Starting a new chapter in life

Jingyan thought for a moment and said, "Okay, I'll buy three hundred."

"Then count them carefully, don't miss any, but of course, you can't miss any either. And you have to pack the rest up for me, maybe we can sell them for a higher price in a couple of years." The old man was very honest.

Jingyan opened the three packages, checked them carefully, and also looked to see if any were rusty. Each package contained three hundred sticks. Since none of them were rusty, she wrapped them up again after checking and put them in the basket she had brought. She then took out her small wallet and handed the old man three ten-yuan bills.

The old man happily took the money, pushed the basket back to the corner, and locked the door: "Go on, girl, come back if you want to buy again in the future."

"Three hundred are enough for our own grilling," Jingyan replied.

After leaving the scrap yard, Jingyan went straight to the supply and marketing cooperative and bought a lot of seasonings such as sesame seeds, cumin, and chili powder. She happened to find beef for sale, but when she inquired, she learned that it cost 1.5 yuan per jin (500 grams) and required meat coupons, but she didn't have any meat coupons on her.

Perhaps because beef is indeed expensive, there weren't many buyers. The butcher's attitude was relatively mild; at least he asked, "Want to buy?"

Jing Yan said, "I want to buy it, but I don't have any more meat coupons."

Upon hearing this, the man thought for a moment and said, "Meat definitely requires meat coupons, but if you buy scraps like beef bones, you don't need meat coupons. Do you want that?"

Jingyan looked at the cutting board, pointed to a pile of white butter, and asked, "Do I need a receipt for this?"

"This is beef fat, it's a bit gamey, it won't taste very good when you cook it." The man was quite honest. Seeing that Jingyan didn't back down because of his words, he added, "If you really want it, it's three cents a pound without coupons. How much do you want?"

Jingyan pointed to the large piece on the cutting board and asked, "How much does all of this weigh?"

The man placed the lard on the scale and weighed it. "Twenty catties and one ounce, do you want it all?"

Only after seeing Jing Yan nod did he announce the price: "Twenty catties, six yuan."

Jingyan handed over the money. He clipped the receipt and money to the wire mesh, slid it to the counter with a push, took the money, gave him a receipt, and then slid it back. The person who took the receipt put the pile of butter on an oil paper liner into the basket that Jingyan was carrying.

The small basket, weighing over thirty kilograms, was so heavy that Jingyan was afraid she couldn't bear it. She squeezed out of the supply and marketing cooperative, hanging the basket on her right arm and supporting the bottom of the basket with her left hand. Fortunately, she made it home safely.

When I got home, I put the beef fat in the kitchen sink, and placed the small basket in the corner of the kitchen cabinet. As for the skewers, I could just wash them clean when I needed them. But if I had to use oil to maintain the metal skewers, it would be quite a luxury.

After a morning of fussing around and a quick, makeshift meal, I started preparing to render beef tallow in the afternoon. The butcher was right; beef tallow does have a certain flavor that many people don't like. But the question is, where will it be used?

When making barbecue, mixing butter and soybean oil in the right proportions will make the grilled meat very fragrant. This method was something I learned in my previous life when I supported my daughter's education by running a barbecue stall. All afternoon, the aroma of meat filled the kitchen. I simmered the butter, cut into small pieces, into cracklings, then poured the drained oil into an enamel basin. After it cooled, I covered it with a lid. The cracklings were also poured into a small, dry iron basin. Looking at the butter I had prepared, a sense of accomplishment welled up inside me.

I picked up a piece of pork crackling and put it in my mouth. Mmm, it was crispy and quite delicious, though it had a slightly fishy and gamey taste, but it was still within acceptable limits. These pork cracklings would make delicious dumplings. However, I was really tired today. Although I didn't seem to have done much work, I spent the whole afternoon squatting on a small stool watching the fire, which was quite tiring. I quickly made some food, ate it, washed up, and went to bed.

Early in the morning, Jingyan got up feeling refreshed. The first thing she did was knead dough. While the dough was resting, she went to the cellar and brought out two large cabbages. She washed them clean, chopped them up, added some salt to draw out the water, and only after she finished doing all this did she wash up.

After washing up, I patted my stomach and hesitated for a moment. My desire to eat dumplings took over, so I decided not to cook. I just turned on the stove to warm the house, filled the kettle with water to wash my hands, squeezed the blanched cabbage dry, chopped the rendered beef tallow from yesterday, and mixed it with the cabbage to make the filling. After mixing the filling, I took the dough that had been resting for a while to the cutting board, tore off pieces, rolled them out, and put in plenty of filling. The dumplings I made were all plump and looked festive.

