Various stir-fried meats, braised meats, smoked meats, and salted meats are mixed with chili peppers, scallions, garlic stalks, and other ingredients to create a flavorful and visually appealing dish.

Sun grew a hotpot. The white radish in the hotpot was from their own garden, plump and crispy.

Let me know if you have any other text you'd like me to translate! ?

To go with the radish, there is beef.

Yang Ruoheng picked up a large pair of chopsticks and scooped the chili sauce into the hot pot, stirring it. In an instant, the carrots and beef in the pot were dyed red by the sauce.

When heated, it produces a cheerful gurgling sound, and hot air and fragrance waft up.

Yang Ruqing picked up a piece of beef that was cut to the perfect thickness and took a look. This beef, in this era, was truly a very high-end ingredient.

The price of one jin of beef is enough to buy more than ten jins of pork.

>This is because it was the agricultural era, and without machines, oxen were the main tool of production.

Take Changping Village as an example. In a village with seventy or eighty households, you could count on one hand the number of families who owned a single cow from beginning to end.

Once upon a time, Old Yang's family worked hard to raise a strong ox. All the fields were tilled thanks to that ox.

And for other families, it's common to see three or four households pooling their money together to buy a cow.

During busy farming season, people are tired, and cows are even more tired.

Day and night, one must cultivate the land without a moment's respite.

There are also more people whose families cannot even afford to buy a cow together, so they rely on themselves for plowing and tilling the land.

>

So, in this era, peasant households killing pigs and chickens for the holidays... cattle, are not easily moved.

Let me know if you have any other text you'd like me to translate! ?

Beef is not usually available in the average marketplace. Of course, this doesn't apply to wealthy households and high society.

This is a mountain village, a rural area, where only the dialect of the folks here is spoken.

Yang Ruqing's chopsticks were currently holding a piece of beef. This beef came from an old yellow ox that several families in the neighboring village had shared before. Due to overwork, it aged prematurely.

It could no longer plow the fields, so the few families got together and sold the old ox to the butcher for some money to get through the New Year.

Originally, Yang Ruqing didn't plan on buying that beef.

>

Why?

She can be shrewd at times, but sometimes she's a bit naive.

It's heartbreaking to think of that old ox, having exhausted the last drop of sweat during its lifetime.

He's dead, this meat still has to be sold for money.

This kind of meat, eating it feels bad in my heart.

The butcher who slaughtered cattle had always wanted to supply Tianxiang Building. So, he sent thirty catties of beef over.

Yang Ruqing was the mistress of the house, and Yang Yongjin was the manager. The butcher bribed both of them.

Yang Ruqing has twenty jin here, and Yang Yongjin has ten jin there.

>

Yang Ruqing originally didn't want it, but seeing Xiao An and Xiao Jie's greedy expressions, she accepted it.

Eating beef in winter is good for your body.

One can only console oneself with the spirit of Ah Q. As livestock are meant to be eaten by humans, and humans, as the apex predators of the food chain, have the right, under the laws of nature, to consume all other inferior creatures.

And if you want to be more superstitious about it, the soul of that old yellow ox has been registered.

Eating meat, it's not a big deal, right? Eat it, eat it, in my past life I wasn't I crazy about eating steak either, no need to be pretentious!

"Wow, this beef stew with carrots smells so good!"

Yang Ruolan also came over and took a deep breath of the fragrance.

Yang Ruqing smiled. Not to mention this big piece of beef and the soft, spicy radish stew, even this pot of thick soup could make her finish two bowls of rice!

Oh, suddenly I feel how pale and helpless humans are in the face of food and instinct.

"Qing'er, didn't I tell you to keep that fish bladder for me? It's right here. What do you want this fish bladder for?"

Sun's voice came over, so Yang Ruohua put down her chopsticks, covered the pot and walked towards Sun.

>

Mrs. Sun was just about to cook the fish, and next to her hand was a long, white fish bladder.

Yang Ruqing picked up the fish bladder and examined it, nodding repeatedly: "I'll get this done right away."

"Qing'er, wouldn't you put this fish maw in the pot with the fish?" Yang Ruolan watched Yang Qing'er holding three eggs in her hand and couldn't help but ask curiously.

Yang Ruqing smiled and said, "Fish maw used to be cooked with fish, but today we're trying a different way."

"What's for dinner?"

"Hehehe, don't say it out loud yet. Lan'er, just look at it."

Yang Ruqing intentionally sold a pass, then rinsed the fish bladder with water again.

Crack three eggs gently on the chopping board, and pour the entire egg liquid into the mouth of the fish bladder. Follow the same procedure for the second and third eggs.

>

Then add a pinch of salt, sugar, garlic and ginger paste inside.

Then, use the pre-prepared fine red silk thread to tie off the entrance of the fish bladder.

Give it a few shakes in your hand to evenly distribute the seasonings.

Then she brought a bowl, placed the tightly bound, plump fish bladder in it, poured some rice vinegar to remove the fishy smell, brushed on a layer of soy sauce, and left it there.

“Is that it?” Yang Rulan asked curiously.

Yang Ruqing said, “How is that possible? It’s still alive. I’ll let it get used to it first, and then its friends will come.”

"What's up, buddies?"

"Dong dong dong... Look here!"

Yang Ruqing took out a plate of big, red dates from the cupboard.

These big red dates clearly had been soaked in water. Yang Ruqing washed her hands and took two toothpicks.

I'll keep one for myself and give the other to Yang Ruolan: "Sister Ruolan, you have nothing to do right now, could you help me remove the date pits?"

"Sounds good!" Yang Ruolan took the toothpick and the two sisters buried their heads together, picking their teeth with chatter and laughter.

Mrs. Sun was tending to other dishes nearby, and seeing the two sisters at the small table, her face was full of contentment.

Soon, all the date pits were removed. Yang Ruqing brought over a small bowl of glutinous rice that had also been soaked.

"Laner elder sister, please help me stuff these glutinous rice into the jujubes again." she said.

Okay.

Soon, the nimble-fingered sisters filled each date with stuffing.

“What next?” Yang Rulan asked.

Yang Ruqing used chopsticks to arrange the glutinous rice dates in a bowl, then drizzled them with a spoonful of honey water.

“Next, I'll let them all get steamed together in a pot.”

Yang Ruqing brought out the multi-tiered steamer used specifically for steaming buns and mantou at home. She placed the fish maw and glutinous rice dates separately inside, setting it over a water stove to begin their journey...

The process of waiting is always beautiful and full of anticipation.

“Mother, when are Auntie Five and the others coming over for dinner?” Yang Ruqing suddenly asked Sun Shi.

Bao Suyun had no natal family, and had long considered the Sun family as her own.

Every year, during the first month of the lunar calendar, we would go to Yang Hua-chung's house to celebrate the New Year. This kind of greeting was deeper than the one we exchanged with our brothers.

Upon hearing Yang Ruqing's question, Mrs. Sun pondered for a moment and replied, "I was planning to come this afternoon and meet with Mei'er and the others."

>

On New Year's Eve, your aunt dreamt of her late mother.

(Editor in charge：gothic novels)