While the brothers were busy, Jiang Tiantian, Zuo Mingyan, and several village wives who had come home one after another and went up the mountain together today, cleaned the fresh tea leaves and various fruits.

Wild kiwi fruit, August fried fruit, red heart fruit, and jujube are placed on a large wooden plate and eaten directly as fruit.

Wash wild grapes, wild hawthorns, raspberries, wild blueberries, and blackberries, and set aside for later use to make jam.

Take out half of the sea buckthorn, scrape off the thorns, take out the seeds, cut into slices, and use them to make wine; cut the remaining half directly into slices, expose them to the sun, make them into dried sea buckthorn, and use them to make tea later.

She kept all the tea leaves separately for use in dinner.

Wash the crab legs and put them in a bamboo sieve to dry in the shade.

By the time the women had finished cleaning up, Cha Jiuzhang had already lit the small earthen stove.

Jiang Tiantian once again gave the task straightforwardly, "Go catch two chickens and bring them back. We'll have chicken tonight."

Cha Jiuzhang: ...

Well, it’s better not to challenge the authority of a foodie easily.

"Well, I'll go right away. If you have anything else to say, just tell me."

Jiang Tiantian looked up and thought for a moment, "Go pick some more lotus leaves and lotus flowers."

Cha Jiuzhang nodded, picked up a backpack and went out.

Jiang Tiantian found four casserole pots, put wild hawthorn, raspberry, wild blueberry and blackberry in them respectively, poured in clean water, and put them on a small earthen stove to simmer over low heat.

Because wild grapes are too small to be peeled and seeded, Jiang Tiantian simply asked everyone to crush all the grapes, then filter out the juice, pour it into a casserole, and put it on the earthen stove where Cha Yeye boiled medicine.

"In fact, making jam is so simple. Slowly simmer these fruits that are not easy to preserve into jam, then add sugar and stir evenly. After cooling, put it in a sealed bottle and you can eat it for a long time."

"You can use white sugar or rock sugar. If you like honey, you can also add honey."

"When eating steamed buns or white flour cakes, you can spread a little bit of it on them. It's like spreading chili sauce on them. It gives them a different flavor."

"In addition to the fruits we used today, the apples, oranges, pears, mulberries and the like that we usually eat can all be made into jam in this way."

Seeing that the wild hawthorn had been stewed until soft, Jiang Tiantian scooped it out, put it into a fine sieve and crushed it, letting the fine puree overflow from the bottom. Finally, she poured half a bottle of honey into the puree. This was honey collected from the beehives raised by the villagers in the valley.

After stirring evenly, Jiang Tiantian took out a piece of white flour cake, broke it into several pieces, spread a little hawthorn jam on each piece, and handed them to several sisters-in-law and aunts to try.

"It's sour and sweet, and really delicious."

“It’s very appetizing.”

"This is a good idea. I'll try it when I get home."

"Tiantian, you city people really know how to eat. In the past, we only thought of making some candied haws with hawthorns, but we didn't expect that you could eat it this way."

“…”

The next few pots of jam were almost done, and Jiang Tiantian added white sugar to them.

"The proportion of sugar you add should be based on your own taste. Taste it as you add it. If you like it sweet, add more. If you like it sour, add less."

After making several kinds of jam, everyone tasted them, memorized the flavors, and prepared to make them in the same way when they returned home.

"Tiantian, sister-in-law, it's getting late, we should go back and cook."

"Tiantian, come to my house and play when you are free."

"Oh, okay, take care, come back when you have time."

“…”

Zuo Mingyan and Jiang Tiantian, chatting and laughing, sent them to the gate, and then saw Cha Jiuzhang coming back carrying two chickens.

He had already cleaned up the chickens by the river.

"Jiu Zhang is back. Bring Tian Tian to our house when you have time."

"Okay, Fourth Aunt, you guys go ahead." Cha Jiuzhang smiled politely and nodded.

As we walked away, we could still faintly hear the voices of several women chatting.

"The more I look at it now, the more I think Jiu Zhang and Tian Tian are a perfect match..."

"That's right, both of them are smart, and their children will definitely be smart too..."

“…”

Cha Jiuzhang stared at Jiang Tiantian with amusement. It turned out that this woman was "making friends over food"!

Jiang Tiantian took the two big fat chickens and looked at the pile of leftover clay in the yard. "Hey... Mom, how about we eat beggar's chicken tonight?"

