Chapter 71 The First Birthday After Rebirth

Chapter 71 The First Birthday After Rebirth

At noon, the Zhang family prepared a sumptuous meal to entertain Deng Shirong.

In addition to the pork and braised pork with soy sauce that Deng Shirong brought as the main dishes, Zhang's mother also killed an old hen to make soup and added fried peanuts, which are essential for drinking, along with several bowls of homegrown vegetarian dishes. This full table of dishes was three times better than what they had during the Chinese New Year.

Unfortunately, Zhang's mother's cooking skills were mediocre. The food she cooked wasn't as good as Deng Shirong's, and even compared to Deng Yunzhen, the eldest daughter taught by Deng Shirong, it fell far short. Only the old hen soup was passable.

As a result, Deng Shirong only tasted the pork and braised pork but drank two bowls of chicken soup.

However, the pork and braised pork that Deng Shirong found unimpressive were devoured with great delight by the Zhang family, who felt they were the most delicious food in the world.

After eating and drinking, Deng Shirong didn't stay at the Zhang house for long. After smoking a few cigarettes, he said his goodbyes and left.

When he got home, it was already past two in the afternoon.

"Dad, you're back. What big meal did my future sister-in-law's family prepare to treat you?" Deng Yunzhen asked with a smile.

Deng Shirong smiled and said, "It was indeed a feast, but the taste was a bit lacking. My mother's cooking skills aren't great, and I suspect my daughter's skills are limited too. When your sister-in-law comes to our house, we'll have to teach her how to cook and improve her skills."

Deng Yunzhen nodded and said, "That's easy. My cooking skills were average before, but after learning from you for a while, I can cook pretty well now. My sister-in-law is clearly a smart person. As long as she's willing to learn, her cooking will improve quickly."

Deng Shirong hummed in agreement. Seeing a bowl of pig blood soup on the table, he couldn't help but ask, "Who killed a pig last night?"

Deng Yunzhen replied, "It was Brother Yunquan's family. This is the pig blood soup sent by Sister Yunquan."

It has to be said that rural people in this era were indeed thoughtful.

Because life was hard for everyone back then, and it was rare to eat meat even once a month, whenever someone slaughtered a pig, they would use a small amount of pork and a large basin of pig blood to cook a big pot of soup, then serve a bowl to each of the nearby neighbors.

In this bowl of pig blood soup, there were usually two pieces of pork and some pig blood. For people who only ate meat a few times a year, it was truly a rare delicacy.

This custom continued until the late 1980s. As people's lives improved, fewer families slaughtered pigs and served pig blood soup. By the 1990s, it had practically disappeared.

Deng Shirong nodded. He just needed to keep this kind of neighborly courtesy in mind.

Now, the family had hired several carpenters to make furniture, and they all had meals provided. As for the dozen or so people reclaiming the orchard, the seven from the village didn't need meals provided, but their relatives did.

Including his own family, there were about twenty people eating every day.

So, even though it was only a little past two o'clock, Deng Shirong and his daughter had to start preparing dinner.

In the past few days, they had been spending money to buy meat, which was a considerable daily expense. Now, with the thank-you gift from Deng Changwang's family, they had stored several hundred kilograms of meat in the system space, which would last them a long time.

When Deng Shirong and his daughter started cooking, Deng Changmei also came over to help.

Today, Deng Changmei and Zhang Kangmei had obtained their marriage certificate and were legally married. However, in rural areas, marriages were traditionally recognized by a wedding banquet, so even though they were legally married, they still didn't live together.

However, since Deng Shirong had invited three generations of the Zhang family to make furniture, Deng Changmei, as the Zhang family's daughter-in-law, naturally had to perform well. So after finishing her housework every day, she would come to help. Sometimes she passed wood and tools to the Zhang family's grandparents, and other times she helped wash vegetables in the kitchen.

The main dishes for dinner were still the usual three: stir-fried pork, braised carp, and dry-pot frogs. Because the portions were large, coupled with Deng Shirong's superb cooking skills and a few exquisite vegetarian dishes, it was another feast that would make you want to swallow your tongue.

Although after Deng Shirong's demonstration, almost everyone in Thatchfield Village knew how to cook fish and frogs to make them delicious, there were still very few people who went to the river to fish or catch frogs. It wasn't that people didn't like eating them, but the main reason was that preparing these dishes required too much oil and various seasonings.

Except for Deng Shirong's family, no other family in the village could afford to use so much oil.

…

In the blink of an eye, another week had passed.

September 24th of the lunar calendar was Deng Shirong's 44th birthday.

The day before, Deng Shirong had asked Deng Changwu, the pork seller, to leave all the pig offal for him when he slaughtered the pig.

In addition, someone was asked to burn a few hornets' nests that had accumulated during this period.

Today, he wanted to show off his skills and cook a delicious meal to celebrate his first birthday after his rebirth.

In later years, many places advocated eating well in the morning, eating fully at noon, and eating less at night.

But in Double Prosperity, whether now or in the future, people paid more attention to the evening meal, so Deng Shirong's birthday naturally centered around dinner.

Around two o'clock in the afternoon, Guan Yongying, Deng Changmei, and Chen Xiaohua (Deng Changping's wife) came over to help. Together with Deng Yunzhen and her sister, the five of them divided the work and washed all the pig offal, ginger, onion, garlic, and vegetables according to Deng Shirong's instructions.

Deng Shirong was responsible for cutting the vegetables.

If you want to cook delicious food, knife skills are very important.

By the time everything was ready, it was almost four o'clock in the afternoon.

"Ah Zhen, start the fire!"

"I'm going!"

Deng Yunzhen responded, then excitedly went to the stove and started the fire.

When the fire was going, Deng Yunzhen asked, "Dad, which dish should we cook first?"

Deng Shirong said, "Let's make pig lung soup first!"

Deng Yunzhen nodded and watched her father cook. Although her cooking skills had improved a lot over the past period, that was only for some of the dishes she often cooked. For the dishes she had never made before, she didn't know how to make them delicious.

Today, her father was planning to show off his skills, so since this was a rare opportunity, she naturally had to learn from him.

Deng Shirong also intended to cultivate his eldest daughter's cooking skills, so he explained as he cooked: "The key to making pig lung soup delicious is ginger and wine. First, sauté the blanched pig lung and enough ginger in oil, pour half a cup of white wine along the edge of the pot, and then add hot water to boil. Boil for seven or eight minutes to bring out the flavor of the pig lung and ginger, then pour in a little soy sauce and add the right amount of salt. That's how you make a pot of delicious pig lung soup."

"Wow, this smells amazing. Let me try."

Deng Yunzhen scooped out a small spoonful of pig lung soup from a bowl, let it cool a little, and then couldn't wait to taste it. She was instantly won over and praised it highly: "I never thought such a simple pig lung soup could taste so good."

Deng Shirong laughed as he washed the pot and said, "Home cooking isn't complicated. Next, let's make stir-fried pork liver."

(End of this chapter)