The ancients said: It is easy to go from thrift to luxury, and it is difficult to go from luxury to thrift. However, he had only eaten coarse tea and light rice for ten days, and because he had eased his mind, Dong Xiaoman couldn't help but be depressed.

At first, it was because Wei'er was arguing all day long, the food was small in oil and water, and the dishes were monotonous, and later developed into not being able to eat the coarse sorghum rice.

Erlang's side of the matter is clear, and the prisoners over there need to go down to the mine to open a gold mine. At that time, the safety measures were almost non-existent, and landslides were common.

Following Dong Xiaoman's instructions, Wei Chi found the steward there and handed over thirty taels of silver, saying that it was money for running errands for distant relatives. When the man got the money, he naturally happily arranged a good position for Erlang, and the man cooked for all the prisoners.

So many people need to eat, and only two or three people cook, of course it's very tiring. And those who can enter the room are some old, weak, sick and disabled, so this meal is basically made by Erlang himself.

Cook just cook, the long winter is warm and not life-threatening. Dong Xiaoman knows the importance of long-term fishing for big fish, and it is natural to simmer slowly on low heat to give money to others.

After a dog day, Dong Xiaoman began to worry about storing food for the winter. The food grown by the families here is self-sufficient, and it is impossible to sell it to them.

Dong Xiaoman gave full play to the experience when he first separated from Erlang, and commanded Wei Chi and Da Ma to weed in the weedy back vegetable garden.

"At this time, it is impossible to grow vegetables, so we can only focus on radishes, cabbage, green onions, sweet potatoes, which are frozen vegetables. Erya and I went to the nearby hillside to pick some mushrooms and fungus to eat for the winter. ”

Wei'er sticks to his mother all day long, and she is afraid that her mother will disappear in front of her eyes everywhere. A few years of life in Liaodong made Wei'er one of the three children, filial to the point of almost perverted. Of course, that's all for later. While picking mushrooms, Dong Xiaoman got acquainted with several rural women.

The women were very curious about outsiders. Zhilu said that because he was too honest in business, he was kicked out of his hometown, and everyone sympathized with him. See that they don't have any fresh vegetables. There are also people who give Dong Xiaoman some vegetables that he can't eat at home.

In their words: "I can't eat all the crops I grow at home, and even if I don't give you the leftovers, they are all old cucumbers and old eggplants, and you can only beat the seeds." ”

As for Wei'er Zhang Luo's meat, Dong Xiaoman is no longer worried. Although it is not far from the sea, there are mountains and rivers, and there are pheasants and ducks to eat.

At this time, it is not comparable to the later generations, and you can turn out a nest of wild duck eggs in a mountain haystack casually. Stir-fry and eat, spread out, fried poached eggs and eat as you like. Of course, the locals are not uncommon to see these things, and they don't even look at them when they walk by.

After the vegetable garden was prepared, Erlang's husband's living arrangements were completed, and Dong Xiaoman started a new plan.

In addition to going up the mountain every day to chop wood, chop firewood, and carry water, Wei Chi is left to take care of the family and the hospital. Ma took Wei'er to run around the mountains, and every day he could bring back two pheasants, ducks, hares, and a lot of eggs and duck eggs.

The courtyard is covered with all kinds of mushrooms that Dong Xiaoman and Er Yacai came back. There are also large chunks of flesh that have been cut off. On the fence there were huge sea fish that Wei Chi had brought back from the fisherman on the beach, and the flesh of the shellfish had been dried and thrown on a clean cloth.

Dong Xiaoman's master bedroom is connected to the front hall, and beautiful shells have long been hung to decorate. Except for the staple food that is not yet ready, it seems that everything is in place.

"Mother, what are you doing?" Wei'er saw that after eating, Dong Xiaoman was still busy in the kitchen, and the cleaned vegetables were placed in pots and pots, and I didn't know what to do again.

"I, the sixth aunt brought me a lot of dishes, and I am old if I can't finish eating. My mother is going to make some pickles and pickle them for the winter. "Dong Xiaoman is going to do a lot of things. Sour cucumber, garlic eggplant, leek flowers, sweet and sour garlic, pickled celery leaves.

This is still the pickles that have been prepared for the past two days, Dong Xiaoman asked Wei Chi to go to Liaozhou City to buy several jars, stout small floor tanks and two large water tanks the same size as the usual draft.

When Wei Chi bought the cylinder. To be honest, I'm really happy to kill that boss, few people will buy so many cylinders.

The cost of sweet and sour garlic is actually very high, because no one will grow so much garlic at once. But what Dong Xiaoman is worried about is that they are new to this cold place, and it is a good thing to eat more garlic to sterilize and resist cold in winter, so they must eat it.

Fortunately, garlic does not take a long time to grow, and a little soil can grow if you drop a little garlic cloves. As for leek flowers, it's time for the leeks to grow thick and shape-like and start flowering. It is necessary to wait until this leek flower has just broken the flower bones and has not bloomed, and there are no flower seeds, and it is officially opened.

Dong Xiaoman cut off all the leek flowers and took the part of the flowers. Rinse with water, soak in salt water for a while to remove the moisture and then dry.

After drying, chop the leek flower with a kitchen knife, add an appropriate amount of salt, put some minced ginger and mix it with a little. Then put a large pot of leek flowers into a washed and dry tank.

Sour cucumber and garlic eggplant need to be steamed in the pot, in order to facilitate Dong Xiaoman, prepare two large pots to be steamed together on a fork.

Now wash the cucumber and cut it into pieces, add an appropriate amount of salt, sugar, vinegar, rice vinegar and a few bay leaves to marinate for a while.

