Wen Nuan has been very busy recently, making dumplings and noodles for several days. The people in the kitchen now feel full after seeing the dumplings and noodles.
Lao Zhong even said something cruel, saying that he didn't want to eat dumplings during the Chinese New Year anymore.
It has been snowing these past few days, and the dumplings and beef noodles made by their kitchen team have all frozen.
After making dumplings and noodles, they started to chop meat to make meatballs. Because there is a river nearby, fish balls are the most cooked.
It took a lot of time just to prepare these things. What was left was some meat, which she had to think of a way to get. So Wen Nuan thought of Chen Meijiao in Beijing.
Before, Chen Meijiao divorced Zhang Zhibin because of domestic violence and worked in a state-owned restaurant in Beijing. This time, Wen Nuan came to her to find a purchasing channel for mutton.
It is too late to transport the sheep from Mongolia, but if we transport them from Beijing, we can still make it in time.
Beijing is the capital, and one of its famous dishes is shabu-shabu mutton, so there should be a lot of goat supply.
When Chen Meijiao received the warm call, she was overjoyed and asked her a lot about her recent situation. The two of them talked a lot.
Chen Meijiao then said: "Sister-in-law Juxiang also went to the kitchen? Wow, that's great. If I hadn't left Beicheng, the three of us could have worked together."
Wen Nuan smiled and said, "Yes, sister Juxiang passed the exam to join the kitchen team, and now she lives a very fulfilling life. But it's good for you to be with your parents now. How is your daughter now?"
Talking about the child, Chen Meijiao had more to say, because the child had just learned to walk, so he was particularly naughty. If it weren't for his brother, sister-in-law and parents at home to help take care of him, Chen Meijiao said she probably wouldn't be able to handle it.
Wen Nuan listened to Chen Meijiao with a smile on her face. When she finished talking about the child, she got down to business and asked her, "Meijiao, where do you get the goats for your restaurant? Our kitchen staff wants a few recently. Can you help me contact the company over there?"
In this era, transactions can only be conducted between units. Wen Nuan now plans to order five goats in the name of the kitchen team. In addition to preparing some for the comrades in the institute, she also wants to provide additional meals for the flight crew pilots.
Talking about work, Chen Meijiao became serious, and then told Wen Nuan a company, saying: "But the procurement is usually handled by our manager. If you want, I will ask our manager to help you contact and then have someone send it to Beicheng."
Wen Nuan heaved a sigh of relief when she heard Chen Meijiao say this. "If it's possible, I'll trouble your manager."
Chen Meijiao smiled and said, "Our manager is very nice, and he is also a veteran. He used to work in the kitchen. Now the army needs us, so of course we are willing to help everyone. I guess there will be news tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, and we will send it directly to you then."
"Okay, thank you for your help."
After Wen Nuan finished her phone call with Chen Meijiao, she rode her bicycle back to the family compound.
Before returning to the gate of the yard, Wen Nuan saw Lele and Gu Qinghan, who were wearing several layers of thick clothes, playing in the snow in front of the gate.
It has snowed in the past few days, but not heavily. There is only a thin layer of snow on the ground, sticking to the soil, making it look a little dirty.
When Wen Nuan saw the child and the man, she rang the bell on her bicycle. The child and the man heard the familiar voice and looked over at the same time.
Wen Nuan stopped in front of the gate of her yard, then looked at Gu Qinghan and asked, "Why did you come back so early today?"
Gu Qinghan walked over, took the bicycle handlebars from Wen Nuan's hands, and said with a smile: "I'm not busy these days, so I came back early to play with Lele."
In fact, Wen Nuan has been too busy recently and often comes back after get off work, so she feels that Gu Qinghan comes back early.
When the little girl saw her mother coming home, she quickly took a snowball that Gu Qinghan had made for her, ran to Wen Nuan and said, "Mom, look at my snowball."
The little guy presented it to Wen Nuan in a particularly boastful manner, as if waiting for Wen Nuan's praise.
Because it was wearing so many clothes, it looked like a big snowball when it ran, jumping back and forth so cutely.
Wen Nuan was in a good mood. Looking at Le Le's treasure-showing look, she laughed exaggeratedly and said, "Wow, what a big snowball. Did Le Le make it himself?"
She took a look and saw that the child's hands were all frozen red by the ice and snow, but she didn't seem to feel cold and smiled and said, "Dad did it."
"To my mother."
Wen Nuan saw Lele gave her a snowball and took it directly, "Okay, then mommy will use it to play snowballs, Lele, take it!"
