Ling'er was almost four months old. Qiao Mai had checked online and found that she could eat complementary food at six months.
Thinking that the child was premature and her digestive system would be weaker, Qiao Mai decided to feed her liquid food eight months later.
Before that, she had to learn how to cook. She couldn't be a mother who didn't know anything.
After feeding the child, Qiao Mai put her on the bed to play by herself. She took a piece of bread and poured herself a glass of red ginseng water.
Sitting in front of the computer, she ate while searching for recipes suitable for babies.
The first she selected was the egg custard. She checked and found many ways to make egg custard. The most traditional and simple method was to beat the egg and steam it in a pot.
The eggs in her fridge were all sterile. She had not touched a single one until now.
After memorizing the cooking methods of the egg custards, Qiao Mai went to the induction cooker outside and started cooking.
Looking at the first egg custard that had just been baked, she chuckled and praised herself.
"I'm a top student, after all. I can learn it right away. If I follow the instructions accurately, there's basically no failure. Hehe, I'm awesome!"
She dripped some soy sauce and two drops of sesame oil on it. The child was still young and could not eat it, thus she would enjoy it herself.
Qiao Mai happily dug a spoonful and put it in her mouth. She closed her eyes. Since when did a bowl of egg custard conquer her?
She felt so blissful eating the food she made herself. It seemed that as long as she put in her heart, she could cook.
After finishing the small bowl of egg custard, she struck while the iron was hot and made many other flavors.
There were eggs, sausages, eggs with carrots, and eggs with fruit cubes. She tried them all.
She ate a few bowls in a row and was full.
However, based on her daughter's condition, the first and second types were the most suitable for her after eight months. She could only eat the latter types when she was older.
Qiao Mai memorized the cooking methods of these egg custards to try them in the big iron pot outside another day. After all, the induction cooker and the iron pot were slightly different.
After the meal, she strolled to the watermelon field. When she saw the size of the watermelons, she immediately grinned.
She could sell the whole watermelon tomorrow. They were already the size of a basketball, which was the size of the watermelon in the refrigerator. This meant that the watermelons were ripe, right?
She wanted to cut open one and try it, but she held back when she thought about how her stomach was still full.
After returning to the house, she did embroidery before hugging the child to sleep.
After a good night's sleep in the space, Qiao Mai wanted to go out to the stall the next day. However, she noticed a strong wind blowing outside. The sky was gloomy and the ground was wet, indicating it had rained last night.
It was a good time to rest. She was a little tired after running a stall every day.
She cleaned up the room she slept in and the kitchen. Then, she used the wall breaker in her space to make a bowl of millet paste for herself.
It wasn't worth it to cook porridge alone, so she heated a hamburger with rice paste and ate breakfast.
It had been a few months since she had cooked properly. The restaurant was not to her taste, and the stalls outside were not clean.
Now that she had money and resources, her mild mysophobia kicked in.
Since the heavens had given her a holiday, she would have a good rest. She carried a basket, locked the courtyard door, and went out.
After arriving here for so long, she learned that most people used pork oil for cooking. Vegetarian oil was expensive. Generally, only people who ate vegetarian food and restaurants used vegetarian oil.
Then there were the high officials, dignitaries, and wealthy families who used vegetarian oil. Ordinary people bought pork and went home to refine it.
She wanted to buy a piece of pork and some pork suet oil. If there was any vegetarian oil, she could buy some. Even if Qiao Mai did not have rice at home, she could use it.
At noon, she will cook braised pork, stir-fried vegetables, and steamed rice to reward herself.
When she passed by the embroidery shop, Shopkeeper Lu waved at her.
"Sister, come in and have a seat?"
"No, I'm going to buy pork and some vegetables. I haven't eaten meat for a long time. The weather is gloomy today. I won't be working."
"Yo, you're going to improve your life?"
"Yeah, are you coming?"
"Yes, the weather is not good today, and the shop is not busy. Let the girls look after the shop. I'll go to your place to have a meal."
