It was 11 o'clock in the brain, and the sound of grandma talking came from outside the house, and the family came back. Seeing that Yoyo woke up, grandma and mother went to the kitchen to make lunch, and Yoyo hurriedly got up and went to the kitchen to observe the situation.

Two adobe kitchens, less than 20 square meters in size, are surrounded by two connected earthen stoves, one large and one small, and a clay pot hangs above the door of the large stove, which warms the water by the heat of the stove door.

Behind the door was a large water tank, and above the water tank was a wooden cupboard hanging on the wall. Between the water tank and the large stove, there is an earthen platform, on which is placed a five-liter glazed basin (glazed earthen basin, about five liters of flour, one liter is about 3 catties).

On the south side of the door was a case board table, and a wooden shelf was hung on the wall above the table, with two cabbages and a few radishes and sweet potatoes. The inside room is a utility room, in addition to all kinds of farm tools and household goods, it is full of all kinds of large and small tanks, hoards and pickle jars, which contain the rations of a family of seven. The top is tightly covered with a wooden cover. On the wooden lid are dustpans, dustpans, and noodle jars, and the dustpans are full of various dry foods.

Grandma lit the fire, and Mom chopped vegetables. Grandma instructed: "The meat should be cut thicker, one finger thick, and I will send this New Year's dish to your uncle in a year, and it will be real."

My mother put something in the pot as she responded, and cabbage, vermicelli, kelp, golden needles, croquettes, and cooked meat were boiled together in the broth, and white steamed buns and black and white flower rolls were slipped on top.

The white flour in the flower roll is only a thin layer, and even the black color of the mixed noodles (noodles ground by mixing sorghum and soybeans) cannot be hidden. It is also called "donkey rolling", which describes the white face with little white face, like a black donkey rolling on the ground, which is sticky dust.

After the meal was ready, my mother first took a big bowl full of vegetables, picked a few pieces of fat meat and put them on it, took a new coarse cloth hand towel and wrapped six white-flour steamed buns, and asked my father to send them to my uncle's house.

As soon as Dad left, the eldest cousin and eldest cousin also brought the dishes.

My uncle and grandfather's New Year's dishes had more crispy meat and yams, and I filled a full pot with a bowl of meat in it, and poured the vegetables into the pot when I came in. The cousin was carrying a steamed basket containing ten white-flour steamed buns.

"Patriotic, your father and mother always think about your aunt. Seeing that there is so much meat in my aunt's New Year's dish, go back and tell them that my aunt's family is rich this year, let them rest assured. Grandma pulled the patriotic uncle and instructed.

"Alright, I'll bring your words with me. The patriotic uncle promised to go back with his son.

Mom scooped the bowls one by one, grandpa's, grandma's, Haohao's, Youyou, Didi's, everyone's bowl was picked by the mother to put the meat, and when she and her father arrived, there were only vegetables left in the pot. Grandma and Mom brought food to the table, and Grandpa scooped warm water from the crockpot on the stove door to wash the hands of the siblings.

When Dad returned, the family began to eat. Grandma took white buns for grandpa and the three children one by one, and took a flower roll for herself and was taken away by her father. "Mom, you're almost fifty, so let's have a good meal. ”

"Okay, today's first day of the new year, everyone eats white buns. Grandma said and took a white bun.

"Mom, we are young, and the white bun is kept for Dad and the child to eat more. Yoyo saw that his parents still picked up the flower roll.

Looking at the satisfaction of my brother eating meat, Yoyo, who doesn't like to eat fatty meat, looked at the three-finger thick fat slices in the bowl and worried, this fat meat has not been braised yet, it is boiled meat. I took a small bite carefully, well, fat but not greasy, strong taste, fragrant lips and teeth, better than the pork fed with feed in later generations, don't want it.

Grandma gave the meat in her bowl to her parents, and Yoyo gave the meat to her brother: "I don't like to eat fatty meat." ”

The elder brother bit off the fat meat, and put the remaining lean meat into the Yoyo bowl again. You naturally stuffed the lean meat into her mouth without the slightest disgust. This is very different from her in later generations, you must know that she is withdrawn in later generations, but she has a slight cleanliness habit.

As soon as they finished lunch, the Han Defu family, who lived in Westinghouse, came to visit the door.

Han Defu and his wife are in their early fifties, the third daughter Guixiang is 17 years old, the son Baojing is 14 years old, and the fourth daughter Guiping is 12 years old. Although the family is thin, they are tall and handsome. Except for the son, who wore new cotton clothes, the rest of them wore clean old clothes.

Although Yoyo is young, he is really familiar with the situation of Han Defu's family, perhaps because the two families are relatively close.

Han Defu has a higher generation in the village, and there is only one of his second aunts left in the previous generation, he is two generations older than Grandma Youyou, and almost the whole village calls him the second master.

Han Defu and his brother Han Decai are looking forward to wealth and nobility, but their parents died when they were young, and it was their grandmother who took the brothers and their uncle who was more than ten years older than them to make a living by begging.

