Whether those who have gone out return or not, the New Year will still be celebrated.
This is the first New Year that the people of Whale Island have celebrated on the island, and everyone, from top to bottom, is taking it very seriously.
Everyone got busy a few days in advance.
At the beginning, everyone argued endlessly about what dishes to eat during the New Year. Not to mention others, even the two sisters-in-law, Shiyue and Liang Yueming, couldn't decide.
Everyone wants to create a perfect menu.
Finally, He Siyi couldn't stand it anymore and said, "Isn't the New Year all about family reunion? Eating glutinous rice balls or dumplings is fine!"
Knowing that it would be difficult to gather both glutinous rice and sugar on the island, the old man made the final decision: "We'll eat dumplings for the New Year!"
The old man's words were a reassurance, and the two sisters-in-law had no further objections.
When Cao Dalin came over to ask about their decision, he heard the news and said, "We should eat dumplings during the New Year! Let's not separate the big canteen from the small canteen anymore, let's celebrate together."
Sigh, back when we were at home, we always looked forward to the dumplings for Chinese New Year! We were poor back then, let alone meat. If we could get a few dumplings with just vegetable filling, everyone would enjoy them very much.
"It's only Chinese New Year if there are dumplings!"
Shiyue and Liang Yueming realized at this point that they had been getting stuck on a rut.
The main reason is that the two of them are used to eating in the small canteen, so they always try to come up with some dishes that they can cook themselves.
They had considered making dumplings, but they were mainly afraid they wouldn't be able to make them.
After all, the other two people in the family who can help with chores aren't home!
But now that I think about it, the Lunar New Year is a shared event, and no one would refuse to help if I asked someone!
The more people making dumplings, the more lively it is!
So the two of them discussed it with Cao Dalin again and decided on the filling for the dumplings they were going to make.
They decided to make two kinds of fillings, one of which was celery and shrimp.
The water celery on the island grows exceptionally well; it's so crisp and tender that you can't eat it all.
Water celery has a natural aroma, and when paired with the freshness of shrimp, the taste is sure to be quite delicious!
They plan to make a mushroom and vegetable filling for the other filling.
It's been raining several times in a row lately, and there are a lot of mushrooms on the mountain.
Mushrooms paired with green vegetables should also be a good combination.
Moreover, Cao Dalin generously agreed to contribute the lard and cracklings rendered from the pork that the supply ship had previously delivered.
With plenty of lard and pork cracklings, the dumplings would surely taste even better.
Although Cao Dalin's grimacing expression when he offered to contribute the oil residue and grease looked as if he were being ripped out of his heart, he finally agreed.
Everyone on the island was overjoyed to learn that the New Year's Eve dinner would be dumplings.
The little ones, in particular, were excitedly jumping around, all circling the adults and asking to be assigned tasks.
Shiyue and the others didn't refuse. They were each given a bamboo basket and an adult was assigned to help them pick mushrooms.
Actually, when they sent them up the mountain, Shiyue and the others didn't have any expectations. They just wanted to find something for the children to do so they wouldn't get in the way.
I never expected that when kids get serious, they can be so effective!
When the children were short of food on the island, they went up the mountain every day to look for fruit. They knew the mountain inside and out very well, and they knew exactly what was there.
As a result, even the youngest Jiajia carried back almost three pounds of mushrooms! (Niu Niu was too young to go with her)
Besides various mushrooms, the children even brought back some fresh wood ear mushrooms.
That same day, Shiyue put it out in the yard to dry.
These wood ear mushrooms are great for soaking, chopping, and making fillings; they're crunchy and add a nice texture.
Time flies, and before we knew it, it was New Year's Eve.
As soon as Shiyue got up in the morning, she and Liang Yueming rushed to the cafeteria to prepare the fillings.
The task of preparing the filling should logically be done by Cao Dalin, the head chef, since he is the one who usually cooks all the dishes in the canteen.
But today Cao Dalin insisted that Shiyue also make a batch, saying that everyone in the camp was tired of the dumplings he made, and today everyone should try Shiyue's cooking.
Shiyue did not refuse.
To be honest, she came prepared today.
She brought soy sauce, thirteen-spice powder, and MSG that she had bought in advance from the group chat, and also prepared a large jar of lard.
Before Shiyue arrived, she had already planned that if she was allowed to prepare the filling, everything would be fine. If she wasn't allowed to prepare it, she was prepared to find an opportunity to scoop a few spoonfuls of lard into the filling bowl when no one was looking.
It's finally Chinese New Year, so we have to have a good meal!
The Sixth Iron Battalion is supposed to have 500 men, but it is not at full strength; currently, only a little over 200 people remain on the island.
The engineering corps was in the process of changing shifts at this time, and there were fewer than a hundred people left on the island.
Therefore, the total number of officers and soldiers in the two units combined does not exceed 350.
Including experts, family members, staff, etc., the total number of people is about five hundred.
Eating dumplings together with so many people is definitely a huge undertaking!
They said they were to have Shiyue and Cao Dalin prepare the filling, but really they were just there to season it.
Selecting, washing, and chopping vegetables... all the subsequent work was naturally undertaken by the entire cooking team.
In addition to the cooks, Cao Dalin also borrowed several young men from the camp. In his words, they had all helped out in the kitchen before and were quite good at their jobs.
After Shiyue and Cao Dalin finished their preparations, they gave an order and everyone got to work.
Shiyue quickly picked out the fresh spinach that she had picked from the vegetable garden that morning with Liang Yueming, then blanched it, chopped it, and squeezed out the juice.
Then he took the squeezed juice to a little soldier who was about to knead dough and poured the spinach juice into the bowl.
The young man didn't understand what she was doing, so he stopped what he was doing and looked at her in surprise.
"I'll do it," Shiyue said, taking over the young man's work and rolling up her sleeves to start kneading the dough.
Soon, the dough in the bowl changed color, turning into a darker green.
Everyone looked at the green dough and was even more confused.
"Sister Shiyue, why did you make a ball of green dough?"
"Sister-in-law, won't the noodles bleed color? What if they bleed color and make the soup cloudy?"
These young men who came to help in the kitchen were not very old, and they were at the age where they were most curious and loved to watch the excitement.
Seeing Shiyue's actions, they stopped working and gathered around her.
Meanwhile, Liang Yueming followed the method they had done at home beforehand, crushed the dragon fruits they had picked from the mountain, squeezed out the juice, and then put the juice into another basin.
When they saw the pink dough being kneaded into shape, everyone was so surprised that their jaws almost dropped, and they couldn't even ask any questions.
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