Daddy! Come Home for Dinner!

Chapter 717: Chapter 717: Year

While unique, it wasn’t distasteful.

Cindy Clarke ground the chestnuts into fine chestnut paste, blending a little lard to make the chestnut smoother.

After adding a touch of sugar, she shaped it into dumplings.

However, she had no intention of boiling these dumplings, instead, they were to be pan-fried.

It turned out to be a version of chestnut crisp.

She set aside these special chestnut-filled dumplings separately, fearing they would get mixed up with others due to their different cooking methods.

Boiling them would, of course, be fine.

But because the chestnut filling is sweet, the taste and texture would differ from regular desserts when mixed with the dumpling skin, affecting the flavor.

After finishing the dumplings, she covered them with a layer of cling wrap to prevent the dough from drying and cracking when exposed to the air.

Especially with the heating on in the house, the high temperature and very dry conditions could have this effect.

Aunt Evans was only halfway through when she went to prepare lunch.

Otherwise, they would not know when they could have lunch.

But by that time, over half of the dumplings were already done, and there weren’t many left.

The Old Madam, Victoria Wheeler, and Cindy Clarke quickly finished the leftovers.

Aunt Evans came out to clear the table.

Then she brought out lunch.

As they still had a feast for New Year’s Eve dinner, lunch was kept relatively simple.

The marinated meat was prepared by Aunt Evans a few days ago for the Spring Festival.

For example, soy-marinated beef, pig stomach, smoked fish, sausage, and pork skin aspic.

These alone made for five dishes.

They also had quite a lot of marinated meat gift boxes from others.

The family had already distributed some to people working in the family mansion.

Bodyguards, gatekeepers, gardeners, and cleaners were naturally included, and, of course, Butler Howard and Aunt Evans were not forgotten.

Even so, they still had plenty.

Nearly no cooking was required.

Aunt Evans took those out.

Some were served cold, while others tasted better after being heated up.

The remaining food was just some cold mixed vegetables, which was also very simple.

At noon, besides the elderly couple, only Victoria Wheeler and Cindy Clarke were present, accompanied by the little one, Butler Howard, and Aunt Evans.

They genuinely couldn’t eat much.

Cindy took the opportunity when the dishes were being served to call Morgan Zhekova and the Old Master for lunch.

The old and the young had been outside for two hours, surprisingly without feeling cold.

When they came in, both of their faces were incredibly red.

Having been outside for a long time, they were quite chilled.

Only after a good while did they start to feel warm inside.

Once they were truly warm, the elderly and the young took off their coats.

Aunt Evans poured them hot water, letting them drink a few mouthfuls to warm up their stomachs, and then they began to enjoy their lunch.

In the afternoon, the snow continued to fall.

A layer of white had accumulated on the ground, but it was still very light.

One step could tread through the light layer of snow, revealing the ground beneath.

Thus, the little one lost interest in playing in the snow.

Just watching it snow without being able to build a snowman was boring.

The little one was just waiting to see how thick the snow would be when he woke up the next morning.

So, in the afternoon, the little one roamed around the house, sticking window decorations.

The window decorations were already in place awhile ago.

But the little one was bored and liked sticking them anywhere.

The elderly couple indulged him.

They even asked Aunt Evans to find more leftover window decorations.

Regardless of whether little Morgan placed the stickers properly or not, he was allowed to stick them anywhere he wanted.

Nevertheless, such whims seldom lasted for long. After applying a few stickers, he got tired.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

He took out his iPad to play with.

However, Cindy wouldn’t allow him to play it for long as it could strain his eyes.

The Old Master remembered something, suggested, “Why don’t you play the Nintendo Switch?”

He had previously bought a set for Morgan.

Alongside it, he purchased a lot of games too.

Adrian also had a set for him.

But it was inconvenient to take it everywhere when moving.

Since Morgan often came to the family mansion, the Old Master simply kept a set at the mansion for him.

Not only the Switch, but even toys that Morgan’s house didn’t have were kept here by the Old Master.

How else would they attract Morgan to come over if not like this?

Remembering this, Morgan changed his clothes, ran over to his little courtyard at the mansion to fetch it.

He brought it back to the living room, connected to the television, and began to play.

Seeing that he wasn’t getting into too much mischief, Cindy and Aunt Evans began preparing New Year’s Eve Dinner.

In past years, the mansion would hire a team of chefs to prepare the New Year’s Eve dinner.

However, there were too many, and it was a time for family reunion, only family was present.

Having strangers around made people feel uncomfortable.

This year, Cindy asked the Old Madam about the mansion’s New Year traditions.

After listening, she offered to prepare the New Year’s Eve dinner with Aunt Evans.

Actually, there weren’t many family members.

The elders, Maverick and his wife, then her, Adrian, and little Morgan.

Altogether just seven people, the New Year’s Eve dinner wasn’t much of a grand project.

As for Butler Howard and Aunt Evans, they don’t spend New Year’s at the mansion.

Both Butler Howard and Aunt Evans usually live in the mansion.

However, for investment and a sense of security from owning a house.

Both also bought houses in Belfard.

Since they usually worked at the mansion and it had courtyards prepared for them.

They wound up living there, instead of commuting back and forth, which was a lot of trouble.

But New Year’s Eve is meant to be spent with family.

Both of their sons had married. Given their treatment at the mansion, buying a house in Belfard was quite easy.

So, they also bought a house for their son.

Therefore, every year at New Year, after they finished their work at the mansion, Butler Howard and Aunt Evans would go directly to their son’s house to spend New Year’s Eve there.

After that, they went back to their house.

They would return to the mansion on the morning of the first day of the New Year.

Cindy had given Aunt Evans the ingredients needed beforehand.

Therefore, Aunt Evans had made preparations early.

In the afternoon, she helped Cindy prepare the meal.

Cindy then urged Aunt Evans: “Aunt Evans, you and Butler Howard should head back early for New Year’s. Otherwise, it’ll be dark by the time you get back, and who knows when you’ll have your New Year’s Eve dinner.”

“I could help you finish cooking the dishes.” Aunt Evans couldn’t bear to leave all this to Cindy.

The task was indeed a big one.

“Actually, most of them are already prepared.” Cindy said, “We’ve got stir-fry that you precooked, and also those New Year gift boxes. Both the Poon Choi and Buddha Jumps over the Wall gift boxes from ‘Quire’ and ‘Eastco Resto’ have arrived; they will be perfect for tonight’s dinner.”

Every Spring Festival, Restaurants under Pingla Corp. generally release some New Year dishes.

All of them were personally created by the head chefs.

Then the restaurant cooks would prepare them into gift boxes, most of them capable of lasting 7 days.

They would be bought by customers and added to their New Year’s Eve dinner.

For example, the dish prepared by ‘Quire’ this year was Buddha Jumps over the Wall.

As for ‘Eastco Resto’, they prepared Poon Choi.

These two were the highest Michelin-rated restaurants under Pingla Corp.