safety, Chef Bao did not choose the roses in the flower shed, but chose the old trees planted in the courtyard by himself.

Some of the few old roses are about the same age as the old yard, and the luxuriant ones are almost growing into trees.

Some were planted by Grandpa Bao when he was young, and they are also common old varieties. They only use farmyard manure without spraying, so that they can be used to get materials from them when they occasionally want to make flower cakes.

To be honest, rose is not delicious. As a medicinal plant, its petals have astringent taste.

In order to reconcile this astringency without taking away the faint floral fragrance of the rose itself, Chef Bao specially used rock sugar to flavor the flower cake.

However, the astringency of rose is unavoidable, because that astringency is part of its branches, leaves, and flowers. After removing it, its efficacy will be greatly reduced, just like bitter melon without bitterness.

Chef Bao understands this very well, so he did not deliberately use heavy flavor or strong aroma to suppress it, but chose another very ingenious method.

I have to say that the children of Xu's family and Yu's family can see each other's eyes, and have a sweet love life after marriage, which is inseparable from having the same daily interests and hobbies as them.

Just like today, the couple didn't know what they were thinking. They said they wanted to experience the rural scenery and fresh air up close, so they decided to move their dinner to the yard.

God knows what idyllic scenery you can feel in the yard. Fortunately, it is summer now, and the days are long and the nights are long, and the sky outside is still bright even during dinner time.

Even so, Zhou Quan still turned on the lights in the outer courtyard for them.

The kang table was lifted out, the round tabletop was laid out, and a few large futons were found from the lounge to lend to the guests, and a special 'picnic' table in the yard began.

An old snack eats and drinks, enjoying Chef Bao's good craftsmanship, just like noon, they don't even have soup left on the dinner table.

The gifted rock sugar rose flower cake was the last to be served. As a kind of shortbread, it is definitely the best when it is just out of the pan and hot.

Because the raw materials are sufficient, Chef Bao has made a lot of rock sugar rose flower cakes, and apart from the guests, the cleaning and cooking aunts who are off work have been given some.

Chef Zhou Quan, who played a guest role as a waiter boy for a day, received special care from Chef Bao. His flower cakes are baked at the closest position to the oven to ensure the most even cooking and the most beautiful color.

The rose shortbread is golden and crispy on the outside, and it smells so fragrant that it really whets the appetite.

Originally, Zhou Quan thought that the guests had already eaten so many meals, so there must be no place to eat the flower cakes.

Those guests originally thought so too, but smelling the aroma of shortbread, they held it in their hands without knowing it, and silently bit it down.

Father Xu, who was the first to eat the flower cake, frowned slightly, but after chewing a few times, his brows suddenly relaxed, and he began to eat the flower cake with big mouthfuls.

"Old man, don't just patronize the food, tell us what it tastes like."

"I can't describe it. The taste of this shortbread has to be eaten by yourself. Only by experiencing it can you know the beauty."

The other people heard the words and looked at the shortbread on the plate, picked it up and tasted it suspiciously, but they all had the same expressions and movements as that father Xu before.

Frowning and stretching first, and then eating hard, is this performance delicious or not?

Looking at the performance of the guests, and looking at the flower cakes on his plate, Zhou Quan decided to try it himself.

The crust of the Bingtang Rose Flower Cake is so crispy that it falls off the slag, and the aroma of the baked flour immediately fills the mouth.

However, after this fragrance, what followed was a kind of astringent taste, just like the green and astringent feeling when the jujube has not turned red.

Zhou Quan looked at the pancakes in his hand and frowned slightly. Although this is the original taste of rose flowers, the taste is really unpleasant. If it is released without any treatment, the guests probably won't like it.

No wonder the whole family frowned when they ate it.

But soon Zhouquan's eyebrows dispersed, because behind the astringent taste of rose, the unique sweetness of rock sugar surged up quickly.

As a large crystalline sugar, the sweetness of rock sugar is never overwhelming.

But the sweet and moist characteristic of this kind of sugar determines that once it shows its original taste, there is nothing to ignore it.

Zhou Quan felt that his tongue seemed to have some special taste buds, which were specially used to identify rock sugar. Under the impact of the light sweetness of rock sugar, the original astringent taste of rose was actually ignored by the taste buds.

Now in Zhou Quan's mouth, apart from the sweetness that moistens the throat, there is only the faint fragrance of Chinese rose.

"Astringent first and then sweet, wonderful. Bingtang is not a particularly sweet candy, but after experiencing the previous astringent taste, it is more precious to enjoy this sweetness."

"That's right, people who have never experienced bitterness will never know what a good life is, and they will not know how charming sweetness is if they have not experienced bitterness. It's just that among so many sweetness condiments, why did the chef choose rock sugar? ?The taste of granulated sugar or sucrose is much stronger than rock sugar, wouldn’t it be better if you use it?”

"It's because their sweetness is too thick, so they can't be used. In that case, the astringency will be covered, but the faint fragrance of the rose flowers behind can't be tasted."

