Four Foods in the Mountains

There is an old tree at the entrance of the village. In summer, the villagers often enjoy the shade under the tree, playing chess or chatting about family affairs together, which is more lively than being bored at home.

When Lu Yunchuan came back with a basket on his back, everyone greeted him when they saw him.

"The second boy came back from working in the town?"

"The second boy went to the town to find a job again. He is really hardworking, not as lazy as my family."

Lu Yunchuan responded one by one, and when he walked past the old tree to the pond, he saw a familiar chubby figure.

In summer, lotus flowers and lotus pods are blooming in the pond. In hot weather, children are eager for coolness. Brave boys dare to paddle in the pond with a wooden basin. The girl and the little brother just look at the lotus by the pond Fish, flick the water with your hands.

Lu Jianglan got a big lotus leaf from nowhere, and was holding it up with both hands, squatting under the lotus leaf with a little brother and talking affectionately next to each other.

"Yuan'er." Lu Yunchuan called out.

Yuan'er is Lu Jianglan's nickname. In the village, the nicknames given to children are cheap, such as iron egg, cow egg, tiger son... cheap names are easy to support, anyway, it was only called that when I was a child, and everyone didn't care too much.

Lu Yunchuan and Cen Ning were not happy to call their children this. When Lu Jianglan was still in his infancy, he was a white and tender ball, and he always felt unable to yell at a fat white ball.

Cen Ning said otherwise, let's call it Yuanxiao, because they look alike, and Lu Yunchuan always listened to Cen Ning, so Lu Jianglan's nickname was Yuanxiao.

But he is a kid after all, when he can jump and jump, the family will change his name to Yuaner.

The villain heard a voice coming out of his head from under the lotus leaf, and seeing Lu Yunchuan's eyes lit up, he immediately got up and waved: "Father!"

Then he turned his head and said something to the little brother next to him, and ran towards Lu Yunchuan holding the lotus leaf.

"Run slowly, don't worry." Lu Yunchuan shouted at him.

Lu Jianglan's calf is short but he walks fast. He rushed to Lu Yunchuan and hugged Lu Yunchuan's knee: "Father hug!"

People in the village pay attention to holding grandchildren and not having children, and a strict father and loving mother are good in the family, but Lu Yunchuan is different. Lu Jianglan was brought up by him and Cen Ning, and because he is still young, he is extremely clingy.

Picking up his son, Lu Yunchuan looked at the big lotus leaf in his hand and asked, "Where did this come from?"

Lu Jianglan handed the lotus leaf to Lu Yunchuan, hugged Lu Yunchuan's neck and shook his feet: "Brother Ling picked it for me."

Brother Ling was the little brother who was talking to Lu Jianglan by the river just now.

Lu Yunchuan asked: "Brother Ling is a little brother, you are a kid, how can you let the little brother go down the river to pick lotus leaves for you?"

Lu Jianglan said seriously: "Because I'm afraid, the water is so deep, I'm afraid, Brother Ling is not afraid."

"Then you are not afraid that they will laugh at you now?" Lu Yunchuan weighed his son and asked with a smile.

Lu Jianglan looks after Cen Ning, with white skin and big eyes, he is fat and fat, and Cen Ning cleans him up on weekdays, and it is very painful to tie him up with Xiaojiujiu.

Anyone in the village who saw him had to look at him a few more times to tease him, and then said: "Oh, our boy Yuan is more beautiful than my little brother."

Coupled with his timidity, some boys in the village who were about his age jokingly called him "Brother Yuan".

At first, Lu Jianglan was still sad about this. Before going to bed at night, he lay on his father and father, wiping his eyes and complaining bitterly: "I am a boy, not a brother, who will I marry in the future?"

It made Lu Yunchuan and Cen Ning roll their eyes with a smile.

After being called "Brother Yuan" and "Brother Yuan" for a long time, he got used to it.

Tired from playing all afternoon, the villain lay down on Lu Yunchuan's shoulders, pouted and said, "Just make fun of me, I don't like to play with them, I just like to play with Brother Ling."

This is out of temper. Although the village boy likes to make fun of him, if he wants to go out to play, he must run to the Lu family's yard and call him.

It's just that Lu Jianglan likes to be clean, sometimes when he sees them going to play in the fields and rivers, he doesn't want to get his clothes dirty, so he goes to find the little girls and buddies to turn flower ropes to pick fruit.

