Chapter 144 Yam and Date Mud Cake
The sugar should also be saved for Mrs. Liu Ersao during her confinement period.
Liu Yinyin gave Jiang Cuihua a few pounds of pumpkin seeds.
She saved them for herself. Every time the family ate pumpkin, Liu Yinyin would wash and dry the pumpkin seeds and put them away.
Before I knew it, I had saved quite a lot, about five or six kilograms.
Pumpkin seeds can also be eaten after being fried. They taste good and are a common snack for people in the countryside.
It’s not much different from the melon seeds you buy in the county.
Jiang Cuihua loved pumpkin seeds very much, so she had stored some at home. Together with the ones given by Liu Yinyin, there must be more than ten pounds!
With so many pumpkin seeds, you can fry less peanuts, as there are not many peanuts left at home.
If she hadn’t married a new wife this year, Jiang Cuihua wouldn’t have wanted to fry peanuts.
The Liu family fried five pounds of peanuts, and Liu Yinyin also fried five pounds.
She has a small family, so five pounds of peanuts are more than enough for them.
Except for fried peanuts.
Liu Yinyin's family also has to make glutinous rice cakes.
On this Sunday, Gu Cheng was making glutinous rice cakes at home, and the brothers Liu Mingyuan and Liu Mingzhong also came to help.
As for Brother Liu, he is now working as a temporary worker in an oil press factory and his rest time is irregular. He did not have a day off today.
Liu Yinyin smuggled 20 kilograms of glutinous rice out of the system some time ago just to make glutinous rice cakes.
Several grown men were busy in the yard.
There was also a little man, Gu Yanyan, standing nearby watching the fun.
The boy was chewing a piece of biscuit in his hand, his mouth full of crumbs.
With a pair of big round eyes, he looked at the people making glutinous rice cakes in surprise.
Liu Yinyin was preparing lunch in the kitchen, and her two brothers had to stay at home for lunch.
Huang Xiaoyue was bored at home, so she came over to help. The two sisters-in-law were of similar age and had a good relationship.
Liu Yinyin prepared pork, mackerel, eggs, eggplant, potatoes and spinach.
I made six dishes for lunch: braised pork, pan-fried mackerel, scrambled eggs with peppers, braised eggplant with potatoes, and stir-fried spinach.
Add a can of beef and it's almost enough.
The eggplants, potatoes, and spinach were all delivered by Huang Xiaoyue in the morning.
Yesterday morning, Liu Yinyin went to the county town again and sold a basket of vegetables, which she exchanged for a piece of cloth, a pound of brown sugar, and forty pounds of coarse grain for Huang Xiaoyue.
Huang Xiaoyue was so happy that she almost died. It was also their good luck that the vegetables were at their best value at that time.
Otherwise, how could we get so many good things?
In the eyes of country people, no matter how good the vegetables are, they cannot compare to grains.
Huang Xiaoyue thought of something and said to Liu Yinyin, "My father has agreed. After harvesting this crop of vegetables, we will plant grains. However... my father wants to plant corn."
Shuangxi Village has stockpiled a lot of sweet potatoes and potatoes. Huang Laizi believes that they have no shortage of sweet potatoes and potatoes to eat.
However, although the production of sweet potatoes is high, eating too much of them will cause heartburn and is not as good as a proper food.
Growing rice and wheat was not very practical, so Huang Laizi wanted to grow some corn for his daughters to eat.
If the year is good, Liu Yinyin will have no objection to whatever Huang Laizi wants to plant.
But now...
She did add a little more: "Growing corn is good, but there was no snow this winter. Next year...if we encounter weather like this again, it would be safer to grow sweet potatoes."
This year, hail and heavy rain caused a total loss of wheat, rice, corn and other crops in the fields.
Sweet potatoes are different. They grow in the soil and are relatively less affected by some natural disasters.
And...Liu Yinyin always had a bad feeling in her heart, and hoped that she was just overthinking it.
Huang Xiaoyue didn't care what was planted. At worst she could just change it later. But what Liu Yinyin said made sense.
After thinking it over carefully, Huang Xiaoyue said, "Then I'll discuss it with my dad later."
The weather this winter was indeed abnormal. Huang Xiaoyue thought it would be a good idea to grow sweet potatoes, as the yield was high and she could harvest one to two thousand kilograms from one acre of land.
Twenty kilograms of glutinous rice were used to make more than seventy glutinous rice cakes, which were placed on a winnowing basket to dry and store.
After dinner, Liu Yinyin asked Huang Xiaoyue to take ten back.
The rest, keep it for yourself and eat it later.
In the afternoon, Liu Yinyin had nothing to do, so she was thinking about making fresh food at home.
There are still a lot of yams in the cellar.
Liu Yinyin suddenly wanted to make yam and date paste cakes.
I took some yams from the cellar, washed them and peeled them.
Cut the yam into pieces and steam them together with red dates in a pot. After steaming, mash the yam and red dates into a paste. Use the paste as the filling and set aside.
Add flour to the yam paste and knead it into a dough. Roll it into small pieces and wrap them with jujube paste filling. Fry until both sides are golden brown.
The yam and jujube paste cake just out of the pot has a crispy crust, is sweet and soft, and is quite delicious.
Gu Yanyan is a foodie. When he smelled the fragrance, he immediately grabbed a yam and date cake and refused to let go.
Liu Yinyin packed a plate of cakes and took Gu Yanyan to visit several cousins of the Liu family, and distributed the yam and date paste cakes to several nephews and nieces.
At the Liu family's home, Jiang Cuihua and Liu Laifu were not at home. Only a few sisters-in-law were sitting at the door basking in the sun.
Liu Yinyin walked over and said hello. Her sisters-in-law were chatting about trivial matters in the village.
It was basically Sister Liu and Sister Liu who were talking, with Huang Xiaoyue listening beside them. She had been married to Liujia Village for less than a month and certainly did not understand the situation of the people in the village.
Liu Yinyin was not much better. She seldom interacted with the villagers.
Perhaps feeling bored, Huang Xiaoyue whispered to Liu Yinyin: "Yinyin, why don't we go for a walk in the mountains and see if there are any winter bamboo shoots?"
She is a hard-working person and can't stay idle at home.
Liu Yinyin also felt bored, so she asked Gu Yanyan to stay at Liu's house to play.
I went to the mountains with Huang Xiaoyue.
I didn't expect to be able to dig up winter bamboo shoots, as all the bamboo shoots on the mountain had already been snatched away by the villagers.
Liu Yinyin didn't dig up many bamboo shoots this year. When she went to check on the bamboo forest that Gu Cheng had taken her to before, she found that all the bamboo shoots had been dug up.
During famine, villagers would go up the mountain and would not let go of any wild vegetables, let alone bamboo shoots.
In winter, the mountains are desolate, the trees are bare, and only a few dead leaves are left swaying in the cold wind.
At this time, there could be no wild vegetables on the mountain.
The two walked for a long time but found nothing. There was a bamboo forest, but no bamboo shoots.
Huang Xiaoyue felt it was a pity: "My dad dug up a lot of bamboo shoots. I'll bring you some next time."
Shuangxi Village was not as badly affected as Liujia Village. Moreover, it is surrounded by mountains on all sides and has more mountain products than Liujia Village.
Liu Yinyin nodded and said, "I'll exchange it with you for something else when the time comes."
Speaking of this, Huang Xiaoyue actually wanted something, so she asked, "By the way, Yinyin, can you exchange it for some wine?"
She will soon go to her parents' home to deliver New Year's goods.
The Liu family did not split up, and Jiang Cuihua prepared New Year's goods for several daughters-in-law.