"If you want to compare West Lake to West Lake, light makeup is always suitable. It's wonderful. Whenever I think I already know how powerful the master chef is, the master will always tell me with delicious food. This is just the beginning."

"Two meals in one room, just such a big place, I didn't have any boredom or dissatisfaction throughout the day, but I was full of expectations for tomorrow. After so many years of traveling and vacationing, this time is the most comfortable and relaxing. "

Enjoying, chatting, laughing and playing, the moon above everyone's heads has slowly risen to the branches while having fun.

Father Xu took out his mobile phone to check the time, waved his hand and said to everyone, "It's past nine o'clock, and Lele is starting to feel sleepy, everyone, go wash up and get ready to rest."

Zhou Quan, who was waiting at the side, immediately stood up and asked, "Everyone, please give me the breakfast list for tomorrow morning in advance. In addition, tomorrow's mushroom picking and herbal identification activities will be charged per person. I have placed the price list and activity time on Please look carefully at the cabinets in each room. The futons are all in the kang cabinets on the kang. If you want to call the service staff, just press the button next to the light switch in the room, and someone will talk to you. .”

"Okay, we got it. Thank you, young man, for taking care of you this day. We had a great time eating, drinking and playing. We are very satisfied with the scenery and service here."

After giving Zhou Quan the menu for tomorrow morning, the family entered the house. They simply glanced at the activity list on the cabinet and put it down. Anyway, it was tomorrow's business, let's talk about tonight first.

According to the running boy, Dad Xu opened the kang cabinet above the kang, and took out the pillows and bedding prepared by the guests at the homestay.

The rest of the people took the quilts and prepared to make the beds. Xu Qing said pleasantly: "Dad, you see, these quilts are not the ones we usually use in hotels. The pillows are also rectangular with embroidery on them, so strange."

Mother Yu patted the thin quilt lightly when she heard the words, nodded slightly and said, "The cotton inside is used, and the fabric outside is also pure cotton, there is no irritating Lele to use."

Xu's mother really picked up the pillow, looked at it, and said nostalgicly: "This is an old-fashioned pillow. We used to sleep on this kind of pillow when we were young. The embroidery on the side of the pillow was embroidered by my mother and aunt one by one."

"Oh, and that's where the word embroidered pillow comes from?"

"What kind of strange association do you have, kid?" Mother Xu said, dumbfounded.

After the kang was laid and washed, everyone lay down to rest.

Before turning off the lights, Comrade Yu took out his phone and looked at the time on it, and said, "It's just after ten o'clock. This is the earliest time I've slept in the past few years. In the past, even if I go to bed at eleven o'clock, I still have to play with my phone for a while." , I won’t turn off the lights before 12 o’clock and go to bed. But today, even though I know there is WIFI in the house, I still don’t want to turn on my phone, I just want to lie down like this.”

"Me too, my husband. I haven't felt this peaceful and serene for a long time."

The family lay on the lukewarm kang, and the night breeze outside the house brought the coolness of the mountains into the house through the screen window, and also sent the chirping of night insects to everyone's ears.

Mole crickets, crickets, katydids, and weavers, one after another, seem to be a country ensemble.

Already accustomed to the nightlife in the city, the Yu family and the Xu family who thought they would not feel sleepy when they lay down so early did not expect that they would all fall asleep within a few minutes amidst the lullaby of nature.

When they wake up again tomorrow, they will still be greeted with flowers, delicious food, and a leisurely holiday life.

Seeing that the lights in the guest room were finally turned off, Zhou Quan, who had been busy all day, finally felt relieved.

He said to Chef Bao who had changed his chef uniform and was looking up information on the Internet: "Okay, all the guests have rested, let's go home too, wash up and go to bed."

After hearing this, Chef Bao looked at the phone and confirmed that the service software on it was working normally. As long as the guest clicked the button in the room, he could connect to the call, and then put the phone back in his trouser pocket.

It stands to reason that after the renovation of Bao's old house is completed, Chef Bao should go back to live in his own home, and the main house on the east side is the room he left for himself.

The furniture and bedding inside are the best in the whole old house, and the value of the whole house is definitely high.

However, Chef Bao used that room as his and Zhouquan's dormitory, and only went to take a nap with Zhouquan during the lunch break, but at night he still had to go back to Zhouquan's small building on the second floor for the night.

I gave up the row of spacious rooms in my own house to live in, and went to squeeze out the small kang in the West Room of Xiaojia.

The dried quilt was placed in the cabinet, but he never took it out. Instead, he took a nap in the same quilt as when he just came back.

What's even more strange is that neither Zhou Quan himself nor Chef Bao felt that there was anything wrong with this. They still get up early every day and go out to work together, and come back to rest together at night.

In this way, Chef Bao, who sits on a homestead of more than ten acres and has more than [-] rooms in the courtyard, still sleeps in a small bed.