Rebirth in 1970: I work as an educated youth in a forest farm

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. If you don’t eat so many good dishes, how can you just drink wine?

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, and Sheng Liancheng and his wife took a bath on the day they went down the mountain. People in the Northeast rarely bathe that often in cold weather, so they don't 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 large 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. Add some blanched radish shreds to make the dumplings filling. This prevents the filling from getting wet and staining the curtains if the wrapping time is long.

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. Everyone doesn’t mention it, but some customs still remain.

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 adjusted the dumpling fillings, kneaded the dough, placed the panel 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 it a few days in advance and leave it 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 secretly by these monkey children 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 the cabinet. 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 there is one thing. Nuts are rich in oil. If they are kept in a hot place, they will be prone to cracking.

So most people fry melon seeds or something 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 feeling sleepy.

Eating dumplings lasts until midnight, and most people can't stay up. They can still feel energetic if they have something to eat.

A family of eight eats, 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 around 10:30, the dumplings were finished, leaving two curtains to be taken to the warehouse outside and covered with clean white cloth. These were reserved for cooking tomorrow morning.

The remaining curtains are placed 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 it's time to go to bed after dinner.

Tomorrow morning, those little buddies of his can’t come over to pay New Year’s 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 the rules anymore. Isn’t it the same when I eat?

It's okay to eat breakfast. 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 light the stove in the east to boil water.

The firewood used to cook dumplings during the 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 with a lot of 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 families are like this. The firecrackers they buy are not placed in the cabinet, but are stuffed under the kangqin.

Most of the kangqins are placed on the kang's base. Even though it's the kang's base, it's still warm.

Therefore, the firecrackers were roasted by the hot stove and did not become damp at all. After being lit, the firecrackers made a crisp and crisp 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 can only ring five hundred, two hundred, or one hundred times, and there are almost no firecrackers that can ring tens of thousands of times.

And apart from ordinary firecrackers, which are two kickers, there are very few other fireworks.

Anyway, even if there are, most people can't afford them. 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 banging and banging sounds 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 put one more, let's put one more."