The eldest aunt brought out a bowl of gnocchi from the kitchen. She glanced at her sister-in-law and said to Liu Zhiqiang, "Zhiqiang, there are still a lot of gnocchi in the pot. Call your brothers and sisters, and each person can share a piece of it." bowl!"
Mrs. Hu saw that the bowl in the sister-in-law's hands was pure white flour gnocchi, fried with chopped green onion in lard, and it smelled delicious. She knew that Yu Xiaocao had brought the white noodles, so she said awkwardly, "Our family just had breakfast, so I just made a bowl for Xiaocao, so why waste that white noodles!"
The eldest aunt smiled lightly: "Mother said, it's not bad for the children! I can't eat the grass, my cousins are watching, can I still eat the grass? Xiaocao, hungry Come on, let's go to the house and eat!"
The gnocchi is made according to the number of children, and one bowl for seven children is enough. Liu Feiying and Liu Zhiwei thought they were grown-ups, and gave the bowl they shared to their grandparents. After pushing for a long time, the gnocchi was almost cold, but there was no result. Yu Xiaocao took two bowls from the kitchen, and evenly divided the seven full bowls into nine and a half bowls. Liu Jia's large thick porcelain bowl is more than half enough to fill her little belly.
The two old and the seven young sat around the kang table, happily eating the noodles. Han's gnocchi, although there is no egg, but the noodles are finely stirred and boiled thick, which is very suitable for Yu Xiaocao's appetite. The gnocchi in the bowl was finished, and Yao Shi had to pour some for her from the half of his bowl left. Firstly, Yu Xiaocao was really full, and secondly, she really didn't have the habit of eating other people's saliva, so she resolutely declined.
After a simple and warm lunch, the wind and snow outside stopped. Yu Xiaocao took advantage of Xueting's vacancy and prepared to go back. The Liu family had nothing to offer in return, so Liu Cunjin brought the last ten catties of green wheat left in the family to his granddaughter. He remembered that his daughter and granddaughter both liked to drink porridge made from green wheat, which was specially reserved for them.
After giving the New Year's gift, it will soon be New Year's Eve. There is still light snow on this day, and there is a world of pink makeup and jade outside. The house is steaming and full of New Year's flavor.
New Year's Eve was still spent by the Yu family and the Liu family together. The New Year’s Eve dinner is very rich, with meat dishes: sweet and sour fish symbolizing the annual surplus, braised lion’s head in brown sauce, tofu sandwiches with meat stuffing, braised pork in brown sauce, stewed pork vermicelli, and a pot of red boiled pork slices; there are also many vegetarian dishes, There are mushrooms and green vegetables, silver sprout spinach, lettuce in oyster sauce, mapo tofu, griddle potato chips, and vinegared cabbage; the soup is pork rib soup and three delicacies soup, both meat and vegetarian, whichever you like to drink. The staple food is white and fat steamed buns, exuding the fragrance of wheat, even if you don't eat any dishes, you can eat two.
In the year of the locust plague, both meat and vegetables were relatively scarce. Even the wealthy families in the prefecture could hardly find a few such sumptuous New Year's Eve dinners as the Yu family. Tanggu’s Zhenxiu Restaurant has launched New Year’s Eve dinners worth hundreds of taels. The big shopkeeper bought several boxes of vegetables and hundreds of catties of potatoes at a high price from the Yu family.
Among other things, there are fresh vegetables in winter, as well as a fresh species introduced from the West—potatoes. This gimmick can make those celebrities in Tanggu Town flock to it, and more than 20 tables of New Year’s Eve dinners are booked at a very fast speed. go out. There are a lot of people who have not been booked, and I have to ask when there will be a similar banquet, and I must reserve a table for them...
However, most people in the disaster-stricken areas have had a miserable time this year. Those who can eat white noodles are considered good. Many people are full of coarse grains and pancakes. As for the food, forget it. When the locust plague came, not all villages collected the vegetables in the vegetable field in advance and made them into dried or pickled vegetables like Dongshan Village. Later, there were locusts and there was no way to grow vegetables, and there was nowhere to buy them with money. As for meat, who in the average family can afford it! ! Therefore, in most families, the whole family gathers together, bitterly holding thick noodle pancakes, and hastily ending the annual New Year's Eve dinner with a little salty soup.
Many families in Dongshan Village, because they have dried vegetables at home, stew them together in a pot, put more oil, and the New Year's Eve dinner is considered over. There are no more dumplings to say goodbye to the old and welcome the new at night. How can I eat dumplings without meat or vegetables? Save if you can.
Compared with the lively and warm atmosphere of Yu's old house, Yu's mansion seemed much deserted. It's hard for a clever woman to cook without rice. No matter how capable Mrs. Zhang is, she can't conjure things out of thin air. At the beginning, Mrs. Zhang didn't believe Yu Hai's words, thinking that he was making up to deceive people, that none of the vegetables in the vegetable field were snatched up, and they were all cheap locusts. Fortunately, when Mrs. Zhang usually digs sea sausages, she also digs some clams during low tide and makes them into dried clams. She also picks up some kelp and seaweed, dried them in the sun, and now they are stewed in one pot. Also, a few days ago, Yu Dashan went out to sea once, and left a medium-sized sea fish, and finally got together two for dinner.
The fishermen on the seashore have long been tired of eating sea shells and sea fish, plus Mrs. Zhang is not willing to put oil in the cooking, and boiled in white water with a little salt, the taste can be imagined.
