In the past, the Spring Festival was an extremely important day for rural people, regardless of whether they had money or not, for the sake of face, they had to prepare a few tables of good meals to entertain guests, relatives and friends.

Therefore, for those who are nervous and do not have much savings, the closer to the Spring Festival, the more difficult life will be? I am worried that a creditor will come to the door and make it difficult to live a bad year.

Every year after the twenty-third year of the lunar month, even if the New Year begins in the countryside, from this day on, the people in the village have to hold meetings to prepare all kinds of food during the festival. For example, during the Chinese New Year, the fried cake that is necessary for your own home, every household will fry a little bit more or less, and keep it for your family to eat during the New Year.

There are also fried chiko, stewed pork, fish stew, stewed chicken and other large dishes that are used to entertain guests, all of which need to be prepared in advance, and when the guests come, they can be served directly by heating it up.

Because some dishes or meals are cumbersome, labor-intensive and time-consuming, many families have to be busy from the 23rd day of the lunar month, and they have to prepare all kinds of food every day. For example, fried cakes are soaked in water for sticky or glutinous rice, usually overnight, and then the rice is ground into noodles the next day.

The filling of the fried cake is generally filled with bean paste, the red beans are cleaned and boiled in the pot until they are soft and rotten, and then they are made into bean paste and added to brown sugar to make the filling, wrapped in sticky noodles, and fried in a hot oil pan until the appearance is golden and crispy.

This thing not only relieves hunger, but also relieves hunger, and is one of the essential foods for farmers to celebrate the Spring Festival in the past. Before this time, every household has to fry a few pots, which can be eaten for more than half a month. Of course, these are the delicacies of the family who can't be served.

In addition to this, there is also a delicacy that is also one of the must-have holiday delicacies for every household at this time.

Frozen tofu, a delicacy that every household in the north has to prepare for the Spring Festival. Taking advantage of the special climate in the north, the purchased tofu is cut into small pieces and placed outdoors, and the water of the tofu is condensed at a low temperature, and the whole piece of tofu is densely covered with small holes to make delicious frozen tofu.

Frozen tofu is usually mixed with other vegetables. Generally, the incoming goods are Chinese cabbage put in the pot to boil, thinking that the dense holes on its body are particularly flavorful after stewing, and are deeply loved by men, women and children.

But. Since Wangjiazhuang began to become wealthy, many traditions have slowly undergone some changes, for example, because they are busy taking care of the family's greenhouse, many people have to wait until the last few days of the year, after the last batch of vegetables are harvested, they start to have time to work their own men.

And. Nowadays, everyone will no longer prepare too many ingredients before the year, especially all kinds of fresh vegetables, because every household has a greenhouse, and no one will go crazy to buy all kinds of vegetables at the last big market of the year.

In the past, when the living conditions were not too good, when relatives were invited to eat during the New Year, there would be few fresh vegetables except for the fixed big fish and chicken meatballs. Hearty turnips, onions. Fungus, bean sprouts, carrots, mushrooms, and sauerkraut are just about all the vegetables that can be taken at a banquet, and there are all kinds of fresh vegetables like now.

Looking at the present, people in the village do not need to go out of the village, and even go around in a few greenhouses in their own homes to gather enough vegetable varieties to renovate a good banquet.

Tomatoes, cucumbers. Eggplant, cauliflower, beans, cabbage. Persimmon peppers, rape, lettuce, celery, etc., some of them are receptive and even make some vegetables from the south to open the eyes of their relatives.

For example, bamboo shoots. Lotus root, broccoli, lettuce, bitter gourd, water chestnut, yam, taro, these vegetables from the south have now become a home-cooked dish in Wangjiazhuang.

However, dishes such as fish stew and meat stew should be prepared in advance. It's just that now in Wangjiazhuang, the people who catch big fish and meat and eat them must be from other villages, because no one in the village will take these as good things.

Now the living standards of the people in the village are increasing with the number on their passbooks, and the requirements for ingredients and the pursuit of healthy diet are also rising.

Eating fish must be sea fish, eating meat must eat local pork without any feed and additives, or simply do not eat pork, and change to beef and mutton. All kinds of prawns, whole elbows, bought roast chicken, and roast duck are also served to the table, and they have become the hottest new dishes for entertaining relatives and friends.

Peanuts and melon seeds are generally grown at home, on the 27th and 8th days of the lunar month, the housewives will do it themselves, fry the fine sand in a big iron pot, put in sunflower seeds or peanuts, and after tirelessly stir-frying again and again, these fried seeds have become the most common snacks to entertain relatives and friends during the New Year.

In the past two years, the villagers have also held meetings to prepare some more novel snacks, such as pistachios from exotic places, hazelnuts, pine nuts, apricot kernels from the northeast, raisins, walnuts, jujubes and so on from the frontier.

The biggest change is the sugar cube, in the past, everyone bought the sugar cube during the festival, most of them were hard fruit candy, and it was rare to see milk candy and halva. But now you look at it, if anyone is full of fruit candy, even a little kid will dare to give you a face, and he won't turn his head and leave.

