Guagua squatted on the ground and put his little hands in the basin. There was a piece of old ginger under the shallow water in the basin. When he was ready, his little hands began to move, rubbing the mud on the ginger under the water.
Xu Xiangjuan chopped the chicken with confidence. Zhou Chengning was a meticulous man, so he cleaned the chicken very well and just rinsed it with water.
Chop the chicken thighs separately and put them away. The weather is not very hot now, so the chicken thighs can be kept.
After chopping the chicken into pieces, the garlic and ginger are also ready. The garlic does not need to be chopped again, but the ginger can be cut into slices.
"Does Guagua want chili?"
"Yes." No matter what, I want it.
Zhou Chengning spoke up at this time, "Guagua, no chili, spicy ones are not tasty."
Dad said it was not tasty, and Guagua, a fence-sitter, shook his head and said he didn't want it.
"It's okay, just add one or two peppers." He pulled two dried peppers from the string of peppers hanging at the door, washed and cut them, and put them together with garlic and ginger.
One pot was used to simmer rice, and another pot was used to stew chicken. There was still some water in the pot. When it was almost preheated, Xu Xiangjuan scooped out the water, leaving a little water to evaporate in the hot pot, and then scooped some lard into it.
As soon as the lard is put into the iron pan, it starts to sizzle. The pan is hot enough and the slightly yellow lard blocks melt quickly. Ginger, chili and garlic are thrown into the pan together to stir-fry.
When it’s almost done, throw the chicken pieces into the pot and stir-fry. Then add cooking wine, soy sauce, salt and sugar. When it’s almost done, add water and cover the pot.
Guagua didn’t know that white sugar was sugar, and Xu Xiangjuan didn’t let her know, for fear that she would pester her father for candy every day.
After locking the seasonings in the cupboard and leaving a salt shaker, Xu Xiangjuan went to listen to the sounds coming from the rice side.
There was a slight sizzling sound. "Aning, there's no need to add more firewood to the rice cooker. Turn down the heat to low and simmer for two or three minutes, then use up all the firewood."
Although they didn't have watches at home, they did have a clock hanging on the kitchen wall.
When stewing rice in an iron pot, listen to the sound. If it makes a sizzling sound, don't continue to cook it. If the fire is too high, the bottom will burn. Anyway, the rice should be cooked by the time the chicken is cooked through while it is stewed in the pot.
"I see."
Not remembering what was being dried at home, Xu Xiangjuan went to the small room at home where dried and pickled goods were stored. There were several woven bags containing mung beans, red beans... and dried mushrooms.
She was thinking that stewing chicken alone would be too greasy, and she happened to have some dried mushrooms.
Grabbing a handful of dried mushrooms, Xu Xiangjuan returned to the kitchen. Gua Gua was still standing by the stove, staring at the pot, his movements unchanged.
I scooped a few scoops of water into the basin with a gourd ladle and soaked the dried mushrooms first. Although they would not become soft in a short time, it was better than just washing them and throwing them into the pot.
He took the bowl and clean chopsticks and went back to the small room, opened the jar of pickled carrots, took out a bowl of pickled carrots, and then sealed the jar.
The chicken stew pot was boiling. Xu Xiangjuan put the soaked dried mushrooms into the pot. There were big and small dried mushrooms. She threw away the bad ones before soaking them. She didn't cut the big ones and just threw them in. "Aning, let's lower the heat to stew the chicken. You can reduce the firewood."
"How long will the small fire last?"
"Half an hour. I'll go see if Niu Niu is awake. I'll remind you when it's almost time."
When they went to the inner room, Niu Niu had not woken up yet, so Xu Xiangjuan felt relieved and went back to the kitchen.
The kitchen is filled with a lot of fumes today. It's not usually this fumed. Let's drain the sauce from the stewed chicken and serve it out. "Put it outside to eat."
The outer room is outside the inner sleeping room. It is used to entertain guests and has tables and chairs.
The rooms in their house are basically single rooms, but the sleeping area is a spacious double room, divided into the inner room for sleeping and the outer room for entertaining guests.
Xu Xiangjuan was busy in the kitchen, Zhou Chengning went to the outer room with a small pot of stewed chicken, and Gua Gua followed behind his father.
This little girl followed the chicken today.
When I returned to the kitchen, Zhou Chengning was alone, and Gua Gua was probably so fascinated by the chicken that he couldn't walk.
"Is this lunch box mine?" Usually, the lunch box only contains half a piece of rice, a few vegetables and some dried radish.
"If it's not yours, how can it be mine? There is a steamer in your school. Remember to steam it before eating." Xu Xiangjuan pressed most of the rice into the aluminum lunch box, and then put a few mushrooms and several pieces of chicken in it.
Rice is still the best.
After putting the lunch box in the net bag, Xu Xiangjuan said, "Put it here, remember to bring it tomorrow."