Li Shi frowned and swallowed the tasteless clam meat, rolled his eyes, and said, "Mother, it seems that Yu Hai has really broken ties with us!"
Mrs. Zhang raised her eyelids and glanced at her, but didn't answer. Mrs. Li continued: "I heard that Yu Hai sent more than ten catties of pork to Uncle's family. The fat is as thick as three fingers, and there is also a bag of white noodles, at least twenty catties. Chinese cabbage and radishes also gave a lot. The New Year’s Eve dinner at Uncle’s must be full of oil and water!”
"Mom!! I said to go to my second uncle's house to buy a few catties of fat meat, but you refused to let me. Now I am envious of others having meat to eat..." Heizi frowned and complained to his mother as he gnawed on a coarse-grain cake.
I have become a regular employee of the terminal, and I have saved no less than ten taels of silver in a year. Grandma is not willing to pay for meat, so he just pays for some. Why does the family have to distinguish so clearly? But the mother refused to let it go, saying that if she bought meat, she might not be able to eat it in their mouths, and it would be cheaper for the uncle's family. well! It would be great if we could separate the family like the second uncle. Dad went fishing, he went to work on the dock, and mother took care of the housework at home. It would definitely not be like now eating coarse grain pancakes and not caring about being full!
Xiaodoudou gnawed on the pancakes aggrievedly, turned her head to one side, unwilling to eat the fish that Mrs. Zhao brought to her mouth: "Don't eat it, it's too fishy!"
It's been a few months since I came back, and Mrs. Zhang can't always give small troubles to her youngest son's family. Since the plague of locusts came, the family had no income, and all the food was bought with money, and the money flowed out. The eldest son was bullied by Mrs. Li, and he only handed in half of the money he earned each time he fished and sold. There wasn't much before, and even less now.
In the disaster year, almost all the fishing villages by the sea rely on the sea to feed their lives, especially sea sausage and sea oysters. The Zhou family’s workshop harvests, and the price is not low, so not only the villages near the sea, but even the villages farther away, there will be people who get up early and eat late. Came here to dig sea intestines and pick oysters. The nearby sea sausages were dug up to the point of extinction, and she might not be able to dig them further away. There were three more people in the family, and the deposit in his hand was getting less and less, Zhang was so anxious that his mouth was full of fire blisters.
But so what? The youngest son keeps his hands on books every day, and he doesn’t leave the house very often. While watching the child, the youngest daughter-in-law embroiders some handkerchiefs, insoles and other small items to sell in the town. But embroidery is too slow, and small pieces can’t be sold at a high price. Compared with so many people in the family who open their mouths to eat, it’s just a drop in the bucket. After a few months, Mrs. Zhang's hair was all white, her waist was bent, and she looked more than ten years older than before.
Mrs. Zhao sighed softly, and persuaded her son softly, "Doudo, eat more fish to grow taller."
"Then... I'll just take a bite! When I grow up, I can help the family like Brother Shitou!" Little Shitou put the fish in his mouth aggrievedly, and swallowed it without chewing it. Take a sip of coarse grain porridge to wash away the fishy smell in your mouth.
Mrs. Li began to speak bitterly again: "'Brother Shitou', that's a very friendly name! You treat him like a brother, but they don't treat you as a younger brother. They must be eating big fish and meat now, so why call someone you together?"
Mrs. Zhao glanced at her displeasedly, and said pointedly: "Second brother has already separated and separated, no matter how good the relationship is, it can be regarded as two families. I don't have such a thick skin, and I always want to take advantage of others. .”
Mrs. Li put down her chopsticks, pointed at Mrs. Zhao's nose, and said, "Who are you calling thick-skinned? You are not thick-skinned. Who always rushes to other people's houses in time for dinner? You say you are teaching them how to embroider. Who are you coaxing?" The whole family eats chaffy vegetables at home, so you might as well take your son to other people’s houses to eat delicious and spicy food, and eat fat for nothing, regardless of whether the man lives or dies. Is there anyone like you who is a daughter-in-law?”
When it comes to quarrels, Mrs. Zhao is no match for Mrs. Li. She was so angry that her eyes were red, and she said bitterly: "I teach Xiaocao Xiaolian to embroider, and the second brother's family invited me and Doudou to have dinner to thank me. Sister-in-law It's useless for you to be greedy! People's feelings are mutual, and there will be rewards if you give. Sitting at home and doing nothing, waiting for the pie to fall from the sky, only you, sister-in-law, can do it!"
Mrs. Li opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Mrs. Zhang slapping the table.
"Why are you arguing? It's Chinese New Year's Day!! The eldest daughter-in-law, the third daughter-in-law, did you eat yours or drink yours? It's their ability to make people take care of their meals willingly. If you have the ability, come over and try It would be strange if I didn't beat you with a big stick!!" Mrs. Zhang became more and more displeased with Mrs. Li, who was lazy, greedy and always looking for trouble.
Mrs. Li curled her lips and said, "Mother, you will be partial to the younger son and the younger daughter-in-law. Have you ever thought about the feelings of the eldest son and the eldest daughter-in-law? Why doesn't the second son's family want to see us? It's not because you are too bad at things. Hurt people's heart? If we don't separate the family, don't the big house of the second child's family and so many lands belong to our family?"
Mrs. Zhang stared at her fiercely, and said, "Who said that Yu Hai's leg won't get better? Their family is sick and weak, and they will definitely drag us down. Let me find a way to separate the family? Without your back Instigate, can I take the risk of being scolded and separate people out?"
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Thank you Nana for the red envelope.