After making about twenty dumplings, we cooked and ate them. Only after we were full did we continue. Once we filled a bamboo tray, we took them out and placed them on the lids of the vats outside to freeze quickly. We used up all the filling, which left us with about two hundred dumplings. My fourth sister had cleaned the several large vats in the storeroom thoroughly beforehand.

One is currently used to store meat, another is used to pickle sauerkraut by the kitchen door, and the remaining three are used to store frozen dumplings. In the future, when I don't feel like cooking, I can just pick out a few, boil them, and a meal will be solved. It's great!

Looking at the remaining beef tallow cracklings in the kitchen, she thought, "Never mind, I'll just use them up to make dumplings and store them." So, she climbed down into the cellar and retrieved five large cabbages. She prepared the dumpling filling, and hmm, that used up the beef tallow cracklings. She started kneading the dough, and after preparing the dough, she began her great undertaking of making dumplings. Time, it seems, can pass slowly or quickly. Before she knew it, the day had passed without her doing anything but kneading the dough, preparing the filling, and making dumplings.

But looking at the vat that was already more than half full of frozen dumplings, I felt an unparalleled sense of satisfaction. I rolled out the remaining dough into noodles and made a noodle dish with egg and gravy. After eating that, the day was over again.

The rest of the time was spent working hard on knitting, and as time went on, the progress of the sweater was very encouraging. However, the appearance... well, it was quite different from what I had imagined. But it was still wearable.

After finally finishing the knitting and binding off the stitches, I finished knitting the two sleeves and attached them with yarn. I tried it on myself and the length and size were fine. The stockinette stitch was also quite decent, except for the few rows of diamond-shaped blocks in the front, which had an irregular beauty.

After folding the sweater, she looked at the remaining yarn and firmly suppressed her original idea of ​​knitting one for herself. She needed to be good to her man, since he was the one earning money to support the family. So, if she had a sweater, how could she not have long trousers? Hmm, that's all the yarn she had. She'd knit one for Zhijun first. Having mentally prepared herself, Jingyan felt much better.

In mid-December, He Zhijun returned home for vacation, and was greeted with a strangely patterned sweater. Seeing Jingyan's expectant look, he didn't ask what the pattern was, but the size and length were perfect, and the V-neck was quite different from the common crew neck. He was very happy. "Jingyan, you've really worked hard. Is this really your first time knitting a sweater?"

Jingyan felt a little embarrassed. In her previous life, she had followed her third sister for half a year to learn how to knit a sweater for her daughter. She had to knit and unravel it repeatedly for more than a year before it was finished. Her third sister had been very critical of her. After that, her third sister took care of all her daughter's clothes, scarves, gloves, and even woolen socks. Jingyan never helped again.

Last year, she originally wanted to learn from her fourth sister again during the winter hibernation period, but judging from her current experience, it wasn't that she was lazy, but rather that she simply wasn't cut out for it, so she could only nod in agreement.

“I originally wanted to knit you a diamond pattern, but my stitch strength is not very consistent, so the pattern is a bit... distorted. Fortunately, the size is okay, so just wear it as is. We still have some yarn at home, so I'll knit you another pair of woolen pants. This time I'll only use stockinette stitch and purl stitch, which is simple and I can do it well.”

He Zhijun originally wanted to persuade her to knit him a sweater, but when he saw the color of the yarn she took out, he swallowed his words and said instead, "Okay, thank you for your hard work. I'll write to my mother later to ask if there is any brightly colored yarn in Yangzhou. If there is, I'll send her a few kilograms so you can knit yourself a sweater."

"Okay, it would be best if you had bright red yarn, a red sweater, it's festive." Jing Yan agreed with a smile, thinking to herself: I'll knit a V-neck sweater in both directions, and if I have any left over, I can knit a scarf in plain knit, that would be great too. The key is that the knitting technique is simple and not easy to mess up.

Jingyan and He Zhijun ate dumplings with beef lard and cabbage filling for dinner. He Zhijun thought they tasted very good. The next morning, Jingyan went to the storeroom and brought in the sliced ​​pork she had cut earlier.

After thawing, wash the meat with water, drain it, crack an egg into it and stir well. Take out an onion, cut it into small pieces, add salt, and continue to mix until the meat is a little sticky. Then set it aside to marinate.

She took a bunch of metal skewers from the cupboard. Since it was just the two of them having barbecue today, they didn't need too many skewers. After washing the skewers with alkaline water and letting them dry, she asked He Zhijun, "Didn't we say we were going to make a support for the barbecue grill? Have you found the materials yet?"

