The next morning, Wang Yitong and Ye Tianyong woke up early and went about their own business. One of them was going to do things related to building the house, while the other got up and started putting skewers into the pot.

Since everything was almost ready yesterday, Wang Yitong let Yingbao sleep a little longer.

However, I can only sleep a little longer, since I have important things to do today.

In the past, Yingbao would have gotten up early and started working with her mother, Wang Yitong, on making skewers, a task that would have been going on for a long time.

...

After Wang Yitong finished braising all the skewers, she started preparing breakfast. First, she cooked a simple pot of sweet potato and millet porridge, which is good for the stomach and soothing. She also made a small bowl of steamed egg custard for Yingbao.

Then she wanted to make some pork crackling pancakes so the whole family could have something new to eat.

So, she went to the well in the yard and took out the pork fat that Yingbao had taken out of her space yesterday when no one was around on the road.

Then, Wang Yitong brought the pork fat back to the kitchen, took a basin, filled it with more than half water, and began to wash the pork fat. She washed it for a while until she could not see a trace of dirt with the naked eye before she stopped.

Then, she started to beat the embers in the earthen stove that her mother-in-law, Wang Cuihua, and the others had been using to heat the pot the day before, adding two or three pieces of firewood and then putting water in the pot to boil.

After the water boiled, Wang Yitong thought the pork fat was too big, so she took a cleaver and cut it a few times. After cutting it, she put it all in and cooked it for two minutes. Then she lifted the lid, skimmed off the foam on the pork fat, took it out and put it in a basin of cold water that she had prepared earlier. She skimmed off another layer of foam and set it aside.

She poured out the dirty water from blanching the pork fat in the pot, washed the pot, and then heated it up again before adding the pork fat. Because the pork fat had a strong odor, Wang Yitong added two or three slices of scallion, ginger, and star anise and stir-fried them together. After stir-frying evenly, she added half a bowl of water, which Yingbao had told her to do.

"Yingbao said that adding water when rendering pork fat can prevent it from sticking to the pot, make the pork fat white and beautiful, and taste delicious."

Seeing that the water in the pot had almost evaporated, Wang Yitong added a little white wine to remove any unpleasant odors and enhance the aroma. After that, she turned the heat down to low and slowly stirred and simmered the pork fat until the cracklings gradually shrank and shrank further. She saw that the pork fat had been rendered and the pork cracklings had solidified into a golden-yellow color.

Wang Yitong couldn't resist picking up a spatula and scooping up about ten pieces. She was so eager that she didn't even have time to find chopsticks. "Whoosh whoosh whoosh..." she blew on them a few times, then grabbed them with her hands and started eating. Oops, I misspoke.

In Wang Yitong's eyes, it was like she had just tasted it.

***

I don't know if it's because the pork fat my daughter used was better, or because Wang Yitong's cooking skills are better.

Anyway, it tasted really good, so delicious that you couldn't stop eating it, and you wanted to eat more after you started. Even someone her age couldn't resist the temptation, so you can imagine...

Wang Yitong first scooped out the pork cracklings and put them in a basin, then covered them with a cloth, preparing to use them to make pancakes later. Then she turned around and walked to the cupboard door, took out the earthenware jar that had previously contained pork fat, and poured all the pork fat rendered in the pot into it and put it away.

"I don't even need to wash the oil pan anymore; it'll be convenient to just fry them directly later," Wang Yitong thought to herself.

At this moment, Xiao Mingchen smelled a fragrant aroma in his sleep, and couldn't help but sniff and chew a few times with his mouth.