Carrying all the way home, as soon as he walked into the courtyard, Lu Jianglan opened his eyes and said, "Meat, Daddy is cooking meat."

Thumping his legs to ask Lu Yunchuan to let him down, Lu Jianglan ran into the kitchen immediately: "Daddy!"

Cen Ning heard the voice coming out of the kitchen, with a cloth towel around his waist, he knelt down and hugged his son, and said with a smile, "Why is your nose so good? After playing all afternoon, are you hungry? Daddy will give you and Ah Father made meatballs."

Lu Jianglan smiled and turned his big eyes: "I like meatballs, and so does my father."

"Yes, both you and father like it, and eat more at night." Cen Ning said, hugging his son to Lu Yunchuan, "Let father take you to wash your hands, we can eat meatballs after washing your hands."

In the evening, not only made meatballs, Cen Ning also steamed a drawer of steamed buns.

He went to Wu's house yesterday and told Brother Zhu to save a piece of plum blossom meat and a piece of pork belly for him this morning, and wanted to make meatballs for Yuan'er.

Meatballs are delicious only if they are fat and thin. There is no fat to eat. The meat stuffing made by mixing plum meat and pork belly has the best taste.

Chop the two pieces of meat into fine mince, squeeze out the blood and wash it twice, then squeeze it dry a little bit, so that the washed meat will not have a fishy smell.

Sprinkle salt, add water and cooking wine, then put a spoonful of cornstarch, stir in one direction with a few chopsticks, wait until the meat filling is stirred vigorously, and it will not fall apart when pinched, then you can start rubbing meatballs.

Cen Ning rubbed the meatballs into big pieces, heated the oil in a pan, and deep-fried the big meatballs.

At the same time, boil hot water in another pot, add ginger slices and peppercorns, and put in the sauce to cook until the color becomes thicker.

When a pot of meatballs is fried until golden and the skin is crispy, you can take it out and put it in the sauce to simmer for a quarter of an hour. When the lid is lifted, the whole kitchen is filled with the smell of meat.

Yuan'er was taken by Lu Yunchuan to wash his hands. Cen Ning took out the meatballs in the pot, poured them with a thick and sticky sauce, and finally thickened them with stock soup and starch water, poured them on the meatballs, and sprinkled a handful of green onions.

The meatballs wrapped in soup are bright in color and full of mellow aroma.

Lu Jianglan was wrapped in Lu Yunchuan's arms and wiped his hands with a small cloth towel. He climbed up to the wooden bench next to the table and sat down obediently. He waited for his father to wrap him in a cloth pocket and said that it was time to eat.

In the kitchen, the steamer was opened, and there were big steaming steamed buns inside.

The steamed stuffed bun has a thin skin and a big stuffing, which is filled with beans and eggs, which is oily and delicious.Cen Ning boiled an extra small bowl of dense red bean paste and made some red bean buns.

Yuan'er and Zhige'er love to eat sweet buns.

After packing a few big meatballs and picking up some freshly steamed red bean buns, Cen Ning asked Lu Yunchuan to deliver them to Brother Zhi.

A bowl of meatballs, a bowl of fried green beans, a bowl of fried loofah, a pot of millet porridge, and a basket of steamed buns.

Lu Yunchuan has been working in the town for the past few days, Yuan'er is edible, and Cen Ning cooks a sumptuous dinner.

Put a meatball for Yuan'er and put it in a bowl. The meatball was as big as one side of his face. The big meatball smelled fragrant. Lu Jianglan swallowed after smelling the smell: "Daddy, wait for Father to come back and eat."

"Daddy knows." Cen Ning said with a smile, "Daddy puts it in a bowl for you first, and you cool it down first, so that you won't burn your mouth when Father comes back to eat."

What Daddy said was right, Lu Jianglan held the thick bowl as big as his head and pouted his mouth to blow the balls, buried his face in it, and did not forget to ask: "Daddy and Grandpa's also blow cold, don't burn them."

It wasn't until Lu Yunchuan came back with an empty bowl that Lu Jianglan closed his eyes with a smile and took a bite.

The meatballs have been fried and stewed, soft and tasty, salty and rich in oil, fat but not greasy in one bite, and the meat is covered with mellow and thick sauce.

The red bean buns are steamed until they are soft, and the red bean paste inside is delicate and dense, and it is fragrant and sweet when you bite it with the outer skin.

The golden millet porridge is soft and glutinous, and the green beans and loofah grown in the backyard are sweet and delicious when fried without adding anything.

