Chapter 126 Making money behind closed doors (please subscribe, please vote)
On the morning of New Year's Eve, Li Xiang once again rode his tricycle to the county town to buy new year's goods.
For buying wine, writing brushes, couplets, firecrackers and fireworks yesterday, he went to the nearest town. Because these things are available in the town. But today, he needed to buy some ingredients for his family that he didn't usually eat, so he had to go to the county town.
After all, the supplies and varieties in the county are more abundant. In some large aquatic products stores, you can buy king crabs, Boston lobsters, etc. There are also many wealthy people in the county. Normally, the sales of these ingredients are not very good, but during the Chinese New Year, demand exceeds supply and prices begin to rise.
Maybe for some people in seaside cities, they are tired of eating seafood at ordinary times, so they want to switch to some inland specialties during the New Year. But Sichuan Province is inland, so it is necessary to get some seafood during the New Year.
In addition to king crab and Boston lobster, Li Xiang also bought salmon, sea cucumber, scallops, oysters, turbot, swimming crab, abalone, and razor clams.
After coming back, just processing these ingredients will take a lot of effort. Grandma is older, and she has never cooked these dishes and is not good at handling them. Fortunately, my sister-in-law and cousin came early.
My sister-in-law knew that Li Xiang might be too busy by herself, and she was too embarrassed to come over to eat ready-made food, so at ten o'clock in the morning, she and her cousin arrived on a battery car. My sister-in-law didn't come empty-handed, and specially brought two bottles of good wine.
It was given to her by someone else, but she has never been willing to drink it, so she brought it over to share it today.
In fact, my sister-in-law likes drinking, and she drinks a lot. After all, she has always been in sales, and sometimes she has a lot of social activities.
Let’s not even mention how difficult it is for a woman to be in sales. But there is no way, these years are really not easy for orphans and widowers.
My sister-in-law is very skilled in cooking and can also make these things, so she has become the main force in processing ingredients.
As for the cousin, forget it. He chats with grandma and helps out. The cousin has yellow hair and is eloquent, but he feels a bit "distanced" when he meets Li Xiang.
Li Xiang laughed: "I won't hit you, what are you afraid of?"
Cousin: "My mother said you might teach me a lesson."
My sister-in-law laughed like a goose: "You took it seriously when I was joking. This kid...is older than the New Year. Even if your cousin wants to teach you a lesson, he has to wait until the New Year is over!"
Li Xiang thought for a while and said seriously: "You all walk your own road. Everyone has his own destiny. Now that you are so old, you should also think about your own life. If you need help in the future, Just mention it, as far as our relationship is concerned, we are not outsiders.”
My sister-in-law urged: "Why are you standing there, why don't you thank your cousin quickly?"
My cousin quickly said: "Thank you, thank you brother!" Then he went to the kitchen to accompany grandma.
The sister-in-law glanced at her son's back and whispered to Li Xiang: "He usually doesn't listen to other people's words, including mine, but I feel that he listened to your words this time, Xiao Xiang."
"Just listen to it. We're celebrating the Chinese New Year. Let's not talk about this. Sister, what should I do with the black stuff on the abalone?"
It's okay to eat those black stains, but if you don't clean them off, they will affect the taste and the appearance of the dishes, thus affecting your appetite.
"Soak in warm salt water and brush vigorously, or apply a little starch and brush again. Just brush it clean. If you can't brush it off, just cut it off with scissors." My sister-in-law instructed.
In fact, Li Xiang doesn't know how to prepare many ingredients. At the end of the previous life, nuclear pollution was everywhere and there were terrifying monsters in the sea, so basically no one ate seafood. Before the end of the world, he had not been doing well and had never eaten.
It's not that I can't afford it. Small abalone is quite cheap. Small Boston lobster weighs about a pound. Fresh ones only cost one or two hundred. I just don't have the mood to get those things. Young people are out there. When I'm wandering, I just have to deal with eating casually. Most of the time I'm too lazy to do anything, so I just eat Chinese fast food outside or make a bowl of fried noodles at a roadside stall.
Open the fire yourself and make some simple home-cooked dishes.
Maybe because of too much pressure?
