After sending Lei Bang away, Chen Xin and the second sister blew up the rest and distributed it to the close elders in the village, which was also a favor, hoping that the elders could continue to help take care of the Zhang family next year.

Now the whole village knows that the little sister of the third son of the Zhang family is very good at cooking, especially the children in the village, who can't wait to grow up on the wall of the Zhang family.

Chen Xin is also very good to children, she bought round sand and coarse salt before, asked Brother Zhang to wash it in a big iron basin, put it in the abandoned cauldron, and built an earthen stove next to the courtyard wall, the kind that burns firewood, and then began to fry salt sand. After the salt sand is heated, add vegetable oil and maltose to continue stir-frying, and at the same time, put the cleaned chestnuts in and stir-fry together.

The round sand was originally dark gray, but when it was stir-fried with coarse salt and syrup, it gradually turned black-brown, and when stir-fried with the contents on the shell of the chestnut, it became a black color. But don't look at the color of the sand, the chestnuts fried in this way are the sweetest.

The hard work of frying chestnuts was handed over to Brother Zhang, and Chen Xin only needed to master the heat and taste. Because chestnuts will burst open when heated, they need to be turned frequently when stir-frying, and the chestnuts should not stay in the same position for too long.

After about half an hour, the sweet smell of chestnuts came out, and the chestnut shells were slightly cracked, allowing sugar to penetrate more effectively.

The second sister asked her husband to take one out and peel it off and eat it, her eyes lit up, and she took a bowl out directly, signaling to fill the bowl.

The chestnut is specially bought the kind of iron mesh colander, the eye of the net is not big or small, just enough to let the coarse sand leak down, shake a few times, and the spoon is a clean chestnut.

With the remaining oil from the croquettes just now, more than 20 catties of chestnuts were fried, and Brother Zhang was already tired and sweaty, and he and his second brother-in-law made it a few times.

After the chestnuts are fried, they are packed in a dustpan and wrapped in old cotton wool from top to bottom to keep the temperature from disappearing too quickly.

This kind of sugar-fried chestnut is a famous snack in Beijing and Tianjin, and later it became popular in the north and south of the river, basically as long as it is not a very regional delicacy in the country, it can bloom everywhere.

In addition to stir-fried chestnuts in sugar, Chen Xin also nests in the kitchen and stews chicken with chestnuts.

Just now, when Brother Zhang was cleaning the chestnuts, Chen Xin asked him to help dispose of some chestnuts alone, soak them in warm water to soften, remove the shells, and remove the soft film wrapped around the chestnuts.

Chen Xin removed the feathers and internal organs of the hen that was more than a year old, cut it into large pieces, and blanched it in hot water to remove the blood from the chicken's body.

After that, put water, ginger slices, jujubes and blanched chicken in a tin can. When it is time to boil, add the chestnuts and simmer on a honeycomb coal stove. Basically, it takes more than two hours to make the meat soup thick. So although it is only four o'clock in the afternoon, when the soup is ready, it is time to stir-fry for dinner.

After putting away the things in the kitchen and coming out of the courtyard, I saw that the people sitting in the small half of the courtyard were all old people in the village, and most of them were women. Between them were two small tables, on which rested two bamboo baskets, both wrapped in cotton cloth, containing fried chestnuts.

There are also some little daughters-in-law who sit in the second sister's room and talk to her, and they also have a handful of chestnuts in their hands.

Seeing Chen Xin come out, the second sister made a look at her. Chen Xin nodded, and said that she would go back to the house to change her clothes first, and then come out after packing up.

"Eh, Sister Chen Xin, why don't you just stay, it just so happens that Brother Zhang is not married......"

Before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by the second sister with a tiger face.

"What do you say?" The second sister unceremoniously threw the chestnuts into the bamboo basket, "You love to chew your tongue so much, you go back and chew it, Chen Xin is still studying, what do you say about getting married or not, besides, she is Zhang Zhang's aunt and a relative of our family, you are arranging it like this, do you want to provoke our relationship with Chen Xin and Zhang Zhang?"

The second sister's voice was a little loud, and it was also a good way to show the attitude and position of the Zhang family.

"Second sister, you dissipate your anger, I didn't say anything, what are you anxious about, be careful of the child in your belly. Chen Xin hurriedly pulled the second sister to persuade a few words, and the little daughter-in-law next to her also pulled the second sister Zhang to tell her not to get excited.

Also, if you really have bad intentions, you don't want to match her with Brother Zhang, you must be the kind who wants to cut off your beard. However, Chen Xin also knew that if it weren't for the insight and financial resources she showed that the Zhang family would not dare to underestimate, otherwise she would not have had no intention of marrying Brother Zhang. It's not that the heart of the Zhang family is concerned, but because this is the best for Zhang Zhang, and Brother Zhang can also marry a wife smoothly.

But now it's definitely impossible, Chen Xin is a college student at the provincial university, and he has money to do with it, even the big brother Lei in the county's armed forces department thinks that Chen Xin is a capable person, and their family naturally doesn't even dare to think about it. It's better not to want to, thinking of Zhang Zhang's nephew, Chen Xin won't ignore Zhang Zhang when he is developed, and when Zhang Zhang grows up, he won't ignore his uncle and aunt, so it's good, it's really good.

The voices of the little daughters-in-law also spread outside, and several women who had been a little cautious also extinguished this thought. Originally, they just thought that Chen Xin was diligent and capable, but now that Second Sister Zhang said this, they finally remembered that the other party was still a college student, and they could find someone to collect mountain goods with a phone call, and their relationship network was stronger than that of their village chief. You don't see the few households that are close to the Zhang family, because they have sold mountain goods, they have much more money on hand for the Chinese New Year this year, which is the fundamental reason why the big guys gathered together to talk to the Zhang family.

I felt that I couldn't talk when I stayed there, anyway, Zhang Zhang's little fat man had a lot of fun with the children brought by other families, and he didn't need her to watch, so Chen Xin simply beckoned the little four next door and asked him to take him up the mountain for a walk.

Because Chen Xin can cook a lot of food, and it is all ingredients that are available in the mountains, so the little four children and their half-grown children worship Chen Xin very much, and when they heard Chen Xin's greeting, they directly carried the basket on their backs and led her to the mountains.

They also have to help with household chores, and when they go up the mountain, they can pick up some pigweed and come down, so they don't have to make a special trip.

In addition to Xiao Si'er, there were a few boys and girls who had a good time with Xiao Si'er and they all ran back to bring their equipment, and a group of seven or eight people went up the mountain like this.

"This mountain here is my family and Zhang's family, and the one opposite is Niuniu's family, they have many families and a lot of land, and the mountain over there is smaller, so the north slope is theirs. ”

In addition to the cultivated fields, the mountain land in this village is also contracted to households. Trees are not allowed to be cut down for these two years, so there is no place to use them, except for the trees that have died naturally, which can be cut down and shipped out.