Daddy! Come Home for Dinner!

Chapter 716: Chapter 716: Did Gu Shen eat this when he was a child?

Thinking back… when he was young, he was also deceived by the cunning Old Madam.

It wasn’t until after they got married that he realized how glib the Old Madam was.

And he wasn’t the only one she fooled!

Cindy could already sense this.

With Old Madam’s influence, whether Morgan would become cunning or not would depend on his character.

The Old Master put the little guy down.

He still had his little backpack on.

In it were gaming consoles, an iPad, and other things he could play with.

Belfard prohibits setting off fireworks for Spring Festival.

Unable to play with those, Morgan could only play video games.

But now that it was snowing, he had lost interest in those games.

He put his backpack on the sofa. His hat, gloves, and scarf were still on, and he hadn’t taken off his down jacket.

He was ready to go out and play.

Morgan excitedly said, “Great Grandfather, Great Grandmother, I want to go see the snow.”

“Go ahead,” the Old Master said happily.

No matter what request Morgan made, the Old Master was always willing to oblige.

Especially for something as small as seeing the snow.

Old Madam quickly added, “But don’t play outside too long or you’ll catch a cold. Just watch for a while, then come back in.”

“With the way it’s snowing, there will be a thin layer of snow by the afternoon. At that time, you can go out and play in the snow,” Old Madam said.

“Will there be a thick layer of snow during the daytime?” Morgan asked expectantly.

“Not likely,” Victoria Wheeler dashed his hopes.

“The sun will be out during the day, and the temperature won’t be low enough for the snow to stay on the ground,” Victoria explained. “But it can happen at night. It’s cold enough for the snow to stay on the ground at night.”

“If it keeps snowing tonight, you’ll see a thick layer of snow tomorrow morning,” Victoria said.

The reason she said this was because, traditionally, everyone stayed at the family mansion during Spring Festival.

Cindy and Morgan were joining the Zhekova Family for Spring Festival and would be staying here as well.

They would stay up together on New Year’s Eve to eat dumplings.

It would be worrisome if they went home too late.

Moreover, there was heavy snow today.

So Morgan went out, full of anticipation, to play in the snow.

The other servants in the mansion were busy decorating for Spring Festival.

After finishing the decorations, they too would go home for the holidays.

Belfard prohibits setting off fireworks.

Even in their own courtyard, they wouldn’t secretly set them off.

As a festive touch, Butler Howard bought some firecracker-shaped decorations.

They were fake and couldn’t be lit, but hanging on the tree, they were bright red and festive.

Now they were hanging on the tree with snow falling on them.

Seeing the red and white made them look even better.

The windows of each room in the mansion were adorned with paper-cut designs.

Couplet banners were pasted on the front door.

Fortune characters were put along the outer corridor for a festive touch.

With Morgan outside playing in the snow, Cindy was preparing the dumpling filling.

Aunt Evans had already kneaded the dough.

As soon as the dumpling filling was ready, they could start rolling out the dough and wrapping dumplings.

Because they had Cindy, an amazing cook at home.

Aunt Evans didn’t compete with Cindy to prepare the dumpling filling.

I’ll just be Cindy’s assistant then.

In addition to the traditional meat filling, Cindy also bought Spanish mackerel and squid.

She deboned the Spanish mackerel, mixed with eggs, and minced both the mackerel and squid into a paste.

She continued to work the fish paste to gain more texture.

Then, she made a thick soup by boiling fish bones and adding gelatin sheets.

She placed the soup in the refrigerator to turn it into a fish jelly.

She then cut the fish jelly into small cubes.

Creating a fishball with the fish paste by hand, she made a hole in the middle, placed the fish jelly cube inside, wrapped it up, and then wrapped it into a dumpling skin.

Aunt Evans brought over some brand-new coins that had been cleaned and disinfected with boiling water.

They were all small coins worth a tenth of a dollar.

“Our family didn’t have the habit of putting coins in dumplings during the Spring Festival. We only had it when Young Master was little,” Aunt Evans said with a smile.

Little kids love this kind of surprise.

Whoever eats the dumpling containing a coin is said to have wealth, success, and good fortune in the coming year.

Adrian Zhekova also loved it as a child.

He looked forward to eating dumplings the most during the Spring Festival.

“Adrian ate them too when he was a kid?” Cindy asked in surprise.

She was very curious about Adrian’s childhood.

Aunt Evans laughed and said, “Yes, the Young Master loved it when he was a child. In order to get the coin-filled dumplings, he could eat several plates.”

“Just think about it, he was such a small child with a little appetite, but he managed to eat more than forty dumplings just to get a coin. He was so stuffed that he couldn’t walk.”

“But that was when he was a child,” Aunt Evans said. “By the time the Young Master was in junior high school, he stopped eating coin-filled dumplings. I don’t know if he still looked forward to it, but by then he had developed an adult temperament and insisted on not doing such childish things.”

As people grow up, they tend to lose interest or disdain for these traditional customs.

They don’t care much about these forms anymore.

“So our family temporarily suspended the habit of putting coins in dumplings during the Spring Festival,” Aunt Evans said.

“We haven’t done it for many years. But now that Morgan is here, I think he will definitely love it!” Aunt Evans said.

“Let him enjoy it while he’s still willing to play this game. When he grows up, I’m afraid he’ll be like Young Master,” Aunt Evans said.

Cindy nodded, smiling, and said, “That’s what I think too. Morgan has never eaten coin-filled dumplings before. He was too young before, and I was afraid he might accidentally swallow the coin.”

Last year during the Spring Festival, Morgan was only three years old, and he didn’t turn four until his birthday later that year.

“Now I’m not worried anymore. We can let him eat them, and he’ll be pleasantly surprised,” Cindy said.

So she and Aunt Evans occasionally wrapped coins in the dumplings together.

Not only Cindy and Aunt Evans were making dumplings,

Victoria Wheeler and the Old Madam were also helping.

The four of them sat around the dining table, making dumplings while chatting.

As for the Old Master, he didn’t know how to make dumplings, so he went to play with Morgan.

Butler Howard was in charge of decorating the family mansion for Spring Festival.

For the squid-filled dumplings, Cindy used squid ink to mix a small amount of black dough, and rolled it out to make black dumpling skins.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

In addition to the Spanish mackerel and squid-filled dumplings,

There were also the regular pork-filled ones.

Cindy chose pork belly.

However, the pork belly still had too much fat.

She cut off a lot of the fat, leaving just a little in the lean meat.

A little bit of fat makes for juicy meat and prevents the dumplings from being too dry.

In the meat filling, she added chopped shiitake mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms, green onions, and cabbage.

They added a few coins to dumplings with different fillings.

Additionally, Cindy prepared some special fillings.