Eighty-seven, the Grassland Festival

There are also steamed cakes and fried twist flowers on the twenty-third day of the lunar month, which are also a highlight in the lunar month.

The day before, Tie Daner carried a bag of cake noodles from the grain room home to thaw, and the next day was the twenty-third day of the lunar month, which was the day to send the god of the stove to heaven to return to life, every family had to steam the cake, feed the fried cake and the sugar heart to the god of the stove to eat, and give the god of the stove a sweet mouth, so that God could report the good things and ignore the bad things. There seems to be a suspicion of bribery.

The soup that had been cooked by rubbing carrots was frozen and frozen at a low temperature of minus twenty or thirty degrees outside the house, and then boiled repeatedly to become a honeyy candy heart.

On the twenty-third day of the lunar month, every family starts to powder the cake noodles early in the morning: put the thawed cake noodles into a large aluminum basin, add warm water and mix well with your hands, until you can pinch it into a ball with your hands, and take a little bit to see the softness and hardness of the cake itself before steaming the cake, so as to estimate the amount of water added.

After about an hour, the flour begins to steam, put the powdered cake noodles into the steamer on the boiling water, and when you see the powdered cake noodles become yellow-orange-orange, you will sprinkle them layer by layer, and a few cakes will be steamed out, and it is the cake.

Put the steamed vegetarian cake on a large panel coated with vegetable oil, and the iron egg will wash your hands and prepare to make the cake. Therefore, put a basin of cold water next to it, and put it in cold water from time to time to cool down, and you can't bring cold water into the vegetarian cake, otherwise, the fried cake in the oil pot will become a paste that can't be picked up.

When the vegetarian cake is smooth and fragrant, it is only necessary to pinch the cake and fry it in the oil pan.

The cake should be filled with brown sugar, red bean paste or something, and there is a round slice cake, which is put into a boiling oil pot while it is hot, and all the fried cakes are like snot bubbles coming out of a child, which are fluffy and crunchy, tender on the inside and charred on the outside!

After frying the cake, it's time to fry the twist.

Tie Dan'er's mother has already made the noodles called "fat heads" with the noodle screwdriver for frying twist, and then added milk, eggs, sugar and ghee to the flour, one pound of flour and two fat heads, mixed all kinds of things well, added a small comb, and mixed noodles with cold boiled water. Early in the morning, the noodles that come out are soft and gluteny.

Cut the good noodles into pieces of small agents, sprinkle with vegetable oil, put on the hot kang to wake up for a few hours, when the cake is almost fried, then several people start to rub the twist at the same time, put a mixture between the two hands, while rubbing the noodles in both hands are screwed together, become a twist rope, and then two ends are wrapped, a beautiful twist of three strands is presented in front of you.

Shandan and Gu Haiping also studied together, and after a while, they were rubbed decently, and together with a few relatives from the village who came to help, several people worked at the same time, frying more than 20 twists in one pot, and easily served the progress of the oil pot.

Every year, relatives in the village start to help each other make all kinds of New Year's goods. The family is lively and lively, a scene of saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new, and being happy.

The twenty-third day of the lunar month is also called the small year, and all the gods and immortals will return to heaven to die, and after this day to the Chinese New Year's Eve, these days are the so-called godless days of the grassland people.

Then there is the cleaning on the 26th day of the lunar month, which cleans up all the dust and dust accumulated in the winter.

The earthen houses in the countryside have earthen walls and soil roofs, so you have to pick up the luggage and the furnishings on the kang and put them in the back room, and burn the big charcoal stove.

Wipe the walls and roof with a rag to wipe off the white mud and dust that has been brushed up once.

Dust sows like a sandstorm. Gu Haiping volunteered to wear a mask and hat and wipe it piece by piece, and after wiping a room, the person had become like a snowman.

Gu Haiping went to the courtyard and slapped the white ash on his body vigorously, and the cold wind from Siberia would send the old dust to the sky.

Shandan said that Gu Haiping has a white beard and white eyebrows, like Santa Claus.

Tie Dan'er's mother sprinkled water in the house, and when the dust settled, Gu Haiping began to brush it with clean water under the guidance of Tie Dan'er's mother, and then used the newly prepared white stone powder water to brush the wall, horizontally and vertically, and the wall surface that came out was a neat grid, which was particularly clean and beautiful.

The smell of fresh earth is full of the charm of the new year.

Tiedan'er's mother is very satisfied with this future son-in-law, his meticulous and serious work, as well as his spirit of not being afraid of hardship and tiredness, have left a good impression on her.

After a few contacts, she had given her daughter to him with confidence, and she was confident that he would not let her daughter suffer.

Before the walls dried, Shandan and his mother began to scrub the big red cabinet in the house, the mirrors and picture frames that they had taken down and put out, and the large water tank that could not be moved.

Clean up the qiē and start washing the futon inside.