Although he ate the last meal and did not eat the next meal, he was hungry and full, but the three uncles and nephews were all big men, and in order to eat well and reduce the burden on his grandmother, Han Decai joined the army as a soldier when he was just fourteen years old.

After Han Defu married his wife, the two of them broke into Kanto, and they did not earn the family business and fell into the root of the disease, he was an old stomach disease, and his wife was rheumatoid. I couldn't continue to live in the cold Northeast, so I had to return to my hometown with a family of 7.

In order to take care of him, the village made him a breeder and built him three western houses next to the cow house. Cattle breeders earn seven cents a day, the same as women's labour. The son is young, the wife takes medicine all the year round, and life is extremely difficult.

Fortunately, the four daughters and a son have inherited the tall and good looks of their father and mother, and anyone who sees them has to praise "really handsome". At the same time, this family has a gentle and generous personality, hard-working and kind, plus he has a high seniority, is respected by the whole village, and has a high prestige in the village.

His elder brother Han Decai, whose legs were disabled in the war, married a female nurse who took care of him in a nursing home, and returned to his hometown with his wife and daughter after learning that his younger brother had returned to settle down.

Han Decai has a fixed monthly living allowance, is a non-agricultural household registration, his wife also receives a nursing fee, and he only has a daughter, so in the sixties and seventies, life was relatively easy. He squeezed out a part of his salary every month to help his younger brother, so that Han Defu's family could barely make ends meet.

Han Defu and Youyou's family both live in the house of the brigade, and the two guys live in a compound and often help each other. The health of the second grandfather and the second grandmother was improved under the treatment of Yoyo's father, and when the family couldn't open the pot, they also went to Yoyo's house to borrow a bucket or two of flour for emergency.

Sometimes the family is so anxious that they don't have the money to eat salt and light the fire, and they can't even afford to buy a box of matches for 2 cents, so they wait for the Youyou family to start cooking, and use the shovel to light an open fire and go home as a fire.

However, the children of the second master's family are older, and the Yoyo brothers and sisters are young, so they help watch the children a lot, and even go out to play and hug the Yoyo brothers and sisters.

Yoyo's parents don't work in the production team, and they also help bring back some small things in the team, which saves grandma a lot of things, and grandma often says: "Distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors." ”

"Xiuqin, tomorrow Erni will return to the door, his father-in-law has found a guest (pronunciation: kei, the dialect son-in-law is called a guest), and I have to trouble you to set up a table, you also know the situation at home, so make do with it a little more." ”

Han Defu explained his intentions, his second daughter Osmanthus, married the son of the party secretary of Yuanzhuang Village on the twenty-sixth day of the lunar month a year ago.

"Okay, second master, tell me what you have at home, let's sum it up first. Grandma agreed very happily.

"When Erni got married, half of the ten catties of meat that her mother-in-law brought were left, and half of the meat stuffing dumplings were chopped up for the New Year, and the rest was not willing to eat. Chinese New Year's Eve killed a chicken, and more than twenty eggs, the team divided five pounds of oil a year ago, and exchanged sesame seeds for two taels of sesame oil, and a few cabbage turnips, and the eldest brother gave a pound of sugar. The second grandmother told me about the things at home.

"Now the second day of the new year (entertaining) new guests are fashionable eight top eight banquets, eight plates and eight bowls, in order for my second aunt to be able to stand in the in-law's house in the future, we have to make up sixteen dishes. Grandma continued.

"Let's talk about eight plates first, stewed chicken, Sixi meatballs, no fresh fish, I have dried small salted fish at home, and hang it on the paste to make a fried charred fish. Sugar vegetables are made into frying oil (fatty meat puree and egg white are made into balls, fried into hollow balls in oil, and white sugar is hung on the outside, sweet and crispy, very delicious), glazed bun (white bun cut into square strips and fried, and boiled sugar juice is hung outside, crystal clear, crispy and sweet). Cold vegetables to make cold cabbage hearts, sweet and sour white radish. If you are still one left, you can make an egg-wrapped meat with eggs. Grandma counted as she said, wrenching her fingers.

"Eight bowls are enough, braised pork, fried crispy pork, slippery pork, meatballs, radish balls, kelp, golden needles, cabbage vermicelli, enough. ”

Youyou looked at her grandmother's eyes full of stars, and she was super impressed, so much of Grandma Leng made up a big table that sounded more high-grade.

"I didn't buy kelp or gold needles at home. The second grandmother whispered, a little embarrassed.

"Second grandma, I have kelp and gold needles to use first, and I also have some broken tea leaves for you. Grandma said cheerfully.

"How embarrassing is this, please help me and let you build things. Xiuqin, the second master accepts your love. Han Defu's excited voice changed tone.

"Second master, you always say this, let's be neighbors, you usually help my family. ”

"Xiuqin, when do you see when you start doing it?" the second master asked grandma.

"Second master, we have to start preparing meat dishes now. Wanying, you go to the kitchen and get dried fish, kelp, and golden needles. After grandma finished ordering, she followed the second master to his house