Time passed quickly. The liveliness of Wang Laosi's family continued. Zhulan's family had more children and was also having a lively time. In the blink of an eye, it was New Year's Eve.
The first New Year for Zhulan and Zhou Shuren in ancient times had a different meaning. Early in the morning, Zhou Shuren took his son and grandson to worship their ancestors. After returning, he took out the red paper he had bought early to write Spring Festival couplets.
Zhulan also discovered a new skill. She cut paper-cuts based on her original body's memories, and she did it very well.
After the couplets and window decorations were pasted, Zhulan took her daughter-in-law and daughter to prepare lunch. Zhulan's family had one more meal than other families. They prepared to eat from a hot pot at noon, and for dinner, they would have a reunion dinner as in previous years.
Hotpot is what Zhulan and Zhou Shuren have always missed. Hotpot has existed for a long time. During the Song Dynasty, the way of eating hotpot was refined. Northerners like it very much in winter, but it is mainly a hodgepodge. Hotpot was quite popular in the fictional dynasty in winter, so it is not unusual for the two of them to eat hotpot. The county restaurants will offer hotpot every winter.
In order to eat hot pot, the couple bought a large ceramic basin and charcoal. Zhou Shuren also went to the restaurant to buy the charcoal base for the restaurant's hot pot.
The meat for the hot pot was mutton, which Zhulan had never been willing to eat. Unfortunately, she couldn't buy beef, and as there were many people in the family, she cut a lot of pork slices. During the Chinese New Year, the family bought five grass carps weighing more than three pounds. Zhulan asked Li to slice a grass carp for the hot pot. The vegetarian dishes were simple, with only frozen tofu, tofu, radish, cabbage, and potatoes.
The soup base is chicken soup and bone soup. Don’t even think about the sauce. The hot pot in the county restaurant doesn’t have any sauce. At most there are some chopped green onions and chili powder.
In fact, to put it bluntly, hotpot is very different from modern hotpot. According to Zhulan, the hotpot in the restaurant is just a stew.
Zhulan has a large family and they don't have time to cook the fish one by one, so they put the fish in two pots neatly and stew them directly over charcoal. The fish fillets are not resistant to boiling, so they can be eaten just by broiling, but the other ingredients are not afraid of being stewed together.
The whole family sat down for lunch. As soon as the lid of the hot pot was opened, both adults and children began to drool. The children's eyes were all on the meat. No, it should be said that except Zhulan and Zhou Shuren, the whole family was staring at the meat.
This is the first time I’m so generous during the Chinese New Year and can eat as much meat as I want!
Zhou Shuren moved his chopsticks, and couldn't stand the looks from his sons, so he coughed and said, "It's delicious, everyone, move your chopsticks!"
As soon as the words fell, chopsticks started flying.
No one in my family has ever eaten hotpot. We have only heard of it and never dared to dream of having it. But today our wish finally came true.
Zhulan and Zhou Shuren are the heads of the family. Zhulan is in charge of the meals. She no longer craves meat and instead prefers to eat something light. The two of them eat tofu and cabbage the most. At first, no one touches the fish slices except Zhulan and Zhou Shuren.
Later, seeing how deliciously they were eating, the sons’ eyes lit up after trying it. It was a pity that the whole fish was so filling that each of them finished it with just one chopstick.
Li's eyes were filled with tears while she was eating. It was so delicious that she passed some food to the children while she was eating.
Zhao's speed was not slow either. Because she only took care of her daughter, she ate more than Li. Zhao felt that she was blessed because she was able to leave the confinement before the New Year and did not miss out on any delicious food.
Because Zhulan took care of Jiang Du, Xuemei only had to feed her daughter, and she ate a lot. Since she moved back to her parents' home, Xuemei had long accepted the fact that her mother's family had good food. For lunch, eight pounds of mutton alone and five pounds of pork. Whose family is so extravagant during the New Year? If it weren't for the fact that a married daughter and her son-in-law could live in her parents' home for a long time, Xuehan would have wanted to live there with her child for a long time.
Jiang Sheng at the next table felt embarrassed to eat for free at first, but gradually he became comfortable with it. The Yue family really didn't look down on them, especially these days when he not only made money by copying books, but also got to read the books brought back by his father-in-law. Not to mention that his son and daughter kept saying they wanted to live in the Yue family for a long time, he didn't want to leave anymore!
It was a lively hotpot meal, with people fighting over a piece of meat.
Zhulan smiled and said that it was good to be lively. The more lively it was, the more affection there was. No matter people were blood relatives or strangers, they could only develop deep affection after getting along with each other. Look, Chang Lian was no longer targeting Rongchuan.
After eating hotpot, the whole family felt warm and both children and adults felt sleepy.