Taking advantage of this effort, Dong Xiaoman and Erya hurriedly washed the eggplant and removed the roots and leaves that pricked their hands. After finishing these, the cucumbers are almost pickled.

Put the eggplant and cucumber in two large pots and start steaming. After the pot is boiled, the pickled cucumbers are placed directly into the small floor jar. Eggplant, on the other hand, needs to be cut from the middle one by one. Put salt, chopped coriander, ginger and garlic evenly into the eggplant, and then put it in a small jar and cover it.

Compared with the most troublesome sweet and sour garlic, after dinner, Dong Xiaoman decided to get the pickled celery leaves in one go.

There are two large pots of garlic soaked in the kitchen, which are used to marinate the next day. Wei Chi saw the two large pots of garlic, and saw Dong Xiaoman cutting so many celery and couldn't help but be speechless: "All the celery in the yard has been pulled?" ”

Erya said: "Those celery can't be old anymore, if you don't eat it, it's wasted." ”

"Then you have made too much, don't you have a lot of cabbage, radishes and sweet potatoes in the five jars of pickles? What an abundance this winter has been! Wei Chi sighed, thinking that the woman was really making a fuss.

Erya wanted to refute Wei Chi, but was stopped by Dong Xiaoman, shook his head and smiled: "He doesn't know that half of these things are left after pickling, and besides, we will give some of these to our neighbors." ”

Erya immediately said: "That's right, it's up to them to eat one by one." That's all I dread and starved to death. ”

After the celery is blanched, Dong Xiaoman cuts the celery stalks and chops the celery leaves. Celery stalks are salted in the usual way, and when it is time to eat, water is used several times to remove the salty taste. Then put some sesame oil, sugar, and diced carrots and mix it coldly.

Celery leaves are nutritious, just add a little salt. It doesn't get any better pickles than this.

There is only a little left after the celery leaves are done, and a jar can be completely filled.

Wei Chi and Dama buried the four earth tanks of pickled cucumbers, garlic eggplants, celery stalks, and leek flowers into the ground. The celery leaves are left in the kitchen and allowed to develop naturally.

After a night's rest, Dong Xiaoman began to make sweet and sour garlic the next day. Drained garlic is full and appetizing. Put the garlic in the jar, put in a layer of garlic and spread a layer of salt, and start to add water when it is half a jar, and fill it up.

Then pour the garlic and brine into another clean empty jar every day for three days. After three days, the pickled garlic is dried and poured into a washed vat when it is half dry. Pour in the sweet and sour sauce that has been adjusted, because Wei'er prefers sweetness, Dong Xiaoman's sugar is added more than before.

After preparing these, Dong Xiaoman began to toss her air-dried chicken again after resting for a few days.

It is said that there are many pheasants in the mountains, and Dong Xiaoman can't finish eating them at home, so he thinks about making those roosters that don't lay eggs into air-dried chickens.

This air-dried chicken is said to have been around since the Three Kingdoms period, and it is very particular about not getting wet when it is killed. After bloodletting, the hair does not fade, and an opening is made directly from the anus, and all the internal organs are pulled out and thrown away.

Dong Xiaoman fried a handful of salt on the hot pan, and the amount of salt was not too much, but he put some pepper and peppercorns to adjust the taste. Then spread the seasoning evenly over the chicken's body. Put more where the meat is thick, and less where there is less meat.

After making it, it is marinated in a dry kitchen for a day and a night, and then hung outside to be exposed to the sun, and when it rains, it will be withdrawn from the vent of the kitchen.

After finishing these, Dong Xiaoman seemed to be as tired as he used to make dim sum and rush to the market. But looking at the bunches of mushrooms, neatly cut dried salted fish, and air-dried chicken hanging high in the kitchen, Dong Xiaoman actually had a sense of steadiness.

Maybe he was born a foodie, and he didn't have this kind of satisfaction when he had a lot of money in his pocket. Only when you see the food prepared by yourself in your kitchen can you have a sense of relief that you can sleep peacefully in winter.

Wei Chi brought back a small amount of rice, a small amount of white flour, millet, buckwheat noodles, sorghum rice, and sorghum noodles from the city of Liaozhou. Dong Xiaoman was very relieved that Wei Chi didn't buy the sorghum directly, and their group really didn't know how to use the grinding disc.

The day of the winter solstice is an important day, indicating that the beginning of winter also indicates that their group of people has really begun the difficult life in Liaodong.

Early in the morning, Dong Xiaoman asked Wei Chi and Da Ma to dig up the pickled cucumbers, garlic eggplants, leek flowers, and spicy cabbage and salted radishes that were buried in the ground.

This head Erya began to mix noodles and prepare to wrap soba dumplings. And this dumpling filling is made of celery that Dong Xiaoman made before, and he wrapped some more because he wanted to send some to the old Zou village chief.

Because celery has been marinated for too long, it has to be soaked several times to remove the saltiness. Erya was here and noodles, and Dong Xiaoman began to chop the meat stuffing.

After wrapping the celery, pork and buckwheat dumplings, Dong Xiaoman put a big bowl in a big bowl and handed it to Erya. He handed Wei Chi a jar of leek flowers and a jar of pickled cucumbers and asked them to send them to the village chief.

After everyone finished eating, the sun was shining warmly, Dong Xiaoman beckoned Wei Chi to hand him a bunch of things: "This food box is full of frozen dumplings that I wrapped with Erya a few days ago, as well as a boiled air-dried chicken. A pot of old wine and a jar of snacks to accompany you, you go and give it to the warden Cui. Regardless of whether we can see Erlang or not, let's at least worship this Lafayette first. (To be continued.) )