At the New Year's Eve reunion dinner, the whole family happily sits around the table, eating, drinking and chatting.
Although there were no TV programs or even radios in these days, the family felt very happy and lived a happy and satisfying life.
The children loved eating these delicious foods and basically didn’t touch the staple food.
Sheng Liancheng and Sheng Xiping drank three glasses of wine, and then stopped drinking. How can you just drink if you don't eat so many good dishes and rice?
This meal took a little longer, and I finally finished it at five o'clock.
When everyone was full, Sheng Xiping did not let his mother move. Instead, he led his younger brothers and sisters to clear the table together.
Then Sheng Yunfang and Sheng Yunfei washed the dishes and put away the pots. Sheng Xiping found the meat with minced stuffing and chopped it out first.
There is a bathhouse in the forest farm. Mr. and Mrs. Sheng Liancheng took a bath on the day they went down the mountain. People in the Northeast seldom bathe that frequently in cold weather, so there is no need to bathe during the Chinese New Year.
As for the others, they all found time to go to the bathhouse in the past few days.
This shows the difference between a forestry farm and an agricultural cooperative. If you switch to an agricultural cooperative, if you don’t have this condition, you have to boil water at home.
Not to mention the inconvenience, it is not as comfortable as washing in a big bathhouse.
After mincing the meat filling, chop the vegetables. New Year’s Eve dumplings are usually made with cabbage and radish mixed together.
The main reason is that the cabbage is too watery, so add some blanched shredded radish to make the dumplings filling. This prevents the filling from becoming watery and staining the curtains if it takes a long time to wrap.
In the past, there was also a saying that radish is called radish, which is homophonic to Laifu, and cabbage is homophonic to Baicai.
Using these two vegetables to make dumplings on New Year's Eve has a good meaning.
Nowadays, we are no longer allowed to pay attention to these things, and everyone does not mention it, but some customs have still remained.
After the meat and vegetables are chopped, the rest of the work is no longer in the hands of Sheng Xiping. Zhang Shuzhen has to prepare the stuffing herself.
Anyway, it was still early, so Zhang Shuzhen was not in a hurry and went to mix the noodles first and then adjust the stuffing.
On New Year's Day, the forest farm provides power all night.
At around seven o'clock, Zhang Shuzhen mixed the dumpling fillings, kneaded the dough, placed the board on the south kang, and started making dumplings with her daughter.
Sheng Xiping's dumpling making skills are average, but he can help roll out the dumplings.
As for Sheng Liancheng, he led Sheng Xian, Sheng Xikang and others to fry melon seeds, pine nuts, hazelnuts and so on.
Why do you have to wait until New Year’s Eve to fry melon seeds? Can’t you just fry them a few days in advance and leave them there?
One reason is that there are a group of monkey children at home, and those nuts are their favorite.
If you fry it in advance, I'm afraid it will be eaten by these monkey children secretly before the New Year's Eve.
Nowadays, melon seeds are also a rare thing. I plant a dozen or twenty of them in my vegetable garden, just to keep them for the Chinese New Year and fry them for guests, but then they are gone after eating them.
Pine nuts and hazelnuts can be sold for money, and they have to be given away, so I can't keep much of them at home.
If you let your children eat in advance, what should you do if you have a guest at home?
Another reason is, where should I put it after frying it in advance?
There are no plastic bags in these days. At most, you can just find a cloth bag to put it in and put it in a cupboard. It is easy to get damp and the skin of the melon seeds will be damaged.
Most Northeastern people put them in cloth bags and put them under the kangqin at the edge of the kang. Because the kang has heat, the melon seeds will not become damp or peel when they are roasted.
But one thing is that nuts are rich in oil and are prone to cracking if left in a hot place.
So most people fry melon seeds and other things on New Year's Eve.
It happened to be fried and I had nothing to do, so I grabbed two handfuls and chatted while sipping to prevent me from getting sleepy.
Eating dumplings lasts until midnight, and most people can't stay up. If you have something to eat, you can still feel energetic.
A family of eight eats together, and dumplings are made together on the morning of New Year's Eve and the first day of the Lunar New Year. These dumplings are definitely indispensable.
Finally, now that the children are older, Sheng Yunfang and Sheng Yunfei can help wrap them, and Sheng Xiping can roll them out.
In the past, when the children were young, just to keep the couple together would have to be done until very late.
At about half past ten, the dumplings were wrapped, leaving two curtains to be taken to the warehouse outside and covered with clean white cloth. These were reserved for cooking tomorrow morning.
Place the remaining curtains on the kitchen counter or on the pot table to boil water to cook dumplings later.
"Lao Sheng, let's cook the dumplings earlier, don't wait until twelve o'clock.
The boss hasn't had a good rest since he came back from the mountain. He cooked dumplings early and after dinner it's time to go to bed.
Tomorrow morning, those little buddies of his are not allowed to come over to pay New Year greetings?" Zhang Shuzhen looked at the clock on the wall and asked Sheng Liancheng.
Before leaving, Sheng Lian Chengdu requested that the dumplings be cooked at half past eleven and eaten at twelve.
But in the past two years, I don’t care much about those rules anymore. Isn’t it the same when I eat?
It's okay to eat early. After eating, play with the dumplings for a while to digest before going to bed.
"Okay, I'll do as you say." Sheng Liancheng nodded and agreed.
Just like that, Zhang Shuzhen called Sheng Xi'an and the others to grab firewood and lit the stove in the east to boil water.
The firewood used to cook dumplings during the Chinese New Year is specially prepared.
Find a smooth, dry birch tree and split it into thin, even strips.
This kind of firewood burns very vigorously and cooks dumplings quickly, and the cooked dumplings are delicious.
It is a big pot and there are many dumplings. If the fire is not strong, the dumplings will be soaked in the water. In the end, the skin of the dumplings will lose their gluten, and the dumplings will not taste good.
When the water in the pot was boiling, Zhang Shuzhen held the lid and put the dumplings into the pot, shouting to Sheng Liancheng, "It's time to put the dumplings, let's set off the firecrackers."
When Sheng Liancheng heard this, he quickly took out a five-hundred-ring firecracker from under the kangqin.
He led his sons out of the house, hung the firecrackers on the clothesline outside, and lit the fuse with a match.
In the Northeast, most people are like this. The firecrackers they buy are not placed in the cabinet, but are stuffed under the kangqin.
Most kangqins are placed on the kang's base. Even though it's the kang's base, it's still warm.
Therefore, the firecrackers were heated by the hot kang and did not return to moisture at all. After being lit, they made a crackling sound.
During the Chinese New Year, the louder the noise, the better. Whoever's firecrackers are louder proves whose life is good.
However, these days, most firecrackers only have five hundred, two hundred, or one hundred rings, and there are almost no firecrackers that can ring thousands of times.
And apart from ordinary firecrackers, which are two kickers, there are very few other fireworks.
Anyway, even if there is one, most people can't afford it. They just buy two hanging whips, listen to the noise at night, and go through the process.
The Sheng family does have a lot of kickers, which Sheng Xiping always keeps when hunting.
So at this moment, Sheng Xiping took out ten and led his brothers to play two kickers in the yard.
Then I heard a series of ding and ding explosions in the courtyard of the Sheng family, and the commotion was getting louder.
The two girls, Sheng Yunfang and Sheng Yunfei, did not dare to look in the yard, so they stood at the door of the house, covering their ears.
Sheng Xitai was so courageous that he stood in the yard with his brothers without covering his ears. He just watched the two kicks explode and kept clapping and jumping up and down.
"It's so fun, brother, let's play another one, play another one."