I listen to the radio every morning, so the publicity effect is definitely good.
Soon, everyone in the stadium knew that a new club was going to be built there.
For a time, everyone in the forest farm was overjoyed, and even the children going to school skipped and jumped on their way there.
Of course, while the new club needs to be built, everyone's normal work cannot be stopped.
After breakfast, Sheng Xiping carried his pickaxe and led the educated youth to work in the fields.
After the rain the night before, the ground was moist and loose, so working in it wouldn't result in a muddy mess.
However, the rain did not have a significant impact on the temperature; everyone was still sweating profusely while working under the sun.
"Qinglan, come to my house for lunch this afternoon. My mom said she's making steamed buns today."
During the break, Sheng Xiping handed his water bottle to Zhou Qinglan and said something along the way.
The meat I brought back yesterday was so fatty it was practically frying oil.
The remaining skinny ones, Zhang Shuzhen said at breakfast that she wanted to make some steamed buns for them.
At this time of year, the bok choy, radish greens, and radishes from the vegetable garden can all be used as fillings. Mix some vegetables with black bear meat and make several batches of buns.
Firstly, everyone can satisfy their cravings, and secondly, cooking becomes much easier.
Otherwise, the meat will spoil if left out in this hot weather for too long.
"Oh, okay, I'll go over this afternoon and help my aunt cook."
Zhou Qinglan took the water bottle, and before even drinking, nodded.
We've already accepted the gifts from the Sheng family, so there's no need to be coy now.
The Sheng family didn't treat Zhou Qinglan as an outsider, and Zhou Qinglan gradually got used to getting along with the Sheng family.
After speaking, Zhou Qinglan opened the kettle lid and took a sip of water, only to find that the water was different; it was sweet.
"Huh? This is sweet?" The cool, sweet boiled water felt incredibly refreshing to drink.
"You made sugar water? Oh dear, that's such a waste. I'll just drink plain water."
Most of the time, Zhou Qinglan would fill a pot with water from the Tang family's house in the morning and take it with her to work.
If we run out of water on the mountain, we can only get spring water or river water. If we work on the Hou Dadi side, we go to the canteen to get water at noon.
"Try it carefully, does it taste like sugar water?" Sheng Xiping smiled and didn't say much more.
Upon hearing this, Zhou Qinglan took another sip and noticed that it tasted different this time. "It seems to be a little more fragrant than sugar water."
"It's honey water. Last winter I raided a beehive and got a lot of honey. I mixed some honey with boiled water this morning."
That's pure wild honey, and it tastes much better than sugar water.
"It's good for girls to drink some honey water."
I think I've heard people say that honey water can have antioxidant and skin-whitening effects.
Although Sheng Xiping thought Zhou Qinglan's skin was quite good and already very fair, women still need to pay more attention to skincare.
Whether it works or not, at least the honey water tastes good.
"You're so capable, you can do everything." Zhou Qinglan looked at Sheng Xiping with eyes full of admiration. "I admire you so much, you're so capable."
It has to be said that a man's praise from a girl he likes can really make him intoxicated.
Even an old man like Sheng Xiping, who had experienced countless things in his life, felt a little smug at this moment.
Sheng Xiping shook his head and gave a self-deprecating laugh.
Sure enough, even at eighty, a man is still like a naive young man when facing a woman he likes.
There's still so much land to cultivate, how can we have much time for idle chatter?
Sheng Xiping handed the water bottle to Zhou Qinglan, gave her some instructions, and then continued working with his pickaxe.
After a day of digging with pickaxes, everyone was so tired by the afternoon that their arms ached and their backs ached.
Seeing this, Lao Hu left work before five o'clock.
This time, Sheng Xiping didn't call anyone else, only Zhou Qinglan, and they went back to the Sheng family together.
Zhang Shuzhen had already started making steamed buns at home.
Mix a little wheat flour into cornmeal and add sourdough starter to ferment.
The bok choy in the garden has grown quite tall, so I picked them all, washed them clean, scalded them with hot water, squeezed them dry, and chopped them up.
Mix in minced black bear meat, chopped green onions, salt, Sichuan peppercorn powder, etc.
Add a little less soy sauce, and the umami flavor will come through immediately.
The dough had risen perfectly, so I kneaded it, rolled it into a strip, cut it into even pieces, rolled it out a few times with a rolling pin, and then I could start wrapping them.
Cornmeal is quite coarse and has some residue. Even though it's mixed with some wheat flour, it can't be used to make round buns like pure wheat flour.
So you have to do it like making dumplings, put the two sides together, pinch the pleats if you can, and if you can't, then forget it.
Place the wrapped buns on a bamboo steamer rack or directly on a steamer rack lined with a cloth. Once the rack is full, steam them.
Zhang Shuzhen started early, and Sheng Yunfang and Sheng Yunfei also helped after school.
So when Sheng Xiping brought Zhou Qinglan back, Zhang Shuzhen was putting the second batch of buns into the pot.
Sheng Xitai, who usually runs out to play after school, didn't go out today.
He kept swallowing as he stared at the steaming, golden-yellow buns on the sorghum stalk mat by the stove.
"Auntie, let me help you."
As soon as Zhou Qinglan entered the room, she saw Zhang Shuzhen picking buns out of the pot and quickly rolled up her sleeves to say something.
"No need, no need, it will be ready soon."
"You must be tired after a long day of working in the fields. Go wash your hands and have a drink of water. We'll eat when your uncle gets back."
How could Zhang Shuzhen let Zhou Qinglan do any work? Besides, she was almost finished with her own work, so there was no need for her to take up any more hands.
The Sheng family's pot isn't small; it's an eight-inch pot and can hold two layers of steamer racks.
Nowadays, pot racks aren't made of aluminum or stainless steel like they are in later generations; they're all woven from rattan.
Sometimes a wooden pot fork is placed underneath to prevent the pot rack from warping over time.
When there are many people in the family, and the children have big appetites, it's rare to make steamed buns, so we definitely need to make a lot.
At noon, Zhang Shuzhen prepared a large bowl of noodles, and now both the top and bottom steamers are in use in the pot.
Fearing that the two layers would be too close together and the buns would be crowded, Zhang Shuzhen specially placed three bowls on the edge of the pot on the bottom layer.
With these three bowls as a base, the space in the middle is enough.
Place another steamer rack on top, and you can make quite a few buns in one pot.
Otherwise, in the sweltering summer heat, steaming pot after pot of buns would make the kang (heated brick bed) unbearably hot at night.
Anyway, for the past few days, there hasn't been a moment of peace at home, and when it's time to sleep, all four of us have to squeeze into the corner of the kang (heated brick bed).
Zhang Shuzhen couldn't sleep at night because of the heat, and she was thinking, why not buy another pot and convert the stove in the west room into a cooking stove? It would be more convenient to cook with two pots.
Otherwise, you can set up a stove in the yard and cook those firewood-intensive dishes outside in the summer.
It also saves us from having to cook anything good at home, because the house is like a steamer, which is really unbearable in the middle of summer.
But then I thought about it again, my son already has a girlfriend, who knows, he might get married and move out to live on his own next year.
It seems unnecessary to put another pot here.
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