In modern society, especially in big cities, the pace of life is very fast. Every day we go to and from work, and everyone has an invisible shackles on their heads. Men, in particular, have to stand out and work hard, so there is no spare time to enjoy various rituals.
Therefore, some people suggest that you can prevent depression by spending a little more money and buying cheap, useless things that can make you feel happy.
While working hard, it is very important to slow down the pace, relax your mind, and please yourself, whether it is now or in the future, no matter at any time, even if the sky falls.
At noon, grandma cooked noodles and everyone ate some together. Including kittens, foxes, and dogs, they all eat noodles.
Of course, it's not plain noodles. The kitten has small dried fish, and the dog and fox have large pieces of stewed meat.
While my sister-in-law and grandma were busy in the kitchen, Li Xiang and his cousin took the time to put up all the couplets, characters for blessing, door gods, etc. There is a large bucket of homemade paste in the kitchen.
After posting there were still more, Li Xiang took them to the third wife's house and helped her post the couplets and door gods.
"Third Wife, would you like to have New Year's Eve dinner at my house later?" Li Xiang invited.
"Thank you, thank you," the third wife declined and said happily, "My little girl said she would take me to her house to celebrate the New Year."
"That's great." Li Xiang gave a thumbs up.
Go back and continue to help my sister-in-law cook.
The four members of the family were busy until about five o'clock in the afternoon, and a large table full of delicious food was finally completed.
There are a total of eighteen dishes, including three small red clay hot pots. The other cooked dishes are also placed in the steamer to keep them warm, so when they are brought out, they are all steaming hot.
And most of them are made in Sichuan style, spicy and delicious.
They are: Sichuan King Crab, Polong Mapo Tofu, Braised Pork Trotters and Abalone, Salmon Sashimi (with Wasabi Soy Sauce), Oyster and Green Pepper Omelette, Steamed Turbot, Spicy Swimming Crab Fried Rice Cake, Red Chili Garlic Vermicelli Scallops, Snow-skimmed white corn stewed chicken soup, winter bamboo shoots and old duck stew, Sixi meatballs symbolizing "reunion, happiness, wealth and longevity", and stewed vegetable platter (Braised beef, beef louvers, small braised eggs, pork belly, pig ears, sausage, dried fragrant seeds, lotus root, kelp), crispy pork with chili and cumin, stir-fried cauliflower meat in a dry pot, boiled prawns, razor clam heart (razor clam) and asparagus), chestnut braised pork ribs, Jinyumantang (green round peas, golden corn kernels, diced orange carrots, and tender green goose rice beans in the shell, stir-fried together).
The Snow-skirted White Rhizome in the chicken soup is naturally a first-class exotic herb. Li Xiang got it by going to the back mountain and cutting down several Golden Thunder Bamboo plants. And the chickens are also real free-range chickens raised by ourselves, the kind that can fly. Chickens in rural areas, especially those in mountainous areas like Li Xiangjia's, can basically fly. For example, the big rooster with red crown and colorful feathers sometimes flies to a high tree and crows towards the sun.
Other roosters and hens will also climb the tree.
Therefore, when some city people come to the countryside and see chickens hanging on the trees, they are so surprised that they open their mouths from ear to ear.
Some ducks and geese can even fly hundreds of meters in one breath.
But these chickens, ducks and geese all know their home and will come back when it gets dark.
In the previous life, after Grandma Li Xiang passed away, some of the chickens and ducks in the family still stayed, and they were probably eaten by relatives later, but some of them were very smart. Under the leadership of the rooster, they fled to the mountains and became pheasants and wild ducks. Some of them lived until the end of the world, and then they had the opportunity to mutate.
There are still some elixirs in Li Xiang's system warehouse that are not used to make wine, but the delicious ones have basically been eaten up. The remaining ones have a more or less bitter or strong medicinal taste and are not suitable for adding to dishes because they will affect the taste. The taste of the dishes, and grandma and the others are ordinary people, eating too much is not good for the body.
There are eighteen dishes, filling a big table.
In fact, there is no final conclusion on the dishes of the New Year's Eve dinner. Some places pursue eight bowls, ten bowls or twelve bowls, and choose an auspicious number, usually an even number, which means good luck and reunion. But now that living conditions are better, if there are many people If so, you can do more. Well, eighteen is also a lucky number.