As she spoke, Wen Nuan threw the snowball in her hand at Lele's arm. The snowball was not big and was not tightly packed. It landed on the child's clothes and scattered immediately.
Lele laughed even more happily and wanted to dig more snow from the ground to play snowball fights with Wen Nuan!
After Gu Qinghan put the bicycle away, he let the excited Lele hug his thigh. The child raised his little head and looked at him, shouting, "Dad, help me!"
Wen Nuan was seen childishly rolling several snowballs and then walking towards Lele. Gu Qinghan saw that his wife and children were having so much fun and couldn't bear to interrupt them, so he joined in the snowball fight.
After the two adults and one child made a lot of noise in the yard, Lele's whole face turned red, like a big red apple.
Lele was still not satisfied. Wen Nuan and Gu Qinghan were ready to go back to the house to finish cooking. She pulled Wen Nuan's clothes and said, "Mom, I want to play more."
Wen Nuan took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat off her forehead, then reached out to touch her back and said, "Take a rest for a while. You see your back is all sweaty. Go home quickly and take off your coat first."
The little guy was still a little unhappy, but Sister Guihua came over from the next door and said, "Sister Xiao Nuan, you're back? My sister-in-law just sent me a bunch of dried seafood, I brought some for you."
Wen Nuan looked at the pile of dried seafood brought by Sister Guihua, and remembered that Sister Guihua's family was in the coastal area of Shandong Province, so every month she would receive various dried seafood sent from home, and every time Sister Guihua would bring her a large pile.
If she didn't accept it, Sister Guihua would be angry.
After Wen Nuan received the things, she also gave her some frozen pears and apples. These frozen pears and apples were naturally not as good as her seafood. She felt bad for taking other people's things without giving them something in return.
"Sister Guihua, you should also take some frozen pears and apples back." Wen Nuan gave her a big bag full of them.
Sister Guihua didn't bother to be polite with her. She knew Wen Nuan's character and simply accepted it readily.
Wen Nuan chatted with Sister Guihua for a while, because Wen Nuan was very busy this week and often worked in the kitchen until dark before returning home.
She asked Deng Juxiang, who seemed to be working overtime with Wen Nuan, and asked her what kind of dumplings they were making. She didn't know why the kitchen staff made so many dumplings.
After chatting for a while, Wen Nuan saw the pile of dried seafood on the table and asked, "Sister Guihua, is your family by the sea? Do you usually dry a lot of seafood at home?"
Sister Guihua smiled and nodded: "Yes, we live by the sea, and every household has this stuff. I am tired of eating it. But my parents are worried that I will be freezing in the north city and can't eat meat, so they send me a lot of seafood. Actually, I don't like it either."
Wen Nuan remembered that Sister Guihua's father was the village chief, so she asked, "Our kitchen needs a lot of seafood. I wonder if your father can help us buy some dried seafood from the villagers?"
In addition to being backed by mountains, North City also has a wide Chunhua River nearby. There is usually no shortage of fish, and because the weather is cold, people are allowed to go fishing, and ice fishing is also allowed in winter.
Fish are easy to find, but seafood is still relatively scarce. If we can get some dried seafood, we can also send it to the research institute.
When Sister Guihua heard this, she didn't dare to give a definite answer, but just said, "I'll call home tomorrow and ask my father for you."
Wen Nuan smiled and said, "Thank you, Sister Guihua."
"There's no need to be polite between us." Sister Guihua smiled and said, "It would be great if our troops could collect some seafood. No one wants seafood in our area. Every household uses it to feed chickens and geese, but they can't feed that much."
If the troops can collect it, they can help some villagers increase their income, which would be great.
Wen Nuan: "Okay, then I'll wait for your news, sister-in-law."
There is no rush for dried seafood. It is definitely impossible to acquire it before Blizzard. Let's wait until the beginning of next spring to see if we can reach an agreement.
*
After Wen Nuan saw Sister Guihua off, she was about to go back to the house when she saw Gu Qinghan standing at the door looking at her.
"What's the matter?"
Gu Qinghan smiled and looked at his wife, "Nothing, it's time to eat, go take a shower first."
Then, Gu Qinghan took out a letter from his pocket and handed it to her: "By the way, wife, here is your letter, sent from my hometown."
Today, his assistant went to the post office to pick up mail for him and happened to see a warm letter, so he gave it to him directly, and Gu Qinghan took it home.
The letter was sent from my hometown. It seems that the Wen family can no longer sit still.
