"That time, Aunt Liu fried a batch like this on a griddle, it was so delicious, I've been thinking about it ever since, it was really good."
Zhang Shuzhen ate while muttering to herself.
"Well, honey, this stuff tastes good, but it's sticky and hard to digest, and the bean paste inside can cause heartburn."
"You're pregnant, so just eat a little, don't overeat, it'll make you feel uncomfortable."
Zhang Shuzhen glanced at Zhou Qinglan and said with some concern, "It's not that Mom is reluctant to give you food, it's just that I'm worried you'll feel unwell."
After Zhou Qinglan was five or six months pregnant, she kept complaining of acid reflux and heartburn.
The older generation says that it was when the child started to grow hair that the adults would feel uncomfortable and have heartburn.
At the time, Zhang Shuzhen suggested eating fresh sunflower seeds.
It refers to the seeds on the sunflower head that haven't been harvested yet; those seeds have less oil and are quite sweet.
Zhou Qinglan ate quite a few fresh melon seeds throughout the autumn. She also ate half of the sunflowers that the Sheng family planted around their vegetable garden, which helped alleviate her heartburn later on.
Zhang Shuzhen was worried that if Zhou Qinglan ate too much, she would bring back her old ailment, and there were no fresh melon seeds for her to eat at this time.
"Oh? Is that so? Oh, I see. I'll only eat two, no more."
Zhou Qinglan had only eaten sticky rice cakes a few times, so how would she know anything about them? Upon hearing her mother-in-law's instructions, she nodded quickly.
If that's the case, she wouldn't dare eat too much; the heartburn and acid reflux are unpleasant.
Zhou Qinglan led her two sisters-in-law to make sticky rice cakes, while Zhang Shuzhen watched the pancakes being made in the kitchen.
Sheng Xikang helped with the fire and provided curtains for both inside and outside the house, while Sheng Xitai and Chen Feng were in charge of eating.
The whole family busily made and baked sticky rice cakes. They had 30 to 40 jin of grain to make sticky dough, and a large bowl of bean paste. By evening, they had finally finished making them.
Dinner was, of course, still sticky rice cakes. Zhang Shuzhen fried two more plates of them and stewed a pot of wild boar and pickled cabbage in the west room.
Sticky rice cakes with pickled cabbage are the perfect match. After a long day of work, I was tired and hungry, so I ate a lot for dinner.
After dinner, Zhang Shuzhen instructed her son to take the freshly baked sticky rice cakes out in a winnowing basket.
Pour it into two large wooden barrels in the warehouse, fill them, cover them, and weigh them down with stones.
Once the sticky rice cakes have cooled completely, freeze them outside. When you want to eat them, pick them up, thaw them, and then heat them in a pot. They're soft, chewy, and delicious.
On a cold winter morning, when I'm too lazy to cook anything fancy, I just boil a pot of porridge, heat it up with a hot sesame seed cake, add some pickled vegetables, and that's a meal—easy and convenient.
"Mom, all the sticky fire spoons from the wooden trough have been put into the bucket, and the lid has been sealed tightly as you said."
Sheng Xikang and Sheng Xitai worked several times before finally managing to get all the sticky fire spoons out of the house. They went back inside and told Zhang Shuzhen.
"Okay, hurry up and get ready for bed. Tomorrow morning, we'll send some to Secretary Wang and Director Zheng's house so they can have a taste."
Zhang Shuzhen said as she made the bed.
"Honey, tomorrow is New Year's Day, shall we make some more dumplings?"
I just brought the meat back to rest. Tomorrow morning we'll chop it into filling and make a lot to freeze.
"After you give birth, I'll be busy taking care of you during your postpartum period. If the food isn't readily available, we'll just cook dumplings; it's convenient."
Zhang Shuzhen had already planned it out. Taking advantage of the fact that Zhou Qinglan hadn't given birth yet and that everyone in the family was on holiday and had nothing to do, she quickly prepared some food so that she could take care of her during her postpartum period with peace of mind.
"Mom, Dad and Xiping are working on the mountain. Let's stay home and eat sticky rice cakes and dumplings, okay?"
Zhou Qinglan laughed when she heard this. She had just finished making sticky rice cakes today, and now she was thinking about making dumplings. Her mother-in-law was so interesting every day.
"Mom, we don't have much flour at home, so let's make a smaller batch. We'll cook more delicious food together after Dad and the others come down the mountain."
The three people who earn money are all up in the mountains, working hard in the freezing cold. Meanwhile, at home they're busy making all sorts of delicious food, like sticky rice cakes and dumplings. It doesn't seem like they're doing very well.
"Look, what's there to be afraid of? They eat better than us on the mountain. Don't worry about them. If they want to eat, we'll make some more when they come back."
"You're the most important thing right now. I've saved up a lot of flour, don't worry, it'll be enough to eat."
Zhang Shuzhen was very shrewd in managing her finances; she wasn't the type to waste money recklessly.
She was just thinking about how to take good care of her daughter-in-law, who was about to give birth and go through postpartum confinement.
"Okay, then I'll listen to Mom's arrangements. Anyway, I'm fine now and don't feel anything."
Don't people always say that the more active you are before giving birth, the faster the delivery will be?
Zhou Qinglan appreciated her mother-in-law's good intentions and nodded in agreement.
And so, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law decided what to do the next day, then tidied up, turned off the lights, and went to sleep.
These days, people don't really care about the Gregorian calendar, and nobody celebrates New Year's Eve anymore; everyone just goes to sleep.
And so, the first day of 1976 arrived quietly amidst everyone's sweet dreams.
Around five o'clock in the morning, Hua Hua's pawing at the door woke Zhang Shuzhen up again.
When the door opened, Hua Hua had brought back a female sika deer, weighing over 100 pounds.
"Wow, you're getting more and more successful!"
Yesterday it was wild boar, today it's deer. At this rate, you won't need to hunt around the forest; you'll have caught them all.
Zhang Shuzhen smiled and rubbed Huahua's big head, muttering to herself.
When Hua Hua goes hunting, she eats the small prey directly and doesn't bring it back. Most of the time, she can bring back a larger prey every three or four days.
This is the first time we've brought back such large prey in a row, like these past two days.
Zhang Shuzhen was naturally happy to see the deer, but she couldn't help worrying that with Hua Hua's hunting skills, it might kill off all the prey around the forest.
This chapter is not finished, please click the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
