Chapter 48 : Making Dumplings

After Su Mo returned home, she put her things away and started to go over the accounts as usual.

Today, Lu Changzheng took 50 yuan with him. He spent 53.59 yuan at the supply and marketing cooperative, 8.8 yuan on phone calls, and 13.8 yuan at the black market, totaling 126.19 yuan.

Su Mo made 58 yuan from selling apples today, so she now has 2009.44 yuan left.

Fortunately, the account balance hadn’t decreased too much.

After finishing the accounts, Su Mo went back to the living room, scooped out a few large bowls of white flour, and took out the cornmeal she had brought from the educated youth site. She scooped out two bowls of it, mixed them together, and began to knead the dough.

The cornmeal had been borrowed from the team before. She had eaten it at the educated youth camp for more than half a month, and there wasn’t much left, probably only about three or four pounds.

She simply left the corn grits and sweet potatoes at the educated youth site, as there wasn’t much left anyway.

After kneading the dough, Su Mo covered it and let it rise for a while.

Then, she took out some rice noodles from the space and soaked them. After that, she took out a large handful of leeks, some fresh cabbages, and a few carrots. She fetched water from the well and washed them.

After washing the vegetables, Su Mo thought for a while and went to the west room to grab a handful of mushrooms to soak.

She planned to chop the two pounds of meat she bought today, mix it with the vegetables, and make dumplings. She wouldn’t boil the lard right now, but would wait until the brigade slaughtered the pigs and distributed the meat. By then, everyone would have meat, and no one would say anything, no matter how delicious her lard was.

Otherwise, if her family ate meat every day, it might arouse jealousy.

Steamed buns were different. They didn’t have much fragrance. Once steamed, she could put them into the space and take them out to eat whenever she wanted. This way, she could eat meat every day without drawing attention.

She could also send a few to the three old men every now and then. Although her special ability couldn’t heal, the food contained vitality and labor-inducing properties, which were good for the human body if eaten for a long time.

The vegetables in her space had been grown when she was at the sixth level of apocalyptic ability, and they contained stronger vitality. Though they couldn’t cure Lu Boming, they could still relieve some of his pain.

The old man didn’t have much time left, so Su Mo tried her best to show filial piety to Lu Changzheng and make the old man’s last days more comfortable.

After chopping the meat into pieces, Su Mo felt it was still too little, so she took out a can of luncheon meat, scooped out the meat, cut it into small cubes, and added it to the mix.

Next, Su Mo chopped the washed leeks and carrots into small pieces and placed them in an enamel basin. She then added the diced luncheon meat and soaked vermicelli, chopped them up, added some soy sauce, and mixed it all together for the filling.

Then, she started seasoning. She added a spoonful of table salt, an appropriate amount of five-spice powder, a little pepper, white sugar, chicken essence, oyster sauce, and sesame oil. She mixed everything thoroughly with chopsticks until the seasoning was well dissolved. In the end, she had a large pot of fragrant leek, vermicelli, and minced meat filling.

Though the filling had more vegetables and less meat, it was already quite good for this era.

After preparing the filling, Su Mo took a portion of the dough, rolled it into long strips, divided it into small portions, and began to roll out the wrappers and make the buns.

The buns she made all had thin skins and large fillings. The fillings filled almost an entire enamel basin, but she only made more than fifty buns, just enough for two steamers.

Su Mo had already prepared the steamers in the new house, with three in total.

She boiled water in a pot and steamed the leek, vermicelli, and minced meat buns. Then, she continued chopping the cabbage, divided half of the minced meat for it, and mixed the filling the same way as before, continuing to make cabbage and minced meat buns.

After 20 minutes, the leek buns were done. Su Mo emptied out the transparent storage box used to store clothes, rinsed it with water, and dried it. She picked up the leek buns from the steamer, placed them in the storage box, and stored them in the space.

Su Mo hadn’t eaten much all day and was hungry, so she tasted one of the leek buns. It was very delicious and fragrant.

After picking up all the leek buns, she steamed the cabbage and minced meat buns, filling two more steamers.

However, the dough had been used up, so Su Mo kneaded more dough. While it rested, she washed and chopped the mushrooms, mixed them with the remaining minced meat and vermicelli, and made a mushroom, vermicelli, and minced meat filling.

She wrapped enough for two steamers, and there was a little dough left, so Su Mo put it directly into the space for next time.

After picking up the cabbage buns, Su Mo put the mushroom buns in the steamer.

