HCB Chapter 56: Making a Baby Chair with Rice
Chapter 56: Making a Baby Chair with Rice
Shen Wu heard the sound of chopping something outside and was very curious about what Gu Zhou was doing.
Gu Zhou randomly picked a larger piece of bamboo and split it with a machete, then began to split the bamboo strips following the steps he remembered how his father made a bamboo basket.
Split it into two and then split each in half. When the split pieces are about the same width as the bamboo basket pieces, you can start splitting them with a machete.
Shen Wu stood at the kitchen door and watched Gu Zhou busying himself with his head down, not knowing exactly what he was doing. It was only when he finished the part with the bamboo strips that he realized he was going to repair the bamboo basket.
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After a while, the buns on the stove in the house were ready to be cooked. Shen Wu went back and turned off the fire, waited for a while, and then began to lift the lid and move the buns into the big basin.
She likes to put a lot of stuffing in the dumplings. The steamed buns are thin and full of stuffing. You can see the stuffing inside under the thin dough. The frosted dough is full of green and white bamboo shoots, which makes people drool.
This time the buns had a thin skin, so she waited for a while until the heat had dissipated, then held the two sides of the cage cloth with both hands and carefully lifted it directly out of the pot.
There was a large basin next to the stove. She moved the buns into the basin and lifted the cage cloth to lift them inside.
Because of gravity and inertia, the buns fell into the basin easily. Also because of the cage cloth, the buns did not stick to the bottom. The tightly stuck parts could be easily loosened by simply applying some cold water.
After finishing this pot, Shen Wu looked at the bottom of the pot. There was still water in it, enough for the second pot of buns, so there was no need to add more water. She started the fire again using the residual heat.
She was also stupid. In fact, she could move the buns without stopping the fire. Now she had to light the fire again, which was a bit troublesome. Fortunately, she was already skilled in making fire, and she lit the fire again very quickly.
After washing and drying his hands, Shen Wu wet the cage cloth with a little water and put it back on the grate, and then put the remaining buns on top. Just enough to put all the buns in, Shen Wu closed the wooden lid and put some more firewood in.
Shen Wu went out with the buns and the bowls and chopsticks, and shouted, "It's time to eat! Gu Zhou, don't be busy, eat first! Little sister is eating!"
After putting the buns and dishes on the table, she glanced at Gu Wei in the room. She was about to carry her brother out: "No need to carry my brother. Go and wash your hands first. Put my brother on the bed and I'll come later."
Gu Zhou obediently put down the work in his hands and went to wash his hands first. Just after he finished washing, he saw the little sister running towards him with a smile: "Come here and wash, I'll make the soup."
Gu Wei squatted down and rubbed her hands skillfully: "Brother Jiang Yu said you just need to scoop the soup and bring it over, and she took the bowl and chopsticks over."
There were two basins in their house, one big and one small. At first, their mother used them to mix vegetables for the family. After she woke up, their uses changed and they were often used to hold rice.
Gu Zhou took the large basin and drained out the soup from the pot and brought it to the main room.
Gu Wei had already sat down and was eagerly waiting for her brother to come over, while Shen Wu was also holding his younger brother and rocking him.
Shen Wu had never taken care of a child before, so she didn't know if this was normal for the child. Apart from eating and drinking, she had never seen the child cry.
Of course, she had never seen Lasa because she had never changed a diaper for the child.
Gu Zhou first served his younger brother a bowl of thick soup which was almost entirely made up of rice grains, and then served soup to each of them in turn.
Shen Wu looked at Gu Wei, who was preparing the soup seriously and looking expectant, and asked curiously, "Your brother... is too well-behaved, isn't he? Doesn't he cry before? Or is it because he is too young? How old is he?"
Gu Zhou put the bowl away and counted the days: "By the end of the month, the baby will be May, and in August, he will be 6 months old."
"It's almost six months old, why is it so small?" Maybe it's malnutrition?
Shen Wu sat down and thought about the child's future food. He would have to buy an egg for the child after selling the buns tomorrow. Now he could also start feeding the child egg yolks and some vegetable and fruit puree.
Gu Zhou spoke up and brought her back to her thoughts: "Eat, I'll feed you. You didn't eat this morning, so eat first."
Shen Wu handed the child over without objecting. She was busy but hadn't noticed that she was actually a little hungry after hearing what Gu Zhou said.
Besides, she didn't know how to feed a baby very well. The last time she did it was just imitating from memory. It would be better for her to let Gu Zhou, who was more familiar with the baby than her, feed the baby.
While the two of them were talking, Gu Wei had already taken a bun and started eating: "Wow! There are so many vegetables on today's buns! Delicious!"
Gu Wei took two bites of half a bun and a sip of soup. She felt so happy! She had never looked forward to eating so much. Jiang Yu always made something she liked.
Gu Zhou used a spoon to crush the rice grains into very small pieces, because after being simmered for a long time, it would be very easy for them to blend into the thick paste of the noodle soup.
He carefully blew the soup in the spoon to cool it down and fed it to his little brother who was screaming in his arms.
"Gu Wei, eat slowly. You may choke if you eat too fast."
While Gu Zhou lowered his head to feed his younger brother, he did not forget to remind his sister who was eating buns crazily to be careful.
Shen Wu slowly drank a few sips of the soup in the bowl, and then began to taste the buns.
The buns are fried in lard and are very fragrant, and the fried food inside gives them a rich taste. The buns have a soft outer skin, and the filling is fresh and fragrant with a crispy and spicy flavor. They taste simply delicious.
Maybe it was because she was hungry, but she quickly ate two buns before continuing to drink the soup.
A bowl of soup and three buns were enough. Shen Wu couldn't eat any more. Seeing that Gu Zhou had finished feeding the child, he let him eat first while he held the child.
Maybe it’s due to malnutrition, the child doesn’t look very good, his face is not fat and there is not much flesh on his chin, and his body feels a little thin even in the small clothes he wears.
Shen Wu thought that he would have to start making the chair later, otherwise he couldn't hold it in his arms every day, which would waste time.
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After the meal, Shen Wu asked Gu Wei to continue helping to look after his younger brother, while he went to the kitchen to wash the pots and dishes and then prepared two pots of water for them to take a bath. He also had to make a baby seat.
Gu Zhou didn't know what he was going to do outside. After dinner, Shen Wu didn't let him wash the dishes, so he said goodbye and left.
After quickly washing the pots, pans, and other items, Shen Wu filled two large pots with water and put a lot of firewood on them.
After finishing the kitchen, the next thing to do was to make the children's seats. She first made the basic bamboo structure in a large size of 60 cm in length.
She plans to make a dual-purpose version that can be placed flat when the wheels are not needed, and can be pushed around with the wheels attached when needed.
First, make four of the longest supporting bamboos, the length of which should be roughly enough to reach her knees.
Tie a stone with a cloth strip to mark the top of the strip, measure from the knee down to the length she wants, and then use a charcoal pencil to mark it.
Use a charcoal pencil to draw the length you want on the bamboo, stand it up against your legs to compare whether the length is correct.
After confirming that it was the desired length, she could start cutting a little further out from the marked point. However, there was no saw at home, so she could only cut it a little longer than the required length, and then use a knife to repair the stone and grind it.
The four longest bamboos were easy to cut and were finished very quickly.
Then she needed a bamboo of equal length on the left, right and back sides, and she planned to use thin bamboo for the top of the chair.
The three main load-bearing bamboos below, which are the three bamboos on the left and right rear, need to be about 50 cm long.