Lin He and Lin Chen quickly finished their breakfast, eager to process the vegetables they had bought. Lin Chen decided they would braise the pork offal and head meat. Lin He knew how to make a simple braising liquid; she had seen it done in her previous life. Without all the modern seasonings available then, the flavor wouldn't be as perfect, but it should still be edible.

Moreover, braised items kept longer and were less likely to spoil. As for the ducks they bought, Lin He planned to make salted duck, which could also be saved for the next day. She washed and plucked the ducks, draining the blood and discarding the excess organs. She let the duck blood congeal on a large plate, and Lin He suddenly remembered the duck blood and pickled vegetable vermicelli soup from her hometown.

She set the duck blood aside in a bowl; they had the vermicelli and pickled vegetables at home, so they could make that dish for lunch. Lin He ground some spices together with salt and lightly fried them before rubbing the mixture thoroughly both inside and out of the ducks. She then hung them in a cool, ventilated spot; the ducks could easily last until the next day. Lin He noticed Er Niu had also bought two slabs of tofu.

So, she and Lin Chen cut the tofu into small, square blocks and began to dry-roasting them in their own pot over a low flame with a little oil. Once dried, they wouldn't spoil easily and could be eaten in a couple of days. The ribs and pig trotters they bought needed to be eaten today. The chicken was set aside for later; they tethered it by the leg and placed it near the pigpen—it would be fine for a few more days.

Last time, Lin He had made braised ribs seasoned with a lot of chili, a style common in her old hometown, but it seemed the family couldn't handle too much spice. This time, she decided on steaming the ribs with fermented black beans. Pork trotter soup was best made with lotus root and soybeans. Aunt Xu had gifted them a few sections of lotus root a couple of days prior, which immediately reminded Lin He of this dish; she only asked Er Niu to buy pig trotters when they went shopping.

They had some soybeans at home already. This dish was nutritious and nourishing, and the lotus root would keep the trotters from being too rich, making it suitable for the current time. The pork needed to be paired with some dried long beans, and braising sounded good. However, they had bought a lot of meat, likely too much to finish in a few meals.

Storing this raw meat wasn't ideal either, and making cured meat would be inefficient given their limited time. Lin He looked on with some worry; the meat Er Niu bought was quite fatty—pork belly, which, aside from braising, she wasn't sure how else to cook deliciously. After thinking for a while, Lin He's eyes lit up. She recalled a dish from her previous life called Fenzhengrou (steamed meat with rice powder), a specialty from her hometown that many places didn't know about.

Fenzhengrou wasn't difficult to make and kept well, solving the problem of the meat spoiling quickly while ensuring they had a dish to eat every day. However, Fenzhengrou traditionally required polished rice powder. They didn't have that now, but they did have some brown rice, which should work on the same principle and be edible. The powder was crucial; one had to first stir-fry the rice with star anise, dried chilies, and other ingredients until the rice turned yellow, then remove it from the heat.

After cooling, it needed to be ground into a powder. The coarseness or fineness of the powder was merely a matter of personal preference. In her past life, Lin He had seen an auntie make it at the orphanage. That auntie liked to grind the powder extremely fine, saying that the meat could soak up more powder that way, making it more fragrant.

Later, when Lin He was older and saw the powder sold elsewhere, it tended to be coarser, though still quite delicious. Lin He felt that the meat her father bought would be too greasy if simply stir-fried or stewed separately. People at this time favored fatty meat, and Lin He had always disliked it, so she found the pork belly overly rich. However, for Fenzhengrou, more fat actually made it better and less cloying.

Lin He figured she and Lin Chen would need to cook lunch, and making the Fenzhengrou might take too long. So, for noon, she would prepare some braised pork. The rest of the meat would be hung in a ventilated area. They would work on the Fenzhengrou in the afternoon, taking the rice to Aunt Xu's house to use her small mill, which Aunt Xu sometimes used for grinding things for her own family.

For lunch, Lin He planned on braised pork, duck blood and pickled vegetable vermicelli soup, and the tofu, which should be dried enough by noon to be considered tofu jerky. They could then stir-fry the tofu jerky with chili. They also had an old pumpkin growing at home, which they could boil into a soup, and a plate of stir-fried greens. That rounded out the lunch menu.

The staple food would be the white flour steamed buns they had made. The portions were quite generous. For dinner, with some of the leftover dishes from noon and a serving of pig trotter soup, they should be set. The rest would last for the next day or two; these dishes were meant to be eaten over several days anyway.

By noon, only Huang Shi had returned to eat. She said the remaining food should be taken to the fields for the workers so they wouldn't stop working. Lin He suggested, "Mother, why don't we call them back from the fields? There are young and old among them; rushing around like that, what if someone falls ill?

It's so hot." Huang Shi smiled and replied, "You silly girl, it's only for a few days, not so delicate. People don't get sick that easily. Every family works like this. It’s fine for these few days.

The winter melons in the field should also be ready for picking soon. Maybe tomorrow at noon, you can cook some winter melon soup; that helps cool the body." Lin He considered Huang Shi's words and agreed. People in her past life were indeed frail, often suffering from various ailments—many developed high blood pressure or diabetes in middle to old age, and many strange illnesses were common. But people now exercised daily and ate simple fare; their bodies weren't so delicate.

Besides, everyone was rushing the wheat harvest. What if it started raining right after this busy period? She didn't argue further, just nodded, agreeing to boil extra winter melon water to send out to them at noon tomorrow. Huang Shi ate at home, praising the dishes, which were unlike anything she had eaten before.

She even had an extra steamed bun. After finishing, she didn't even take time to rest, insisting on taking food out to the three people in the fields. Since she couldn't carry everything, she asked Lin He and Chen'er to accompany her. Lin He packed the dishes into a special food basket with several layers, one dish per layer.

The greens and pumpkin went into the same bowl, barely fitting. The lid was unstable, so Huang Shi held it slightly ajar. She carried a bowl, chopsticks, and some steamed buns herself. Lin He also filled a jar with soup for Lin Chen to carry.

Huang Shi had initially said soup was hard to transport and suggested leaving it, as there was water in the fields. But Lin He argued that the soup wouldn't taste good if left until evening, so they needed to take it. The three of them each carried a basket and headed to the fields to deliver the meal.