The dumplings are made of glutinous rice, and the Lu family does have a lot of glutinous rice. In other words, as long as it is related to food, the Lu family generally has it. After lunch, Lin Qingqing prepared to make snacks in the afternoon, but she needed a nap. While she was taking a nap, Lu Cheng prepared the ingredients for making snacks, which was to cook glutinous rice.
Lin Qingqing also prepared to make dumplings, but not only dumplings, but also rice cakes.
Following the task assigned by Lin Qingqing, Lu Cheng started to cook glutinous rice. The dumplings and rice cakes required several pots of glutinous rice. After Lu Cheng cooked enough glutinous rice, he went to wake up Lin Qingqing.
Lin Qingqing had worked in a cafeteria before, so she knew where the pounding stones needed to pound rice cakes were.
The army cafeteria had this pounding stone, which was placed together with the stone mill. So, around two o'clock in the afternoon, Lin Qingqing took Lu Cheng, Lu Haici and Qin Ming to pound glutinous rice.
Lu Cheng carried a wooden barrel of glutinous rice by himself, while Lu Haici and Qin Ming carried the necessary tools.
"Lu Haici, where are you going?" Ji Yang from next door probably installed surveillance cameras in Lu's house. As soon as they went out, Ji Yang saw them.
"Let's go make rice cakes." Lu Haici said happily, "The rice cakes are delicious. There are white rice cakes and brown sugar rice cakes."
"I'm going too." Ji Yang ran over.
Because everyone was preparing for the New Year, there were a lot of people in the family compound, and many people were coming in and out. Everyone was busy preparing New Year's goods, so they met a lot of people while walking in the family compound.
"Captain Lu, what are you doing with a bucket of glutinous rice?" someone asked.
"Comrade Lin, do you still have glutinous rice? Can you exchange a few kilograms with me?" Someone had an idea about glutinous rice. It is usually hard to buy glutinous rice. In some places, there is a custom of eating glutinous rice during the New Year, but there is no glutinous rice. Seeing Lu Cheng carrying a large bucket of glutinous rice, he tried to ask.
Lin Qingqing said, "We can still exchange two kilograms at home. The extra ones have been cooked today. If sister-in-law wants them, we can exchange them when we come back."
"Then I'll go find Comrade Lin to exchange it after dinner."
Even if others wanted to exchange, they had no chance, because Lin Qingqing said that they could only exchange two kilograms.
Lin Qingqing greeted everyone along the way, and then the family arrived at the stone mill.
"How do I use this?" Lu Cheng asked, looking at the stone pounding machine in front of him.
Lin Qingqing said: "Put the glutinous rice into the pestle, and then use this pestle ball to pound the glutinous rice. Break the glutinous rice into pieces and make them into glutinous rice balls."
Lu Cheng: "Okay, I understand."
Lin Qingqing remembers when she was a child making glutinous rice cakes, it took several men to take turns pounding the glutinous rice each time, because it required arm strength, otherwise their arms would get tired after a few poundings.
However, she saw that Lu Cheng had been fiddling with it for a long time and was still supporting him.
Lu Haici and Qin Ming were watching from the side. The two boys were a little excited and wanted to give it a try. However, they also knew that they were not strong enough.
"Mom, can we make rice cakes like this?" Lu Haici asked curiously.
Lin Qingqing said, "Yes, but not so fast. We will have to cut it into pieces later. This rice cake is not only delicious when fried, but also delicious as a snack. Look at the glutinous rice cooked with brown sugar water over there. When the time comes, make brown sugar rice cakes and then make dried rice cakes, it will be even more delicious."
That was the taste of her childhood, but the rice cakes she made when she was a child were pounded with the village's rice cake pounding machine, not by hand. Especially at the end of the year, when everyone started pounding rice cakes in the early morning, it was tiring but very lively. When the rice cakes were pounded, they were hot and tasted the best. That hot taste was a little different from the taste of the rice cakes pounded with a pounding stone, because the glutinous rice was already cold after being pounded.
Around 4 o'clock, all the glutinous rice had been pounded.
After returning home, Lin Qingqing instructed Lu Cheng to knead the glutinous rice into strips and then cut them into rice cakes.
After the rice cakes are cut, we have fried rice cakes for dinner.
Stir-fry rice cake with vegetables, eggs, bacon, and shredded carrots. First, fry the eggs and set aside. Then fry the bacon and shredded carrots and set aside. Finally, fry the vegetables. After the vegetables are cooked, pour the sliced rice cake, fried bacon, shredded carrots, and eggs into the pan. Add the seasonings and stir-fry for a few times before removing from the pan.
The soul of fried rice cakes lies in soup. When she was in college, she liked to go to fast food restaurants to eat fried rice cakes and pair them with a bowl of seaweed soup.
There were four people in the Lu family, so they could sit in four seats. Each person had a plate of fried rice cakes, a bowl of seaweed soup, and a side dish of pickled radish, which tasted sour and sweet.
Making pickled radish is very simple. You just need to slice the radish and then pickle it with soy sauce, vinegar and sugar. In modern times, Lin Qingqing likes to add plums when pickling, but there are no plums in this era, so she can only put nothing in it. But pickled radish without anything in it is also delicious.
"Aunt, the fried rice cakes you make are so delicious. I wish I could be your son. I could live here and eat with you every day." Qin Ming said enviously.
