Xu Lai knew without guessing that he thought the orange peel was unclean, so she turned the cup around and drank it herself.

"I washed that orange before I ate it," she said slowly after finishing her drink.

Zhao Qingyun coughed guiltily, "I'm not thirsty, it's not that I don't want to drink."

Xu Lai glanced at him, her expression one of disbelief.

...

There are still many sweet potatoes at home. When we were making sweet potato starch, we only took two-thirds with us. The rest are kept at home so we can eat them whenever we want.

Xu Lai peeled two sweet potatoes, cut them into chunks, and put them in the rice cooker to cook with the rice.

Some sweet potatoes in the corner had gone bad. She picked out the bad ones, cut off the bad parts with a knife, chopped up the rest, and fed them to the ducks.

She remembered a snack that her mother used to make for them often. Because it was shaped like a crab, it was also called "fried crab".

The method is also very simple: peel the sweet potato, shred it, add some flour and glutinous rice flour, add some water and mix well, then put them into the oil to fry one by one.

She peeled too many sweet potatoes, so she steamed the extra ones to make taro and sweet potato balls later.

The taro at home is ripe. Grandpa dug up two today, and she put on gloves and peeled one. This is for filling, so we don't need too many.

I also steamed the taro. The taro I had at home wasn't the fragrant taro variety, so it didn't have a powdery and glutinous texture. Instead, it tasted a bit like stir-fried yam.

Despite wearing gloves, the back of her hands inevitably started to itch, probably because she accidentally touched the taro skin while peeling it.

Grandma found some rice wine and applied it to the back of her hand. "Okay, it won't itch anymore in a bit."

Xu Lai couldn't resist scratching it, and her grandmother quickly said, "Don't scratch, or it will itch even more."

After a while, she felt much better. Her grandmother had already heated the oil and fried several "crabs".

Xu Lai didn't bother to pick up the chopsticks and reached in with her hands, only to be burned and flinch.

Grandma smiled and said, "Haste makes waste. Go get your chopsticks."

Xu Lai exclaimed "Oh!" She thought it wasn't so hot anymore, but it turned out it had just come out of the pot.

After getting the chopsticks, Grandma picked out two more fried ones. Xu Lai chose the one at the bottom, which meant it had been out of the pan for quite a while.

One bite reveals a crispy exterior and a soft interior. The sweet potato is incredibly sweet and delicious. She had added two spoonfuls of sugar when mixing the batter, making it just the right amount.

Grandma smiled and said, "It's delicious, isn't it?"

Xu Lai nodded: "It's been a long time since I've had this."

After she finished eating, she was about to help when her grandmother said, "You still have something steaming in the pot, don't you want it?"

Xu Lai then remembered that she had steamed sweet potatoes and taro. She found two bowls, poured the sweet potatoes and taro into them separately, added a spoonful of sugar, and then pounded them with a spoon until they became a paste.

Add glutinous rice flour to the sweet potato puree, then knead it into a dough and divide it into equal-sized portions.

Taro is prepared in the same way, but you don't need to add as much glutinous rice flour, just a little bit is enough, which serves to increase stickiness.

Knead the taro into a ball, wrap it inside the sweet potato, and roll it into a small ball. That's it.

She originally wanted to coat the food with breadcrumbs, but since she didn't have any at home, she gave up and decided that frying it directly would be just as good.

Once she finished on her end, her grandmother had also finished on hers, so Xu Lai could take over.

As soon as the sweet potato balls hit the oil, they sizzled and bubbled. Xu Lai stirred as she added the balls, and soon half of them were in the pot.

After they came out of the pan, she could hear the crispy sound of the outside. Grandma picked one up and said, "Mmm, delicious, very soft."

Xu Lai saw that half was enough and was afraid that she would fry too much and not be able to finish it, so she kept the other half and planned to freeze it in the refrigerator and fry it again when she wanted to eat it next time.

Grandpa smelled the aroma of sweet potatoes and couldn't resist running to the kitchen to see what was going on. He saw Xu Lai and his wife eating and said, "Well, they don't even call me when they're eating."

Seeing her grandfather's expression, Xu Lai burst out laughing: "Grandpa, we were just trying it out, we were just about to call you."

I just stir-fried a simple dish for lunch, along with fried crab and sweet potato balls, and that was enough.

Today is New Year's Eve. They don't celebrate these Gregorian calendar holidays here, but Xu Lai thought that since it's New Year's Eve, she decided to have a hot pot dinner.

She called Zhao Qingyun and asked him to bring back two coconuts, planning to make a coconut chicken hot pot.

Today is New Year's Eve, and his company closes early. He directly instructed Secretary Chen to give instructions that the company would be closed on the first day of the new year, plus the three-day holiday for New Year's Eve, for a total of four days off.

On his way home, he saw children setting off fireworks by the roadside, so he drove to a fireworks shop and bought sparklers and a money tree. He also asked the shop owner to move two large buckets of fireworks into the trunk.

When he got home, Xu Lai was plucking chicken feathers. After putting his things down, he went to help, saying, "Let me do it, the water is cold."

Xu Lai shook her head and said, "It's okay, I'll be done soon, and the well water is fine, it's not too cold."

It's New Year's Eve, and the construction crew behind the house is still working. Xu Lai couldn't help but say, "It's almost five o'clock, aren't they going to finish get off work yet?"

Zhao Qingyun thought to herself that the designated time for them to leave work was six o'clock. Originally, they were supposed to leave at five o'clock, but the start time for work in the morning was delayed, so the time to leave work was moved later.

Since Xu Lai had already spoken, he secretly sent a message to the people there, telling them to hurry home and have dinner.

They're already laying the foundation, and to be honest, the progress is pretty fast. He plans to move in next summer, so all the renovations need to be finished before May.

After the chicken feathers were removed, Xu Lai asked him to open the coconut, so she chopped up the chicken meat and put it directly into the coconut later.

These are free-range chickens from our own farm, so there's no need to blanch them to remove the fishy smell. Just soak them in hot water for a while to remove the blood.

She set aside the chicken giblets, added some pickled chili peppers and pickled radishes, and stir-fried them into a side dish.

Even if Grandpa eats hot pot, he still needs to eat rice, so he needs a side dish to go with his rice.

She chopped some small red chilies, added garlic, soy sauce, light soy sauce, and oyster sauce to make a dipping sauce. She seemed to remember that Zhao Qingyun didn't eat cilantro, so she prepared a bowl of dipping sauce in advance and added cilantro and green onions to the rest.

Zhao Qingyun poured out the coconut water; two coconuts yielded a bowl of coconut water. Xu Lai thought to herself that she had asked him to buy too little.

Fortunately, she had coconut water at home, which she had bought at the supermarket. She had only picked up a large bottle because the price was affordable.

Now it came in handy. She poured it into the pot, brought it to a boil, added the chicken, and it was ready to eat.

They usually eat spicy hot pot, so when it suddenly became so bland, Grandma thought they hadn't bought any hot pot base.

Xu Lai said with a smile, "This is coconut chicken hot pot, please try it."