He Zhijun went to the front yard in a mysterious manner and brought in a stand from near the gate: "I brought it back last night. I was going to tell you, but as soon as I came in, I tried on the clothes and then ate pork lard dumplings, so I forgot."

"Then why don't you put the grill rack in the backyard, near the door, and set up the charcoal grill too? I'll skewer some and we'll grill some to try it out," Jingyan instructed directly.

"Okay!" He Zhijun readily agreed and went to get busy.

Jingyan found an empty malted milk powder box, scooped out half of the rendered butter, poured in some of the oil she had fried a couple of days ago, found two rough porcelain bowls, mixed sesame seeds, cumin, salt, chili powder and other seasonings in proportion and put them into one bowl, and made a garlic chili sauce with garlic, chili powder, soy sauce, sugar, salt and soybean oil and put it into the other bowl. She took out a new wool brush, and the seasonings were ready.

He went to the backyard and said to He Zhijun, "I've prepared a bag of charcoal in the storage room. Please bring it over for me. The skewers can't be grilled with coal; they have to be grilled with fruitwood charcoal to taste good."

He Zhijun hurriedly went to get it, saying, "There's a fire in the kitchen stove. I'll light a few pieces of charcoal there and then transfer them to the oven. You go and do the rest first."

Jing Yan nodded: "Okay, I've prepared all the seasonings. I'll light this up later and go get the butter to melt first before we can use it. I'm going to skewer the meat now. The meat has been marinated and is ready. I'll start skewering it with iron skewers. Jing Yan is very skilled at this, and in no time, eighty skewers are ready."

At this moment, He Zhijun came over to ask for the oil. The two of them took the oil and sauce to the backyard together. Jingyan put the malted milk powder box next to the charcoal fire to grill, and He Zhijun went in and brought out the meat skewers.

Once the fat was rendered, Jingyan grabbed a handful of meat skewers and placed them directly on the grill, cramming them together. She then stirred the oil in the oil container a few times with a brush to make sure the butter and seasoned oil were mixed properly before brushing the oil onto the slightly browned meat. She flipped the skewers over and brushed oil on the other side, making sure the fat in the pork belly was slightly charred. She then brushed on the fried garlic chili sauce, sprinkled on the seasonings, flipped them a couple more times, and the skewers were done. The sizzling, oily meat exuded the aroma of the seasonings.

The couple picked up the meat skewers and started eating. And let me tell you, they were really delicious! Especially when meat was scarce, who would be willing to eat like this? They finished off a full eighty skewers. Jingyan rubbed her stomach, feeling a little hungry, and He Zhijun smiled sheepishly, "I'm not too full either."

Okay, the rest of the meat was skewered, and the two of them ate to their hearts' content. After they finished eating, they used snow water to extinguish the charcoal fire in the grill. He Zhijun was in charge of cleaning up outside, while Jing Yan went in to clean the basin and iron skewers used to hold the meat.

After everything was cleaned up, He Zhijun said to Jing Yan with admiration: "Fourth Sister said you're not a very good cook, but the dumplings you made, the noodles you cooked, and the barbecue you made were delicious. And this is pork. If I buy some lamb, the lamb skewers will be even more delicious."

Jing Yan nodded: "As for lamb skewers, chunks of meat are tastier than slices. The meat is more tender. What my fourth sister said is actually true. I'm good at stewing meat, making cold dishes, and barbecuing. I'm not very good at making normal home-style dishes, so I rarely stir-fry."

"I'm good at home-style stir-fries, wouldn't you say we're a match made in heaven? Even our cooking skills complement each other."

Jingyan chuckled, "Any news about when you'll have your long holiday? Last year, the army only got mutton before the Lunar New Year. I wonder if it will be earlier this year?"

"We should be on holiday from January 28th to February 15th, a total of 19 days. This year, we're supposedly buying sheep from Inner Mongolia. The mutton there is of better quality and has less of a gamey smell, so it should be even better than last year's mutton. A batch should arrive around New Year's Day, since New Year's Day marks the beginning of a new year. I'll try to buy more then."

"Okay, how about this barbecue as a dish for the New Year's banquet? Now that we have butter, I can also make a hot pot base, cook some mutton hot pot, and roll out some noodles. The food will be ready in one pot, without having to cook anything else. It'll save you a lot of trouble."

“We’re supposed to eat dumplings for Chinese New Year… Oh right, you’ve already filled most of the vat with dumplings, that should be enough, hehe~” He Zhijun thought of the vat in the storage room and felt quite satisfied.

"Have you received your allowance this month? Do you have any vouchers?" Jing Yan suddenly remembered that she hadn't bought any alcohol and asked.