"Alright, I'll buy some groceries first. You can come over and eat the ready-made meal later."
"Alright."
Although the weather was gloomy, the people were reluctant to rest for a day. As long as it didn't rain heavily, they would usually open the stall to make a living.
It was almost June, and all kinds of vegetables were harvested.
Qiao Mai saw a shop selling cucumbers. She bought five catties of cucumbers for one penny per catty, two catties of plum beans, a handful of green onions, water convolvulus, and a piece of tofu. Anything unrelated to meat was cheap.
Even the tofu was two coins for a large piece. Qiao Mai was not afraid of anything with the space. If she bought too much, she would put them in her space. It would not go bad for a long time.
She didn't need to buy any condiments. She hadn't touched the ones Lu Sanniang bought for her during her recuperation period. The entire shelf in her space was filled with it. She had everything she wanted.
Although Qiao Mai didn't know how to cook in the past, she still couldn't help but buy the items on the seasoning rack in the supermarket.
She was a foodie. She even prepared a lot of hotpot bases, bags of pickled vegetables, and various canned food.
After all, she wouldn't have bothered to do anything that could trouble her in the past.
Now that she didn't have to study or go on missions, she naturally wanted to live a good life.
When she arrived at the meat stall, she saw the burly boss cutting up a pig. It seemed that he had just slaughtered it in the morning and brought it over.
Seeing that someone had come to buy meat, the boss chopped the meat and greeted her warmly.
"Little miss, are you buying meat? This meat was just slaughtered this morning. It was fresh."
Qiao Mai looked at the meat and regretted not stocking up on pork in her previous life. There was no streaky pork here. There was only a layer of lean meat on top of the thick white fats.
The thinnest part was the butt, but the meat in the butt was unsuitable for braising. The most suitable part was the rib, commonly known as streaky pork.
However, the meat looked so fat that she lost her appetite, so she pointed at the piece in the front.
"How much is a catty here?"
"Thirty coins."
"What about the butt?"
"It's also 30 copper coins per 500 grams, suet 15 copper coins per 500 grams, pig's head with bones five copper coins per 500 grams, pig's trotters, pig's tail, and all the other ingredients are five copper coins per 500 grams. Big bones two copper coins per 500 grams."
The shop owner was afraid it would be troublesome for her to ask one by one, so he quoted the price in one go.
"Then give me five catties of butt meat, five catties of front leg meat, and these few pieces of suet."
"Lady, it's hot. It'll go bad if you buy so much."
It seemed that this butcher was a conscientious seller. This sentence immediately gave Qiao Mai a good impression of him. She decided to take care of his business in the future.
"It won't be bad. I'll only keep some thin meat for lunch. The fat ones will be refined into oil and make dumplings. I have many family members."
"Oh, that's alright."
After weighing the meat, Qiao Mai paid for it. She had wanted to buy some pig's trotters, but after thinking about it, she decided not to. The fur on the trotters had to be shaved. It was too troublesome. She would think about it in the future.
In the winter, she would order meat from the boss and stew it in a big pot. Then, she would invite Lu Sanniang's family to eat.
Oh, right, there was also the pig's head meat. It was also very delicious. Her favorite dish was the pig's ear salad. Her space had an all-purpose seasoning sauce. It would be delicious to make any cold dish.
Just thinking about it made her salivate. She put the meat in the basket and went home.
As soon as she reached home, Qiao Mai returned to her space. Seeing that her child was still sleeping, she did not dare to make a sound. She turned on her computer and searched online.
She memorized the cooking methods of boiling pork fat, braised pork, Mapo tofu, stir-fried water convolvulus, chopped green onion, and eggs.
She also found the necessary seasonings from the shelves and poured some out of the space.
Standing in the kitchen, she took a deep breath and went to the chopping board. She set aside a piece of red braised pork and cut the rest of the fat into small pieces. She also cut a few pieces of suet into small chunks.