"A letter from home? I think it's from my adoptive parents." Before Wen Nuan even took the letter, she guessed that it was from Wen's mother and her family. She had found such a good family, and if they didn't make a lot of money from her, they wouldn't be considered members of the Wen family.
Sure enough, it was a letter written to her by Wen's mother.
Wen Nuan opened the letter slowly and took a quick glance at it. In the letter, her mother told her about Commander Lu's visit to their home to look for his relatives, and then she explained her life story.
The letter said that Commander Lu went to the family to recognize her relatives. She was not actually a child of the Wen family. It was her biological mother who saved her and raised her. She said how much she loved her and treated her as her own child, and asked Wen Nuan not to be ungrateful and ungrateful.
At the end of the letter, Wen's mother said that Wen Wenkang had recently broken up with his girlfriend because of the betrothal gift, and for various reasons, he was now unemployed at home. She asked her to help think of a solution and asked if she could write a letter of introduction for the family. They hadn't seen her for so long and missed her very much.
But I didn’t come to the North City, but wanted to go to Beijing City.
warmth:"… "
The longing is probably fake, but coming here to make money is probably real.
Wen Nuan folded the letter and put it back into the envelope. Seeing that Gu Qinghan was waiting for her to speak, she said calmly, "They said they wanted to go to Beijing and asked me to ask grandpa to write a letter of introduction for them."
Gu Qinghan heard this and asked, "Then what are you going to do?"
"What can I do?" Wen Nuan smiled and said, "Of course, I will ignore them. They want to go to Beijing City just to ask Grandpa for money. I definitely can't give it to them."
Wen Nuan remembered that the former director did whatever Wen's mother said. If they wanted money, she would give them money; if they wanted tickets, she would give them tickets, without thinking about herself at all.
Mother Wen is still thinking about sucking blood from her, which is impossible.
Of course, Gu Qinghan also agreed with Wen Nuan's approach, but he was worried that Wen's mother and the others would not get what they wanted and would take extreme actions.
Wen Nuan didn't care and said with a smile: "She just called me an ungrateful person. Since she called me an ungrateful person, isn't it normal for me to ignore her?"
Just say it. Anyway, they are thousands of miles away and she can't hear them. It is better than letting them come to her and talk nonsense.
Gu Qinghan hugged his wife and said, "If they make trouble in front of you, I will solve it for you."
Wen Nuan stretched out her arms and wrapped her arms around the man's strong waist. It was probably not their turn to take action in this matter, and her grandfather could probably handle it.
Wen Nuan measured the man's waist and felt sorry for him being so thin. She didn't think about anyone else and said, "I'll make you something delicious tonight!"
The little guy was sitting on the sofa, swinging his little feet. When he heard Wen Nuan say that she had prepared something delicious, he cried out pitifully, "Mom, I'm hungry."
Seeing that the child was indeed hungry, Wen Nuan pulled Gu Qinghan into the kitchen and asked him to help light the fire.
When the dishes were ready, Lele climbed onto the seat by herself, saw a plate of cabbage and a plate of spicy chicken, and moved the vegetables to Gu Qinghan's side.
"Dad eats vegetables, and Lele eats meat."
Wen Nuan laughed so hard.
Gu Qinghan didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but he still picked up some vegetable leaves for Lele and said, "Daddy doesn't need to grow taller, you need it."
In order to grow taller, little Lele ate two green vegetables, but later he secretly picked them up with his hands and put them in the bowl of his mother who was talking to his father.
After the family had dinner, Gu Qinghan fetched two bowls of water, one for Lele to wash her face and one for Wen Nuan to soak her feet.
The little guy kicked off his shoes, climbed onto the kang, and said, "Dad, I want to wash my feet, too."
Gu Qinghan glanced at her and said with a smile, "Are you so active today? Wait a minute, I'll help you wash your face first."
Lele grabbed the socks on his feet and tried to pull them out with all his strength, but he couldn't pull them out. He was so anxious that he was sweating profusely.
Gu Qinghan wiped her face and helped her pull out her socks. The little girl immediately breathed a sigh of relief, crawled to the edge of the kang bed, and stretched out her two little feet.
"I want to wash my feet. I want to be a sweet baby."
Wen Nuan had just sat down on the kang, and when she heard Le Le say that, she smiled and asked her, "Who taught you to say that?"
Lele held onto Wen Nuan's arm, climbed up, hugged Wen Nuan's neck, and said with a smile: "Dad said you are Xiang Xiang's mother."
"So Lele also wants to be a sweet baby."
Wen Nuan hugged the little girl and kissed her on the cheek a few times.