Zuo Mingyan now had no doubts about Jiang Tiantian's cooking skills. Upon hearing this, she poked the big fat chicken with her finger with interest, "You can eat it any way you want. It's up to you."

"By the way, Mom, do you have any freshly made tea at home?"

"Yes, your grandfather would pick some every spring and make his own tea."

"Then grab some for me, I'll need them later."

Zuo Mingyan nodded when she heard this and went into the house to find some tea leaves.

Jiang Tiantian packed a few bottles of jam and prepared to send them to Sixth Grandma.

"Cha Jiuzhang, help me make a big pot of tea later. After it cools down, take out the tea leaves and put the two chickens in the tea to soak. I will take care of the rest when I come back."

"Oh, and also, pick the lotus petals and wash them together with the lotus leaves."

Cha Jiuzhang:?

Are we going to eat lotus leaves and lotus flowers now?

"good!"

He nodded helplessly. The world of foodies was too complicated with recipes and ingredients to be understood by him.

Isn't it just a chicken?

No matter how you eat, it’s not what goes into your stomach.

Why make it so complicated?

If Mop were here at this moment, he would be very happy, because Dog Dad is indeed his biological father, and the father and son have exactly the same ideas.

…

When Jiang Tiantian came back skipping from Sixth Grandma's house carrying a few pieces of tofu, Mop was already waiting at the door.

For Mop, seeking praise on a daily basis is a routine operation.

Jiang Tiantian patted its head perfunctorily, "Mop is back. How was your performance today?"

Mop; "Woof woof~"

"That's a good performance, the mop is awesome!"

“Woof woof~”

"But don't be complacent. Keep working hard. You know, there are countless little bitches waiting for you in the future."

Mop: Shaha~Shaha~

My eyes started to turn pink again...

If mops could change color, the hair on my body would probably be pink right now.

Cha Jiuzhang: ...

He is now very suspicious, who led whom astray?

Jiang Tiantian instructed Cha Jiuzhang to chop the meat filling. While there was still fire in the small earthen stove, she was going to make a pot of stuffed tofu.

Use chopped chili peppers, fennel, bay leaves, cinnamon, onion knots, ginger slices, soy sauce, salt, sugar, white wine and other seasonings, and then add the tea leaves that have been scooped out to make a marinade.

Take the chicken out of the tea, massage the marinade all over the chicken, and finally wrap the chicken tightly with a few lotus leaves.

Then, they took it to the clay pile, covered the chicken with mud, stuffed it into the stove, buried it under the charcoal, and slowly roasted it.

After Cha Jiuzhang had chopped the meat filling, Jiang Tiantian continued to direct him, adding onions, ginger, salt, sugar, and soy sauce for seasoning, cutting the tofu into pieces, hollowing it out, stuffing it with the meat filling, frying it on both sides until golden brown, putting it in a casserole, and pouring in the sauce to stew it.

Jiang Tiantian used three quarters of the tea leaves she picked today to blanch, and then scooped out most of it for later use.

Leave the rest in the pot and continue to boil. After the clear green tea soup is boiled out, remove the remaining tea leaves and throw them away. Add the washed japonica rice into the pot and cook a pot of tea porridge.

Divide the tea leaves into two portions, chop one portion into small pieces and put it into the beaten egg liquid, then fry a tea leaf omelet.

For the remaining half, add chopped chili pepper, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, vinegar, salt, sugar and other seasonings to make a cold-mixed tender tea leaves.

The unblanched tea leaves are coated with egg batter together with lotus petals, then fried in a frying pan until they are set. When serving, the lotus petals are used as the base and the tea leaves as the pistil, and the dishes are arranged into the shape of a flower.

After Cha Jiuzhang made the stuffed tofu, he started to peel potatoes under her instruction, cut them into strips, added a little flour and mixed them evenly, then gave them to Jiang Tiantian, put them in a pan and fried them into French fries.

…

A family of three, division of labor and cooperation, creating order amidst chaos.

Zuo Mingyan looked at Cha Jiuzhang, who was being bossed around by Jiang Tiantian. She didn't feel sorry for her son at all. Instead, she wondered why she hadn't realized this in all these years. Who said that the kitchen was only a woman's territory?

If a man is trained well, he can also be a great chef.