There were three kinds of fillings, and in total, more than 150 buns. It was estimated that five or six pounds of white flour had been used, and the remaining two or three pounds of corn flour were all used up.

But with all these buns, Su Mo had enough food to last her a while.

By this time, it was already evening. Su Mo took a bowl, picked up three leek-filled buns, and then took one of the remaining cabbages, put it in a bamboo basket, and went to Lu’s house.

When Su Mo arrived, Li Yue’e was preparing to cook.

“Mom, I made some leek dumplings for you to try. I also bought some cabbage today, but I forgot to give it to you just now, so I brought one over for you as well.”

Li Yue’e took the bamboo basket and asked in surprise, “You can also make dumplings?”

She didn’t think the third brother’s wife looked like she could cook. Although the third brother said his wife’s cooking was delicious, she thought he was just comforting her.

“Yes, I was the one who cooked at home before,” Su Mo nodded. Although the original owner didn’t know how to cook, Su Mo cooked for herself every day during the apocalypse.

Li Yue’e looked down and noticed that the buns were wrapped very neatly and were quite large. As for how they tasted, she would need to taste them to know.

“They’re wrapped very well,” Li Yue’e praised. “Oh, your cabbage is very good, very juicy. Where did you buy it?”

Li Yue’e didn’t say anything against buying vegetables. When her third son got married, all the land in their family had been dug up, so she had to go and exchange vegetables with people she knew in the village. The third son’s wife wasn’t familiar with the villagers, so if she didn’t buy vegetables, where could she get them?

“I bought it from the county supply and marketing cooperative,” Su Mo said.

“The things in this county supply and marketing cooperative are better than those in our commune,” Li Yue’e commented. “If you run out of vegetables, just let me know, and I’ll take you to the village to exchange for them. You won’t have to go all the way to the city, which is troublesome.”

“Okay, thank you, Mom.”

Li Yue’e waved her hand and said, “We are one family, so we should not have different opinions.”

Li Yue’e took a bowl, exchanged the buns for it, then handed the basket back to Su Mo and said, “You should go back quickly. Mom is preparing to cook. Eat the buns while they’re hot, don’t let them get cold.”

Su Mo nodded, took the basket, and went back.

Li Yue’e noticed that the buns were quite large and still had some steamed buns from lunch, so she didn’t plan to make anything else. She warmed up the steamed buns and fried the cabbage that Su Mo gave her, and that was all for dinner.

Li Yue’e had just finished frying the cabbage when Liu Yuzhi and Lu Guihua came back from work.

Li Yue’e went to the room, took out four apples, and called out, “These are from the eldest family, the second family, and these are from the third family. Two for each of you. They said we should share them with everyone to try.”

Liu Yuzhi looked at the big, red apple, took it, and said with a smile, “Thank you so much, Third Sister-in-law. This apple looks delicious.”

After Lu Guihua took hers, she also said, “This third sister-in-law has a good life. She eats such good apples whenever she wants.”

Li Yue’e paused, “Do you want it or not? If not, give it to us old folks. We gave you food, and you didn’t even say a word.”

When she cut the apple for her father in the afternoon, she also ate a piece. It was really fragrant, crispy, sweet, and delicious.

“Of course, I want it. The two boys at home need to eat it.” Lu Guihua took the apple and hurried back to her room to put it away.

At dinner, Lu Qing’an saw the buns on the table and was a little surprised: “Are you making buns today?”

“No, it was sent by the third brother’s wife. She wrapped it herself,” Li Yue’e said. “She also sent apples and cabbage. The cabbage on the table was given by her.”

Lu Qing’an thought his third daughter-in-law was a bit of a mystery. He thought she came to avoid trouble at home, but it turned out she was familiar with Secretary Geng. She looked like a delicate lady, but she could actually cook.

But she was a good and filial child. She had been married for only a few days, yet she had already given them a lot of gifts. Yesterday it was chicken soup, and today it was steamed buns and apples.

After helping Lu Boming sit down, the three of them began to eat.

Lu Qing’an took a bun, broke it open, and immediately a fragrant aroma hit his nose. The leeks were green, dotted with orange-yellow carrot cubes, and there were also sauce-colored transparent vermicelli and a little bit of diced meat. Just looking at it made his mouth water.

Lu Qing’an quickly took a big bite. The taste was amazing. He had never eaten such a delicious bun before. It was even better than the buns with meat filling.

“Dad, Yue’e, eat quickly, these buns are delicious,” Lu Qing’an said.

Li Yue’e also took a bite, and her eyes lit up instantly. “third daughter-in-la, dumpling-making skills are really good.”