The grassland people don't know how to use quilt covers, and their bedding is just added to the inside with another layer of cloth to protect it, and it is washed several times a year, dismantled and washed.

The family had as many as eight to ten sets of bedding, or about twenty sheets of cloth to be washed.

Tie Dan'er's mother used a large aluminum kettle to boil several large pots of hot water on the big charcoal stove, and soaked the removed guard with warm water and washing powder.

Shandan and Erlian began to scrub with two large washbasins and corrugated washboards.

One winter was smoky and fire-roasted, and the goori was already very dirty, the water was black and black, and there was a smell of sweat.

First scrub with laundry detergent, then scrub with soap, then wash with water, wash three times, and the water is finally clear.

The dirty Gori finally changed back to her original bright face in the hard scrubbing of the two sisters.

It turned out that the old adobe house, because there was no special kitchen, the big pot head of frying, steaming and cooking was connected to the big kang, and there was no isolation. Sleep and eat in the same room, and it's hard to be clean if you want to.

Therefore, when Tie Dan'er's mother built a brick house for Tie Dan'er, she must ask the nephew who was the foreman to come out of a kitchen alone.

Gu Haiping helped take the cleaned guard to the yard, hang it on a long wire clothesline, and shake it out at home before taking it out.

In an instant, the thin layer of protective cloth placed on the wire was frozen into a thin piece of ice, and it would be glued to it when touched with bare hands.

The colorful and dried guardians in the yard are like colorful flags flying in the wind during the festival. It adds a little festive atmosphere to the year.

On the twenty-eighth day of the wax month, paste the window flowers, and wipe the glass.

When Shandan was a child, he also cut all kinds of beautiful window grilles.

Stack several layers of waxed paper of various colors, put a layer of book paper on top, and staple them together with thread. Then the original pattern is wet with water, pasted on the book paper, and smoked on the fire of a kerosene lamp, and the pattern is presented on the book paper.

Use a pair of small scissors to remove the unblackened parts, and all that remains is the exact same pattern as the original window grille.

Stack wax paper of different colors to get different colors of window grilles.

Shandan is very skillful, there is no special flower cutting scissors at home, she uses a small pair of scissors from her father to cut it, and the window flowers that are cut out are still beautiful. It's just that the looped finger sleeve of the small scissors will make Shandan's ring finger stuck with blood blisters.

The best thing to look at is the rooster singing "Oh, Oh", every feather is vivid.

In the first month, everyone visits the door, and it is inevitable that they will evaluate the window flowers on the window paper of the wooden lattice, and the window flowers of Shandan are often the most beautiful, so some people will come to ask for them. My mother was reluctant to work hard to pick flowers, and would rather put a few fewer windows in her own house and give some to relatives and neighbors.

On the twenty-eighth day of the lunar month, many families began to post Spring Festival couplets.

Tie Dan'er didn't want to post the Spring Festival Lian on the twenty-eighth, and he was worried that the disobedient goat would jump up and down and eat the Spring Lian before waiting for Chinese New Year's Eve.

The paste of the spring couplets is made of boiled flour paste, and the sheep can't climb the wall and can't eat it, but the goats can climb on the roof, and they can't prevent it. Therefore, since the family has raised a few goats, the annual Spring Festival is the Chinese New Year's Eve.

If there is a Chinese New Year's Eve on the 29th of the lunar month, then it can only be posted on the 28th of the Spring Festival, and the mother of the iron egg said that the full moon should not do anything, so no matter how many things are not done on the 29th of the lunar month every year, the family must eat and drink and rest peacefully.

After Shandan went to junior high school, the Spring Festival couplets at home no longer had to be written by others, although Shandan's calligraphy was not very good, and there was no "a little bit like a peach, and a skimming like a knife" as his mother said. But after all, the junior high school students at that time were also considered cultural people in the village, and writing a few Spring Festival couplets should not be shirked.

The most embarrassing thing is that there are neighbors and relatives who come to ask Shandan to bring them to help.

The Spring Festival couplets have been written for many years, and Shandan's calligraphy has still not grown much.

Now, with Gu Haiping here, there is no word in his brush. Shandan had seen countless newspapers he had used to practice calligraphy.

This year's Spring Festival couplets should be proud, and they are no longer the crooked and twisted lines of Shandan. There were a large number of villagers who came here, and even herdsmen from other villages on the grassland took red paper and ink to ask for words.

Therefore, since the twenty-seventh day of the lunar month, Gu Haiping has been writing Spring Festival couplets all the time.

Shandan helped to disassemble the large sheets of red paper into different sizes for different purposes. Gates, doors, cattle and sheepfold doors...... There is also a pair of horizontal batches for each pair of upper and lower pairs.

Gu Haiping splashed ink on the kang table, and the written and unwritten Spring Festival couplets were full of family, and from time to time people came to observe and admire! Tie Dan'er's mother was full of joy and pride.