Traveling through the mountains and farming

Li Ke was fiddling with the pottery jars by the spring in the yard. She said they should be washed now and dried as soon as possible so that they could be used to make lard in the afternoon.

"Sister-in-law, the pottery jars have been washed and dried. What should I do next?" After washing and drying the pottery jars, Li Ke walked into the house to find Lin Wan and ask if there was any work for her to do.

Now they had made money at the market, bought rice, meat, and a lot of household items. The girl was very satisfied. As for the unpleasantness that happened at the entrance of the village just now, she had temporarily put it behind her after her sister-in-law scolded Li Cui and hugged her away.

"Let's put the iron pot on the stove first, then wash and cut the vegetables. After Xiaole buys the steamer, we can start cooking."

"Cook? We want to eat white rice?" Li Ke asked with a grin.

"Yes, we will all eat white rice from now on." Lin Wan nodded in affirmation. She had been eating porridge for every meal since she came here through time and she missed the fragrant rice. Now that she had the tools to cook, she naturally had to make arrangements quickly.

Li Ke shook his head and said:

"Well, no, we don't need to eat white rice every day. It's enough to eat it once in a while. Buying rice is too expensive."

She felt that if she ate rice for every meal, it would soon become unaffordable.

Lin Wan saw her reaction and smiled, thinking that this little foodie was so easy to satisfy and could still keep his rationality in the face of temptation.

Then he smiled and said, "Trust me, sister-in-law, we will definitely make a lot of money. You can eat as much rice as you want every day!"

Later, when she picked up the pork and lard she had bought, she suddenly realized that she had forgotten to buy a knife, and she was filled with regret.

Li Ke ran over with a chopping knife in his arms and handed it to her, "Sister-in-law, use this. I've already washed it clean."

Yes, I haven’t returned the axe yet. Fortunately, I heard Li Chonghao say that borrowed tools can be returned two days later. However, I didn’t return it as I was busy too late yesterday.

Wow, little foodie is awesome.

Afterwards, the two men cut the pork and lard and placed them on the lotus leaves they picked on the way back. They also washed the wild vegetables they picked yesterday. At this time, Li Chongle came back with a wooden steamer, which cost seven cents.

According to the original body's memory, he had the experience of making rice once or twice.

Lin Wan washed the rice according to her original memory, poured the rice into the pot after the water boiled, and scraped it constantly with a wooden spatula to prevent the rice from clumping and sticking to the pot.

When each grain of rice has a white dot in the middle, scoop it out and drain the water.

Then pour the half-cooked rice into the wooden steamer, poke some small holes in it with chopsticks, and continue cooking for more than a quarter of an hour.

Before long, the rice in the steamer began to give off a faint fragrance, which filled the entire house.

Lin Wan, a modern person who has never been hungry, never thought rice could be very fragrant before, but she felt that the rice today was particularly fragrant, so fragrant that it made her mouth water.

The two siblings next to them were no exception. They felt that they could eat two bowls of white rice at noon.

However, when they smelled the aroma of the braised pork next, they felt that the meat was more fragrant than the white rice.

Because their sister-in-law had just cooked a bowl of braised pork belly. They watched their sister-in-law make this braised pork belly using wild onions, soy sauce, and the concentrated sugar water left over from selling ice jelly. Their sister-in-law called it a low-end version of braised pork.

They don't think it's low-end, they think it's very high-end.

When the braised pork was still in the pot, it gave off an overbearing aroma that made people salivate. Especially when they saw the eldest sister-in-law shovel it out of the pot, they had never seen the crystal clear braised pork before, let alone eaten it. They really wanted to eat it right away.

At this moment, Lin Wan noticed that the two siblings were staring at the braised pork that had just come out of the pot on the stove, their saliva was watering and their eyes were shining.

She smiled and said, "Little Cola boys, go set up the simple table and bring the dishes over. We can eat soon."

Not to mention that the children were craving for meat, she hadn't tasted meat for more than a year. Out of instinct, she couldn't resist the attraction of braised pork, and she would unconsciously drool when she smelled the aroma of meat.

After hearing Lin Wan's words, the two siblings jumped out happily. After a while, they set up a simple table, carefully brought the braised pork over and placed it on the table, and also served the rice.

At this time, Lin Wan used the lard made from frying the meat to fry the last dish of vegetables, and brought it to the table.

Then the three of them sat around the table, using stone slabs as stools. The things they used as stools had been upgraded and were no longer the dry straw they used before.

Lin Wan looked at the table in front of her, which contained a bowl of braised pork, a bowl of green vegetables, three bowls of white rice, and three cups of rice soup.