Lin Qingqing smiled softly: "Then you can come here to eat every day." Anyway, preparing meals for one more person is not stressful for their family. And if Qin Ming really comes to eat every day, Zhang Hongping will definitely bring his food here as well.
"That won't work." Qin Ming said, "My grandma said food is precious. I can't come to your house for dinner every day." Although he is a bad boy, he is not stupid.
Lu Haici said: "Then you can bring the food."
Qin Ming heard it and said, "Is it okay, Auntie?"
Lin Qingqing: "Of course."
After they finished dinner, the military wife who had been scheduled to come came to exchange the glutinous rice.
"Qingqing... Qingqing..." Lin Qingqing had just changed the glutinous rice when she heard Yu Xiuyao's voice. "Sister-in-law, I'm here."
Yu Xiuyao came with a basket filled with a large bowl of dumplings and several salted duck eggs: "Qingqing, these are the dumplings and salted duck eggs I made. I brought them for you to eat on New Year's Eve."
Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, a perfect time to eat dumplings.
"Thank you, sister-in-law." Lin Qingqing took the dumplings and salted duck eggs. "By the way, sister-in-law, we made rice cakes. Wait a moment." She took out ten rice cakes from the kitchen and put them in the basket. "Sister-in-law, here you go."
"Oh, you originally came here to deliver something, but now you're here to pick something up." Yu Xiuyao joked.
After Yu Xiuyao, several other military wives who were close to her came to give gifts. Lin Qingqing always gave them rice cakes as return gifts. Fortunately, she made a lot of rice cakes, so even if she gave them to a few families, she still had a lot left at home.
The first day of the first lunar month is the busiest day in the entire residential compound, because early in the morning, children begin to visit every household to pay New Year's greetings.
"Lu Haici, Qin Ming, are you ready?" Ji Yang shouted as he entered the yard, "Aunt, I'm here to wish you a happy new year. Aunt, happy new year."
Lu Haici and Qin Ming devoured the dumplings in their bowls, then put on their schoolbags and said, "Here we go."
Lin Qingqing took out a White Rabbit milk candy, a handful of peanuts, and some twisted dough sticks: "Here, Ji Yang, Happy New Year." Then there was also a red envelope, which was wrapped in red paper.
"Thank you, auntie." This was not the first time that Ji Yang received a red envelope from Lin Qingqing. He had received it in previous years.
Of course, Ji Yang had some, and Lu Haici and Qin Ming must have some too, so she took out two red envelopes wrapped in red paper and gave them to them.
The three children hurriedly put the red envelopes into their schoolbags and ran out together. After a while, the voices of Lu Haici and Qin Ming were heard from the yard of the Ji family next door: "Happy New Year... Happy New Year..."
The sound passed from one family to another and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
It was almost noon when Lu Haici and Qin Ming came back. Their schoolbags were already full. As soon as they got home, they emptied their schoolbags onto the table, which was full of candies, biscuits, cakes, and other snacks. They started picking up the ones they liked and put aside the ones they didn't like.
A few days after the New Year, Commander Qin and Zhang Hongping came back. On the first day they came back, they brought a lot of local specialties to the Lu family, as well as Qin Ming's food rations for the period. The food rations were all flour and rice, and the vegetables were directly converted into money.
Lin Qingqing didn't refuse and took it directly.
Two months after the Lunar New Year, which was the end of March in the Gregorian calendar, Lin's mother came. At that time, Lin Qingqing was four months pregnant, and her belly was a little bit obvious. The family really needed someone to take care of them. Especially when Lu Cheng was on a mission, it was not convenient for the family to have only one person to help.
Before Lin's mother came, she called Lu Cheng. Lu Cheng was naturally willing for his mother-in-law to come, and he was also very touched. After telling Lin Qingqing about this, Lin Qingqing did not refuse.
When Lin's mother arrived at the train station, Lu Cheng drove to pick her up. When she got off the train, she saw Lu Cheng and immediately shouted, "Son-in-law... Lu Cheng..."
Lu Cheng heard Lin's mother's loud voice and hurried over: "Mom." He automatically picked up the two sacks on Lin's mother's back. The sacks were a bit heavy, so Lu Cheng said again, "Mom, you have worked hard on the way."
Mother Lin said, "It's not hard, it's not hard. Nothing is more important than Qingqing's pregnancy. This sack contains clothes for the child, and another sack contains cured chicken made at home. There are several of them, which can help Qingqing nourish her body."
Lu Cheng: "Thank you, Mom." Actually, if they wanted to drink chicken soup, they could buy it on the farm, but the thought that Mother Lin brought along was very precious.
When the car arrived at the entrance of the army, Lin Qingqing was seen standing there. Lin's mother had chosen a special day to come to the army on Sunday so that her son-in-law would not have to ask for leave when he came to pick her up. So Lin Qingqing also had a good rest.
Before the car stopped, Lin's mother shouted to Lin through the window: "Daughter...Daughter..."
But Lin Qingqing couldn't hear her.
When the car stopped in front of Lin Qingqing, Lin's mother waited for Lu Cheng to open the door, then she couldn't wait to get out of the car. The first thing she did after getting out of the car was to look at Lin Qingqing's belly, then she breathed a sigh of relief and said, "It's not big, that's okay. My daughter, you need to nourish your body when you are pregnant, but not too much." Otherwise, like her, if your belly is too big, it will be troublesome to give birth to a child.