Although the chicken was served in a small bowl, there was still some left over from the whole chicken. She picked out a few pieces of meat for her husband to take to school as lunch the next day, and then filled another bowl to send to her mother.
"I'll make a bowl of egg drop soup. You take this bowl of rice and bowl over first." Xu Xiangjuan was quite adept at directing her man.
Zhou Chengning never disobeyed and served the meal to the outer room.
Seeing Guagua standing on the small stool and trying to stretch his claws to the stewed chicken that he had specially placed in the middle of the table, Zhou Chengning said, "Guagua, Dad will serve it to you. If you grab it with your own hands, Mom will scold you if she sees you. You are not allowed to eat it anymore."
"Eat oh oh." Gua Gua finally calmed down.
Zhou Chengning had no choice but to carry his daughter to sit on a long bench. He wiped her saliva with a towel, but after wiping, he couldn't bear it, so he picked up two pieces of boneless meat and put them in the bowl and handed it to his daughter.
Gua Gua was so happy that he had meat to eat. He picked up his own spoon and started eating the meat.
The daughter stopped making trouble for the time being, and Zhou Chengning went to the kitchen to add firewood, as his wife still had to make egg drop soup.
Egg drop soup is easy to make. The father and daughter had meat for dinner, but Xu Xiangjuan didn’t eat it, so she beat two eggs for herself, which was a deluxe version of egg drop soup for nourishment.
The egg drop soup was ready, and Xu Xiangjuan was ready to go out with a bowl of chicken in her hand. "Aning, I'm going to send this bowl of chicken to my mother. You can serve the soup and eat with Guagua first."
"I'll go with you and take Guagua with me."
"You don't know that my mother is prejudiced against you...Okay, take Guagua with you and go with me."
Her mother had no problem with her or her two little grandchildren, but she had a lot of problems with her son-in-law.
At first, her mother wanted her to marry Wang Qiang, a square-faced strong man. He had three brothers and was a wealthy family in Maodong Village. With the economic development in recent years, his brothers rushed to start the dried meat business, made money, and became richer and richer, and her mother was more and more satisfied.
But she was not satisfied. She was the youngest daughter in the family and had received an education, having finished high school. Studying was so difficult back then, so she wanted to find a high school student to marry.
Wang Qiang didn't even graduate from elementary school, and his voice was rough and unpleasant. He didn't do anything in his brother's business, but he always took all the credit for himself. He was a boaster and most importantly, he didn't like to be clean. Xu Xiangjuan couldn't even get close to him because the stench of sweat was suffocating.
Anyway, it was not possible, she refused, and went to find Aunt Qian, who was famous in the area, to introduce her to a potential partner. It was also the first time for Aunt Qian to meet a young girl who came to her for marriage, but the girl was straightforward, so Aunt Qian did not refuse and helped to keep an eye on her.
There are indeed suitable people in town. We have to meet each other and meet their parents, not the boy’s parents, but the girl’s parents.
Who is Xu Xiangjuan? She is a famous fierce girl in the village. She brought a man home and said she would not marry anyone else.
This did not make her mother angry to death, but when a girl becomes stubborn, no one can persuade her. So there was no choice but to get married in the end. However, Xu Xiangjuan's mother, Wu Caifeng, had no good impression of this son-in-law and did not treat him well.
The yard they live in now belongs to Xu Xiangjuan, which is considered as her dowry. She asked for 800 yuan as a betrothal gift. No one knows how much the betrothal gift is, but this yard makes the villagers think that Xu's son-in-law is a son-in-law who marries into the family.
Fortunately, Zhou Chengning is a teacher in a junior high school in the town and has an income, otherwise everyone would really think he is a gigolo.
His wife agreed to let him go with her, so Zhou Chengning picked up Gua Gua, who had already finished two pieces of chicken and was trying to scoop another piece into the bowl with a small spoon, and went to his grandmother's house.
Gua Gua cried a few times, and Zhou Chengning coaxed her back and gave her food, and the little one stopped making a fuss.
"What are you taking from my house again? Did I owe you something in my previous life?" Wu Caifeng came up and started scolding him.
Xu Xiangjuan walked in front. She was used to her mother's indirect scolding. She took a bowl and poured the stewed chicken into it. "Dad, I just made this stewed chicken. You can eat it as a snack. Mom, I'll go home first. I'll bring the meat. I stewed a chicken today."
"My God, those four chickens you took aren't too old to lay eggs, why did you kill them and eat them?"
Most of the chickens raised by Xu Xiangjuan were taken from her mother, so her mother knew how many chickens she had.
"Just kill it, don't say anything." Xu Gensheng has already started eating. The meat is so delicious that you don't have to chew it hard. The bones and meat can be easily separated, and the mushrooms also have a meaty aroma... I'll have to ask my daughter's mother how it's cooked later.
Xu Xiangjuan had been brainwashed by this kind of idea by her mother before. When she lived a good life later, she felt it was no big deal to kill a chicken. But now her family's conditions were average, so she could have a big meal and save money later.
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