Chapter 124 Steamed Dumplings with Roe Deer Meat
That autumn, Sheng Liancheng and his son were both quite busy, and they could only take advantage of the little time in the early morning and evening to slowly tidy up the new house.
After several days of tidying up, Sheng Liancheng discussed with Zhang Shuzhen about moving there as soon as possible.
Otherwise, the winter logging season will begin in a few days, and the Sheng family will have to lead a team up the mountain again, not resting until the end of the year, and there will be no time to move.
After much deliberation, we finally decided to move on the 21st, which is the seventh day of the ninth lunar month.
It's basically moving from the old house to the new house.
These days, most households don't have much of value; they just need to move their furniture, pots and pans, and the like.
The timber in the barn was almost used up when building the house; there's only a big pile of firewood left. We'll deal with that later; there's no rush.
"Moving on the seventh day of the lunar new year? Okay, I'll come and help then."
Zhou Qinglan thought for a moment and didn't say much, only indicating that she would come and lend a hand when the time came.
The mother and daughter were chatting quite enthusiastically, leaving Sheng Xiping aside and ignoring him.
Sheng Xiping wasn't annoyed. He simply got dressed and went out to chop firewood and tidy up the yard.
Inside the house, Zhang Shuzhen chatted with Zhou Qinglan for a while, and then it got late.
So they found a work surface and put it on the kang (a heated brick bed). One of them kneaded the dough and rolled out the wrappers, while the other filled them. They chatted and worked at the same time.
Although they're called steamed dumplings, they're actually pretty much the same as vegetable buns.
Use more wheat flour and less corn flour. Scald the flour with hot water, knead it into a dough, then pinch off small pieces, roll them out into wrappers, fill them with the filling, and steam them in a pot until cooked.
The main reason was that Sheng Xiping and the others came back a little late, and the dough wasn't ready in time, so they had to scald the bread and steam the dumplings.
The filling for those steamed dumplings was made with roe deer meat and radish.
Roe deer meat is relatively lean and dry, so when Zhang Shuzhen was preparing the filling, she added a lot of oil and also ladled some broth from the pot used for stewing bones into it.
The filling prepared this way will be glistening and moist, making it delicious.
Just as the mother and daughter finished wrapping up a curtain, Sheng Yunfang, Sheng Yunfei, and Sheng Xitai returned from school with their schoolbags on their backs.
As soon as the three entered the door, they smelled the aroma of stewed meat in the pot, and Sheng Xitai's eyes widened immediately.
"Mom, what's cooking in the pot? It smells so good! Is it stewed meat again?"
As they were talking, the boy scurried into the east room with his schoolbag on his back.
Upon entering the room, one would see a board on the kang (a heated brick bed), and on the roof were vegetable buns, each two sizes larger than a regular dumpling.
Wow, we're having steamed buns today!
"You only see steamed buns? Where is your sister Zhou? She doesn't even greet people, all she thinks about is eating."
Zhang Shuzhen couldn't help but glare at her youngest son. What was she going to do with this child?
Sheng Xitai then noticed Zhou Qinglan and immediately felt embarrassed.
"Hello, Sister Zhou. I was so happy just now that I didn't notice."
I was so focused on the food that I didn't look anywhere else.
"School's out? Then hurry up and do your homework, then we can eat."
Zhou Qinglan naturally wouldn't argue with a child, she just smiled at Sheng Xitai and continued rolling out the dough.
At this moment, Sheng Yunfang and Sheng Yunfei also entered the room.
The two girls were overjoyed to see Zhou Qinglan and ran over to hug her.
"Sister Qinglan, you haven't come to our house for dinner for days. We all miss you."
"That's right, Sister Qinglan, I haven't been able to write essays since you stopped coming."
The essays you taught us to write before were praised by the teachers, who said they were very well written.
"Qinglan is truly amazing. I used to get criticized by my teachers every day for my essays."
These two girls aren't as stupid as Sheng Xitai, who only knows how to eat.
Both girls were quick-witted and could say sweet things without batting an eye, which made Zhou Qinglan very happy and she couldn't stop smiling.
"Okay, okay, I'll come here often if I don't have anything else to do, so I can watch you do your homework."
The Sheng family children are all quite studious, and Zhou Qinglan is happy to help them with their studies.
Regardless of the clamor outside that says studying is useless, in Zhou Qinglan's mind, there is still a big difference between being educated and not being educated.
Whenever possible, one should read more books.
"Mom, Qinglan, let's go wash our hands and come back to help with the wrapping."
The two girls were quick-witted. Seeing their mother and future sister-in-law busy, they felt embarrassed to wait around for food, so they quickly washed their hands and came back to help make dumplings.
The steamed dumplings were already quite large, and with the help of two girls, they quickly filled another tray with dumplings.
So Zhang Shuzhen went to start a fire and steamed a pot of food first, while Zhou Qinglan led the two girls to continue wrapping the dumplings.
Around 5:30, the first batch of steamed dumplings came out of the pot, and the rest were also wrapped and put into the pot.
Just then, Sheng Liancheng, Sheng Xi'an, and Sheng Xikang also returned one after another.
So they tidied up the workbench, put it on the table, and the family sat down to eat together.
"By the way, boss, what are you planning to do with all those pine nuts at home?"
The people at our forestry station said they're buying a lot of pine nuts this year, so why don't you go sell them when you have some free time?
"Buying it is money in hand, and it saves me the trouble of moving."
During the meal, Sheng Liancheng suddenly remembered this matter and discussed it with Sheng Xiping.
"Dad, don't rush. I'd like to take the pine nuts down to sell another day when I have the chance."
The purchasing station on the other side of the forest railway buys pine nuts for 35 cents a pound.
Ours weighs about 500 jin (250 catties), and a difference of five fen (0.05 yuan) per jin makes a difference of about twenty yuan.
Sheng Xiping shook his head. He had discussed this matter with Wang Jianshe and a few others, and they planned to find an opportunity in a few days to transport the pine nuts to Songjiang River by small train.
You should know that this year's pine nut harvest was small, and Sheng Xiping and his friends harvested quite a few pine cones, which totaled about two or three thousand catties.
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