On a winter morning, the countryside is always shrouded in a gray mist, because of the fire for warmth, and the chimneys of every house will constantly spew smoke out.

The cold wind is mixed with all kinds of aromas, mixed with the cheerful laughter of the little children, as well as the firecrackers and kicks that explode one after another, and the Spring Festival in the countryside has always been so lively.

"Mom, why do you boil so much pork belly? Still so fat? Who's going to eat this? ”

Wang Yong looked at his mother with a shovel and kept turning the pork belly pieces in the big iron pot with a sad face, and was reluctantly picked up by his mother early in the morning, and then saw his favorite fat, Wang Yong's face was bitter.

There is so much meat, my mother and they will go back to the United States after the fifth day of the new year, and it is estimated that they will have to keep it for their grandmother and their group to enjoy, but they and their grandmother are both masters who do not eat fatty meat, who will give so much meat to when the time comes?

"You know! Don't stew meat when you go home for the New Year? When the time comes, you will entertain relatives and friends, and there will be no bowl of this thing, and people will not say that you are not well entertained? ”

Facing his mother's strong reprimand, Wang Yong hurriedly lowered his head and said that he knew he was wrong, but he immediately muttered a sentence when his mother turned around to get the soy sauce bottle.

"However, now that everyone pays attention to diet and health, who still eats this kind of high-cholesterol, oily thing?"

"You talk so much nonsense, I can't eat it, I'll take it to the United States! Hurry up and stew your fish! If you dare to mess me up, see how I serve you! ”

I'm still a kid, okay? Do you want to squeeze people like this? Of course, he only dared to say this secretly in his heart, and if he really wanted to say it, he would cause trouble. This consequence is definitely not what he wants to try.

When I came to the yard, an iron stove that had been set up was burning, and the water in the pot was boiling, and it had already boiled, waiting for Wang Yong to stew the fish. Because he didn't feel that he had a good rest, and because he saw the big pot of stewed meat that made his heart narrow when he came together, Wang Yong didn't have the heart to think about what to do with the fish this time. Simply, just make the simplest fish stew.

Brush the pot, put oil, add green onions, ginger and garlic and stir-fry until fragrant, then add five-spice powder, chili peppers, various spices, add soy sauce, cooking wine, sugar, vinegar, and finally pour in a few scoops of hot water.

Without waiting for the pot to boil, put the whole fish that has been processed and cleaned into the country in turn, then pour beer to remove the smell, add an appropriate amount of salt, and after the pot is boiled, remove the layer of foam on it, cover the pot, simmer slowly, let it slowly gurt in the pot and don't care about it at all.

"What to eat this morning, I'm hungry!"

"The fried cakes that your third aunt just sent, you can make some soup and eat them yourself. By the way, fry two eggs and two hams for Liang, and put bread in him, he is used to getting up early every day to eat like this. ”

Hearing what his mother said, Wang Yong suddenly became interested, and looked at his mother, who was busy stir-frying on the pot table, trying to consume all the fat and oil of the meat in the pot, and asked with great interest:

"By the way, Mom, you've been in the United States for so long, have you learned how many Western dishes?"

"Of course, your mother and I were born to cook, and it didn't take any three days to learn the main Western food practices of their American family!"

"Really? Have you learned all those dishes? ”

"That's a lot! You're like french fries! Fried eggs, fried ham, grilled meat, by the way, I am best at vegetable salad, and my neighbors say that I make the best salad! ”

Looking at his proud mother, Wang Yong couldn't help but spit out: "Isn't it just a cold salad?" What is there to be proud of? Three-year-olds know how to do it once they see it! ”

"What do you say? Say it again? ”

"Well, I remember, I haven't set off firecrackers in the morning." After saying that, Wang Yong escaped from the hall in a wolf manner, came to the courtyard, and hurriedly went straight to the old lady to seek refuge.

As soon as I entered the house, I saw that the old lady was also wearing an apron and was busy preparing food for the Spring Festival. It's just that the thing she prepared is fundamentally different from the locals, and it is an authentic Beijing characteristic.

"Grandma, what are you doing here?"

"Croquettes, fried tofu? These are all essential things for the Chinese New Year in Beijing, come, try it, this is a new croquette, see if it suits your taste? ”

"I'm doing it dry, and I have to fry it several times until the meatballs are crispy. When you eat it, it is dipped in salt and pepper, charred on the outside and tender on the inside, sweet and delicious, but delicious! ”

"By the way, if you are tired of panicking, this pot will be fried later, and grandma will fry some vegetarian balls made of various vegetables for you, grandma liked to eat it most when she was a child!"

Wang Yong lay on the edge of the pot, watching the old lady busy with croquettes, while chatting with his grandmother about the interesting stories of the New Year when she was a child, and the ups and downs of the Spring Festival.

Although the food that used to be eaten only during the Chinese New Year can now be eaten in every household in Wangjiazhuang as long as they want to eat, and even some dishes have the feeling of wanting to vomit when they see it, but when the Spring Festival comes, it is still our most cordial and longing memory, just like the Spring Festival Gala that is not as good as a year. (To be continued.) )

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