Shui Qing thought it was a good idea.

Lunch is dry rice. Although it's not white rice, what's wrong with making dry rice from brown rice? Dinner is basically made from refined grains. This kind of village feast is quite impressive for the villagers of Shanshui Village.

She looked at the women picking and washing vegetables in the yard and thought that back in China, preparing for a banquet for several hundred people would take several days in advance, so it was no wonder that Sister Guifen was nervous.

"Sister-in-law, the weather is cold now. I think the pork won't spoil even if it's left for three to five days. How about I have my dad slaughter the pig later? You can cut the pork into chunks or shreds this afternoon, and we can just stir-fry it in the pan tomorrow morning."

Wang Guifen's eyes lit up, and she nodded repeatedly: "That would be perfect! Shuiqing, thank you for your father's help."

At first, she was determined to make sure everything was fresh. For the past two days, she had been discussing with each household the number of tables, chairs, bowls, and chopsticks needed for the village feast on the twelfth day of the eleventh lunar month. After hurriedly finalizing the arrangements, she then pondered what to eat for the two meals. Finally, she made sure to rush to prepare the dishes today.

While preparing the food, I realized there was a lot to do and time was tight!

The cost of the village banquet was deducted from the twenty taels of silver in the communal coffers, so the dishes were not delivered by any individual household, but were purchased directly from villagers.

The demand for radishes and Chinese cabbage is high, and no single household has that much. They also need to keep some vegetables for their own winter, so they can't sell them all. Therefore, about ten households each bought some.

Our village banquet is much cheaper than outside, it's incredibly affordable!

The cabbage roots need to be removed, and the radish roots need to be cleaned. Then they need to be washed and sliced. At this moment, five or six women are in charge of this large pile of radishes and cabbage.

The winter bamboo shoots were dug up from the bamboo forest on the mountain. After peeling off the outer skin, there wasn't much bamboo flesh inside the large bamboo shoot. However, the winter bamboo shoots were sweet and delicious, and they were even more delicious when stir-fried with shredded meat. The village's expert in finding winter bamboo shoots was arranged to dig up several large baskets of them a couple of days ago.

At this moment, three or four women in the courtyard are peeling winter bamboo shoots with kitchen knives. The wooden basin next to them is piled up like a small mountain, and at the other end, a woman is cutting the bamboo shoots into thin strips.

Pickled chilies are put into the jar during the autumn when chilies are at their peak. When they are taken out now, the chilies are translucent and pale yellow, and the strong sour smell hits the nose, making the mouth water.

These were also bought from each household in the village and need to be cut into strips.

......

Wang Guifen felt that her previous idea was too simplistic, thinking that cooking a meal at home would only take half an hour.

The village feast had many people, but correspondingly many women also helped out. Overall, it was the same as cooking at home. Didn't Shuiqing's family cook on the same day they built their house? They still had enough time.

I only realized how completely different it was when I started preparing the groceries this morning!

When Shuiqing's family was building a house, there were only a few dozen or at most a hundred people to eat. Twenty or thirty women could manage, but the village feast suddenly had more than three hundred people, and the amount of food to prepare was more than ever before!

She said worriedly, "Shuiqing, don't laugh at your sister-in-law. I've never seen anything like this before. I'm so busy I'm constantly on my feet, and I'm afraid I'll mess things up."

"Sister-in-law, you're joking. This is your first time organizing a meal for the whole village, and you've done a very good job. Actually, think about it, with this experience, when you organize it again next time, won't you be more skilled and adept?"

"So don't panic, don't be flustered. The things you're going through now are all accumulating experience for the future," Shui Qing sincerely advised.

In China, people still have mobile phones, which can be used to search for and learn from others' experiences. At the very least, they can ask people around them for tips. However, the women of Shanshui Village can count the number of times they leave the village on one hand. They have no way of seeing how outsiders organize banquets, and they have no one around them to ask.