For one dinner, all three of them ate enough to fill their stomachs.

After dinner, Lu Jianglan sat on the wooden swing that Lu Yunchuan made himself, with Cen Ning and Lu Yunchuan pushing him behind.

Next to the swing is a grape trellis, which was built by Lu Yunchuan when Cen Ning was pregnant with Yuan'er. The grapes in this season have already fallen down, and the grains are plump and round, but they don't taste so sweet.

We have to wait until August when there is a lot of rain and sunshine, when the grapes taste sweet and juicy.

Lu Jianglan looked at the grape and stretched out his hand to want it. Lu Yunchuan picked one for him. The grape was so big that it took up more than half of his palm.

"The grapes are not sweet at this time. After a while, the grapes will grow sweet. Father will pick them for you."

Lu Jianglan nodded, didn't put it in his mouth to eat, just held it in his hand and smelled the aroma of the grape skin: "It smells good, just like Daddy's."

He is still young, so he can't distinguish the smell, whether it is the fragrance of flowers and fruit or the fragrance of the fragrant beads at home, he can only say that it is as fragrant as his father.

Lu Yunchuan came back late from work and ate dinner late, and after swinging in the yard for a while, it got dark.

Lu Yunchuan went to the kitchen to boil water, and Cen Ning carried his son to the back room to find clean clothes.

It's hot, and I have to wash it every night before I go to the kang.

Lu Yunchuan took his son and locked the courtyard door to wash in the yard, while Cen Ning washed in the kitchen.

Hearing the sound of splashing water in the yard, Cen Ning said helplessly, "Yuan'er, you can't play in the water. After washing, let my father dry it for you."

Then he scolded Lu Yunchuan: "Don't let him play in the water, it's windy at night, be careful that he catches a cold."

As soon as the words fell, there was no sound outside. Cen Ning also knew that the father and son must be laughing after being caught doing something bad.

Lu Yunchuan was the most calm person, after Yuan'er was born, sometimes he became a bit childish.

After washing, I changed into clean clothes and went back to the back room. It was windy at night in the mountains and hot during the day, so it was cooling down now.

The oil lamp was lit in the room, and the three of them sat on the kang, all of them smelled of fragrant beads.

Cen Ning untied the little Jiujiu tied on Lu Jianglan's head, and combed his hair with a wooden comb.

Lu Jianglan was lying in his father's fragrant and soft embrace wearing the little bellyband sewn by his father, shaking his legs, and let his father scratch his feet to play.

"Father, do you still have to go to work tomorrow?"

Lu Yunchuan nodded.

Lu Jianglan was not very happy, her mouth pouted: "I wake up every morning and you have already left. Only Dad and I are at home. I have to wait until the afternoon to see you."

As he spoke, he raised his head and asked Cen Ning, "Is that right, Daddy?"

Cen Ning rubbed his soft face, lowered his eyebrows and smiled.

After he gave birth to a child, he looked even more tender, and his eyebrows and eyes seemed to be coated with a halo under the candlelight, which was unbelievably soft.

Lu Yunchuan patted his son's fat feet: "Two days, father's work will be finished in two days, and I will often accompany you and father after finishing, okay? Tomorrow, father will bring you peach cakes and milk from the town Eat jujube cake, your favorite."

"Daddy, Auntie, and Brother Zhi all like it!"

"Yes, I like them all. Let my father buy a lot of them. Let's eat together, okay?"

"it is good!"

The child's drowsiness came quickly, and after a while Lu Jianglan rubbed his eyes and slipped into Cen Ning's arms: "Daddy, pat to sleep."

I still didn't forget to mutter: "Let's eat steamed stuffed buns tomorrow morning, okay?"

"Okay, when you wake up, Daddy will steam steamed buns for you. I want red bean buns, isn't it sweet?"

Lu Yunchuan spread out the quilt beside him, and Cen Ning lay down with his arms around his son, patted his stomach to coax him, and soon fell asleep snoring, with both hands clenched into fists next to his head.

Lu Yunchuan and Cen Ning looked amused.

"Tonight, I ate two meatballs, drank a bowl of millet porridge, and ate more than half of a red bean bun. I guess I'll wake up in the middle of the night." Lu Yunchuan tucked the quilt up for his son.

"He likes to eat those. He likes to eat meat and sweets." Cen Ning smiled, "It will take a while before I can make meatballs for him again, otherwise sooner or later he will become a little fat man and really become a Lantern Festival."