Gu Qinghan looked at the two of them and smiled, then placed the enamel plate next to the kang bed.
*
Two days later, Wen Nuan received a call from Chen Meijiao, saying that the five goats had been sent to the Beicheng troops and asked her to go and pick them up when the time came.
Sister Guihua also got the result. Her father was willing to help buy the dried seafood from the villagers, but it would have to wait until the beginning of next spring.
Wen Nuan received two pieces of good news in a row. After returning to the kitchen, she told everyone the news: "When the time comes, we can deal with the goats and send this batch of supplies over first."
"That's great, does that mean I can take a break too?"
"I'm just concerned about so many goats. Is there any for us?"
The quartermaster has also been working overtime with everyone else in recent days. Although most of the supplies have been prepared, they still have to be taken inventory later, so he still has a lot of things to do.
However, everyone has seen how hard they have worked recently, so he said, "Don't worry, everyone has worked hard this time, and Commander Xu said he will reward us well."
After hearing what the quartermaster said, Wen Nuan said, "I'll make some mutton soup for everyone, and also some mutton hotpot. Thank you for your hard work over the past two weeks."
In order to get those supplies, they used up their off-get off work time. During this period, everyone did not get enough sleep and was really tired.
Everyone looked at the falling snow outside and asked with a smile: "When will those goats arrive? I can't help it!"
Wen Nuan: "It should be soon. It only takes a few hours to get here from Beijing."
Sure enough, someone delivered the goat that afternoon. Because there was a special approval order, the goat was sent directly to the kitchen of the cooking class.
Wen Nuan said, "Kill three and send them over, and we'll keep the remaining two for our pilots."
Having had the experience of slaughtering sheep during the last National Day, the people in the kitchen quickly prepared the sheep.
Wen Nuan was responsible for slicing the mutton, making it into the slices of mutton that would be used for hot pot in later generations. There were also some mutton bones and chops, so she asked comrades with strong strength to help chop them.
Then you can use their seasoning packets to make soup, and you can enjoy warm mutton hotpot in this cold winter.
After warming up several boxes of mutton slices, she began to make mutton offal soup for everyone. In addition to mutton offal, she also chopped a few lamb ribs and carrots, a little water chestnuts, and added some pepper, so that it would taste more refreshing and warmer.
While Wen Nuan was cooking the mutton soup, Xiao Zhu made some big pancakes, which were steamed buns. He would then put some vegetables and meat in them and it would become roujiamo.
The mutton soup was cooked to a milky white color. The mutton head was fat but not greasy. Because of the addition of warm special spices, there was no smell of mutton at all. There were also a few carrots dotted in the middle, and the whole cafeteria was filled with rich fragrance.
It was lunch time in the flight crew kitchen, and as soon as everyone entered the cafeteria, they smelled the overbearing aroma of mutton offal soup.
It was cold outside, and everyone just wanted to drink some hot soup to warm themselves up, so everyone started lining up to get food, just to have a sip of hot soup quickly.
The hot and spicy mutton offal soup has a few chopped green onions floating on it. The rich taste of the mutton soup mixed with the steamed bun has a special aroma that almost makes my tongue curl up. I can't wait to drink five or six more bowls.
People from other canteens followed the smell to the canteen of the air crew kitchen. When they saw the flight team members drinking soup, they all looked at them with envy.
"I really envy those who eat at the flight attendant kitchen. I want to eat beef too!"
“I want to eat that Roujiamo…”
"I'm not picky, as long as I can eat at the aircrew kitchen."
Before, everyone knew that Wen Nuan cooked delicious food, and everyone wanted to try it, but they were not pilots. But now some people know that Wen Nuan is Commander Lu’s granddaughter, and they are even more excited.
This is Commander Lu's granddaughter. If I had known this earlier, I would have sneaked into the kitchen team. Not only can I eat her delicious food, but I can also work with Commander Lu's granddaughter. If I can have some relationship with her, it would be really lucky.
Wen Nuan saw everyone gathering around and originally wanted to share some with other canteens, but the quantity was really limited, so she had to give up.
Wen Nuan was planning to give some to Sister Juxiang and Yang Xiaomei, but she happened to see Li Daxiang coming over to eat, so she waved to him.
"Da Xiang, come here."
When Li Daxiang heard Wen Nuan calling him, he hurried over and asked, "Sister-in-law, what do you want to talk to me about?"
Wen Nuan smiled and said, "I left some soup for Qinglan. Can you help me deliver it?"
Li Daxiang didn't even think twice and said, "Of course."