She Only Cares About Cultivation-Chapter 816 - 772: Famine Era 13 (First Update)

The marinade used to braise meat at home is naturally too precious to throw away. By adding the pig skin she bought, she can make tender meat jelly, regarded as the finest cold dish of this Monkey Year.

On the 28th, she steamed buns and prepared braised meat jelly, keeping busy until about ten at night.

On the 29th, they were equally busy. This year, they pressed both rapeseed oil and lard, just so they could enjoy some oily dishes during the New Year.

In the morning, she used sweet potato starch and steamed a few trays of sweet potato glass noodles. Unfortunately, there was no meat left, otherwise, it would have tasted even better.

Once the steamed noodles were ready, she placed them on the racks in the hall to cool naturally before setting up an oil pan in the yard to fry tofu, meatballs, and lotus.

In her past life, the lotus was stuffed with meat and coated with starch on the outside to prevent the meat from coming out during frying. When it was added to Big Pot Dish with vegetables and glass noodles, it tasted incredibly satisfying. But what to do without meat now?

Ye Huan decided to take the pig liver, pig heart, and other internal organs she had bought, braise them, and cut them into appropriate sizes to stuff in the lotus. This way, it felt as if they were eating meat, and anyone visiting their house wouldn’t notice, haha~~

The radish meatballs had no water added, only two eggs wrapped in them. The rest was just seasoning and glass noodle starch. The more starch added, the more elastic, which made them less likely to break when cooked with stews, and they tasted good too.

Tofu blocks were cut into slices, deep-fried in the oil pan, for adding a bit to the Big Pot Dish later on.

Eating Big Pot Dish during the New Year has become a local custom. There were no stir-fried dishes; you just ate steamed buns with Big Pot Dish. You didn’t even need to add oil while cooking stir-fried dishes because there was enough grease in the fried items. When cooked with cabbage, glass noodles, and pig blood, it was simply a heavenly delicacy!

New Year’s Eve is the day to make dumplings.

Grandpa bought pork from the village, so this year their dumpling filling was pork and radish. Of course, there was little meat but plenty of oil residue, making the taste truly delicious. This was probably because they seldom ate meat, and a little bit felt extraordinarily delicious.

On Chinese New Year’s Day, although they were poor, they also prepared some melon seeds and candies to welcome visiting guests. If there were no melon seeds or candies, they would leave some peanuts or something similar. Their family neither had melon seeds nor candy. Was it simply forgotten, or did the family think it unnecessary to spend that money, as more families did not prepare than those who did. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

If children came over, they would give them 50 cents or one yuan of New Year’s money. If one wasn’t married or earning money, one could usually manage to get some.

Ye Huan, since she worked as a babysitter, already earned money, and naturally didn’t receive any; all other children got some.

At that time, kids couldn’t hold onto their New Year’s money; by evening, it would be tricked out of them by Mom, who would then count it and grumble which family didn’t make sense—giving one yuan, but only getting back 50 cents—and so on, hahaha. Ye Huan just shook her head upon hearing this—wasn’t this probably a memory in every child’s childhood?

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, everyone exchanged New Year’s greetings. However, not every household was visited. For example, at your close relatives’ homes, you could drop by, but it wouldn’t be appropriate to visit every house, as they would have to prepare New Year’s money for the guests. Therefore, it was essential to maintain appropriate boundaries and manners.

Of course, if you ran into someone who specifically came to take advantage, you could only smile outwardly while rolling your eyes inwardly.

The second day of the Lunar New Year was the day Mom took them back to grandma’s house, but Ye Huan didn’t want to go at all, mainly because there were three unbearably bad aunts there.

"Mom, can I not go? Every time we go, we have to watch their faces, even though we don’t eat their food, yet they still glare at me. What’s the point? I won’t go!"

Mother Ye slapped her on the back of her head, "To see your grandpa and grandma, that’s why! Whether you want to go or not, you’re going. Your cousins are going too!"

In this era, visiting relatives during the New Year always meant sharing meals. Grandma and Grandpa had six children, with Mother Ye being the youngest, having three elder brothers and two elder sisters.

The second uncle worked out of town, settling the An family. His house was now inhabited by the grandparents. In the same courtyard lived both the first uncle’s family and the third uncle’s family.

Mom carried the sisters in her left hand their homemade tofu and in her right hand their own buns and bean buns, without buying desserts or candies. It wasn’t about being stingy but rather because those things were unaffordable for us poor folks.