The two siblings in front of her were so greedy, but they still restrained themselves and waited for her to pick up her chopsticks first. She smiled and raised her glass, "Come on, let's clink glasses. I hope our lives will get better and better in the future."

"Thank you, sister-in-law."

"Thank you, sister-in-law."

The two siblings withdrew their eyes from the food, raised their glasses like their sister-in-law, and thanked her, thanked her for appearing in their lives, and thanked her for bringing them a new life!

Lin Wan taught them how to clink glasses, gave each of them a piece of braised pork, and told them to eat as much as they wanted, as there would be enough rice and meat for them today.

As Li Chongle ate, his eyes became red again.

In the past, we could hardly eat pork a few times a year at home. Even if we had pork at home, my stepmother would cut the fat off to make oil, and the lean meat would be used to stir-fry with other dishes. She would pick out the meat and share it with others during meals, and give them the side dishes with the meat, so they could only taste the meat indirectly.

And now, in front of them was a large plate of braised pork with alternating fat and lean meat. The sister-in-law asked them to eat as much as they wanted. They felt like they were dreaming. No, even in their dreams they could not have imagined such braised pork.

The two siblings ate the braised pork, which they had never had before, and their hearts felt as sweet as if they had eaten honey.

~

The weather is quite hot now, and Lin Wan is very worried that the lard will go bad if left for too long, so she did not take a nap at noon, but went back to the kitchen to start making lard.

In modern times, she had seen her mother making lard, and she also practiced it herself after she started working.

She put the lard that she had cut and washed earlier into the pot, added clean water to cover the lard, and after the water boiled, she turned to low heat and simmered it slowly.

She watched from the side, and at the same time was thinking in her mind how to expand the ice jelly business. If they only relied on selling ice jelly at the market, with six markets a month, they would only earn a little over one or two taels of silver after working so hard.

If other villagers heard that they could earn one or two taels of silver a month, they would probably scream with excitement.

But for Lin Wan, who urgently needed to make money to store food and build a house, this speed was far from enough.

"Sister-in-law, the firewood at home is running out. I'll go to the back mountain to chop some later." Li Chongle, who was making a fire, interrupted her thoughts.

"When the lard is ready, we'll go together and chop more this time. We're going to return the machetes today."

It is not a good idea to borrow things all the time. It would delay other people's farm work. Lin Wan was thinking about buying kitchen knives, machetes, sickles, hoes and other iron kitchen tools and farm tools that would be used for growing vegetables later.

We still have to make money quickly!

At this time, she already had some preliminary ideas on how to expand the ice jelly business, so she asked:

"Xiao Le, do you know the people in this village? Are there any families with good and reliable people?"

"My great-uncle's family, my grandmother Luo's family, my grandfather Wang's family, and the families of several of my uncles and grandfathers are all pretty good," Li Chongle said as he counted on his fingers the families he thought were pretty good.

Then Li Chongle asked doubtfully: "Sister-in-law, why are you asking this?"

"When it's confirmed, I'll tell you then."

At this time, the water in the pot had been boiled dry and oil began to come out. The small kitchen was filled with the aroma of meat again. Li Ke, who was taking a nap in the room, was awakened by the smell. He rubbed his eyes and sniffed, following the smell into the kitchen.

Although she had a delicious and filling lunch, for the little foodie Li Ke, there is never too much delicious food. Seeing the greasy residue in the pot, she swallowed her saliva and said with a smile: "Sister-in-law, the lard is really delicious."

Lin Wan couldn't help but laugh when she saw Li Ke's greedy look. "When the oil is ready, I'll give you some oil residue as snacks."

"Don't eat that much. You can have it as a dish in the evening." Li Ke said seriously. Although she was greedy, she was always sensible.

"Yes, we can just eat a few slices to satisfy our cravings. We're still full from lunch." Li Chongle next to him nodded in agreement.

In the eyes of ordinary people, oil residue may not be as good as braised pork, but some things have special meaning to a certain group, and oil residue is a precious snack for children in the village.

They used to make lard at home, and the lard residue would be used for cooking, but not all of it. Some of it could be used as snacks, but not for them.

They had seen their stepmother feeding Li Cui and Li Chongsong with oil residues behind their backs. They would want to eat it and feel sad, but they would not ask for it on their own initiative, because they knew that even if they asked, their stepmother would not give it to them, and they would be blamed for being ignorant if they went to their father.

So when they heard that their sister-in-law wanted to give them a whole bowl of oil residue as a snack, the two siblings sensibly refused to take it all and just said they wanted to taste it.

Looking at these two sensible children, Lin Wan wanted to pamper them even more, so in the end she insisted on leaving the oil residue for them as snacks.