Southerners don’t eat dumplings during the Chinese New Year.
Check out the 16-9 book bar and see the correct version!
For southerners, dumplings are convenience foods when they have nothing to eat, such as quick-frozen dumplings. Or make it at home, keep it in the refrigerator, and adjust it occasionally.
Northerners have a saying: "Who doesn't eat dumplings during the Chinese New Year?"
There is also a saying in the south: "Who eats dumplings during the Chinese New Year?"
Therefore, every year during the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, there is a program about making dumplings and eating dumplings in the sketches. Southerners said that they did not understand and did not resonate with it, so fewer and fewer people watched it.
Li Xiang took a plate of "100,000-ring" firecrackers with a diameter of one meter, and a large box of 88 high-altitude fireworks bombs (1.5-inch straight tube). Together with his cousin, he lit them in the vestibule, crackling and bright. Radiating, deafening.
That momentum is the first in the village, which is very exciting.
It's actually not expensive, just over a thousand in total. There are also cheaper ones, but the ones Li Xiang bought were of better quality. During the Chinese New Year, he was afraid of squibs. It would be unlucky if it breaks halfway.
Fortunately, I finished the frying in one go, then I came in, closed the door, and started eating.
There is no need to close it tightly, just cover it slightly and leave a small gap. This is called "making money behind closed doors"! As for tomorrow morning, there will also be cannons fired early in the morning. That is "opening the door with cannons", which is called "opening the door to auspiciousness"!
My sister-in-law opened the good wine she had brought and poured it for both Li Xiang and grandma. As for the cousin, forget it.
It's not that his sister-in-law doesn't allow him to drink, but that he has to ride a scooter when he goes home at night, and he has to take his sister-in-law with him. Is it safe to drink?
Fortunately, Li Xiang came back with coke and juice in the morning, so his cousin gave him coke instead of wine.
Li Xiang's spiritual wine was too rich in spiritual power and not suitable for ordinary people, so he didn't take it out.
My sister-in-law drinks very measuredly and drinks well, but she drinks almost as much as possible. She never gets extremely drunk. When she is outside, if she really can't resist, she will pretend to be drunk and then find an opportunity to escape.
After all, your body is yours.
"Xiao Xiang, no one can match your drinking capacity! You are better than your master. Come on, I wish you find the one you love as soon as possible. Cheers!"
"Mom, I also wish you good health, stronger and stronger year by year, and longevity!"
With my sister-in-law here, the atmosphere at the wine table would not be dull, and everyone had a great time.
Even the dog and the fox came in and asked for a small bowl of wine. The little fox became more energetic as he drank, while Erhuang was as weak as ever. He only took a few sips and started to walk unsteadily.
The pets had a pretty good meal tonight.
Halfway through the meal, Jiang Cai'er came.
After finishing her meal at her home, she wanted to sneak over to see what the New Year's Eve dinner at brother Li Xiang's house would be like tonight. She arrived just in time, and there were still many dishes left untouched, so she ate again.
Although her own family's New Year's Eve dinner was good, Uncle Jiang and Aunt Jiang were used to being frugal, and it really wasn't as sumptuous as Li Xiang's family.
Li Xiang did not give her a drink, but handed her a can of coconut juice. With Jiang Caier joining in, the atmosphere at the dinner table became more lively.
After dinner, it was already dark. Grandma asked my sister-in-law and the others to go back early, and told cousin Li Xiang to ride slower.
Originally, my sister-in-law wanted to help clean up before leaving, but Li Xiang said: "No, no, I will do it."
The children in the village also came out. Li Xiang took out a large number of fireworks and set them off with Jiang Cai'er, attracting all the children.
Li Xiang had bought a lot before, and now everyone was given a Gatling gun. They all held it together and pointed at the open space, "Boooooo~" and fired in a volley. It felt like thousands of arrows bursting out, like the Rocket Army. .
It’s better to have fun alone than to have fun together. Fireworks are free tonight. I won’t just make iron flowers, it’s too troublesome, but fireworks are convenient, fast, and relatively safe.
Especially Jiang Cai'er, holding the largest Gatling in her arms, leading everyone and giving orders like a child king. Li Xiang didn't play it himself. He recorded the video with his mobile phone and will post it on his self-media account later!
(End of chapter)