Chen Lan pushed open the living room door after returning home and saw the dragon-phoenix twins, Little Dou Zi, Little Shi Tou, Hu Tou, and other children huddled on the carpet, chattering about something.
Her mother-in-law, Mama Liu, and Chun Cao were sitting on the sofa with their backs to the children, engaged in idle chatter.
Chen Lan tiptoed closer and saw a small hedgehog curled up, completely still.
The children were debating whether the hedgehog was dead or alive.
Hu Tou's milky voice piped up, "It's alive, I touched it just now, it's warm."
At this point, her chubby son Jia Yao also extended his little chubby hand and gently touched the hedgehog, nodding his head and saying, "Warm, warm."
Jia Hui was a little scared at first. Seeing Jia Yao touch the hedgehog, she too extended her plump little hand and felt it.
Little Shi Tou, in a milky voice, retorted, "If it's alive, why isn't it moving?"
Hu Tou was dumbfounded, unsure how to answer. He scratched his little head and firmly stated, "It's warm anyway, so it's alive."
Chen Lan remembered that she had brought this hedgehog home from the mountain, and it had later disappeared into some corner of the house. Over time, she had forgotten about it.
She had intended to explain to the children, "The little hedgehog is alive, it's just hibernating. But then she thought better of it! The children were too young, she would explain it to them when they were older.
She also worried that if the dragon-phoenix twins saw her, they wouldn't play nicely with their brothers and would cling to her, preventing her from doing anything else.
Chen Lan saw that the dragon-phoenix twins were playing happily with their brothers. So, she didn't go forward to disturb them.
She quietly turned and walked away, heading into the kitchen, guessing that her mother-in-law would definitely ask Commander Zheng to stay for lunch.
She considered what dishes to prepare for lunch to host Commander Zheng and Xu Mingxuan well. Firstly, Commander Zheng was a guest at their home; secondly, Xu Mingxuan was home after a long time, and she didn't know when he would return next. Today, since he was home, she should make sure he ate well.
Chen Lan pondered what to have for lunch. She remembered the large pumpkin and winter melon she had seen in the cellar earlier.
So, she decided to make a dish she hadn't eaten since transmigrating – steamed pork with pumpkin.
She would also make a large pork bone and winter melon soup, and for the staple, she would switch to steamed white rice. It would be difficult to eat rice in the army.
With this thought, she immediately sprang into action!
She slipped out of the kitchen, tiptoed to the back door, went out, and descended into the cellar. Carrying a large pumpkin in one hand and a large winter melon in the other, she emerged from the cellar, returned to the kitchen, and gently closed the kitchen door to begin her preparations.
She opened the system with her mind and was about to order fifteen catties of pork belly with skin. After thinking, she realized that an average adult would only eat about six liang of meat, which wouldn't be much. Worried it wouldn't be enough, she added three catties, ordering a total of eighteen catties of pork belly with skin.
For the soup, she only bought five catties of large pork bones, as it was for the soup, not for gnawing on bones.
Next, she ordered several bags of steaming powder.
She took out the eighteen catties of pork belly with skin from the system's warehouse. First, she washed the pork belly clean and drained it. Then, she cut it into slices about half a centimeter thick and six to seven centimeters long, placing them in a basin.
She added a small amount of soy sauce to the meat for color, a little sugar for freshness. She added some minced ginger, a little pepper powder, and a little five-spice powder. She also bought a bottle of light soy sauce from the system and added a large spoonful.
Then, she poured in some of the leftover beer from a few days ago to remove any gamey smell. She mixed it evenly with her hands and let it marinate for half an hour.
While the pork belly was marinating, she washed the pumpkin, peeled it, and cut it into rolling chunks.
She then peeled and washed the winter melon, cutting it into slices about one centimeter thick and six to seven centimeters long.
She washed the large pork bones and chopped them into large pieces. She placed them in a large basin and soaked them in clean water to remove all the blood. Otherwise, the bone broth would turn black and have a fishy smell, making the soup unpalatable.
By this time, the pork belly had finished marinating. She added the steaming powder and mixed it again with her hands, ensuring each piece of pork belly was coated.
She lined the bottom of the large soup bowls with chunks of pumpkin, then layered the steamed pork slices coated in steaming powder on top of the pumpkin, arranging them neatly. After the meat was layered, she poked a few holes with chopsticks for steam to escape. She filled five large soup bowls in this manner.
She filled the pot with enough water to half-fill it. She placed the cleaned five-layer steamer on the pot, then placed the large bowls of steamed meat in the steamer, one bowl per layer, for a total of five layers.
She opened the stove door, lit the fire, and started steaming with large firewood. It needed to be steamed on high heat for a full hour and a half to become soft and melt-in-your-mouth.
Immediately after, Chen Lan put the soaked large bones into a pot, washed them, and added them to cold water with some beer to remove the gamey smell, along with scallion knots and ginger slices. She began heating it slowly over low heat.
Once the water boiled, she skimmed off the scum from the surface. After about five to six minutes, when no more blood foam was rising, she removed the bones and rinsed them with warm water.
She transferred the large bones to a large clay pot, added enough boiling water to half-fill it, added a few slices of ginger, covered it, and began to stew on high heat. After stewing for half an hour, she reduced the heat to medium-low, covered it, and continued to stew for another hour to extract all the nutrients from the bones. Finally, she added the prepared winter melon and cooked for about ten more minutes, until the winter melon was tender.
When it was time to serve, she would add salt to taste and garnish with chopped scallions or cilantro.
By now, the kitchen was filled with a tantalizing aroma, the unique scent of steamed pork wafting through the entire kitchen.
Chen Lan had been in the kitchen the whole time and hadn't noticed how fragrant it was. As she was lowering her head to add firewood to the stove, she heard the kitchen door gently being pushed open. She looked up to see several little heads peeking in. There were Hu Tou, Little Shi Tou, Little Dou Zi, and the dragon-phoenix twins.
The dragon-phoenix twins and Little Dou Zi had somehow also crawled to the kitchen door.
Chen Lan quickly wiped her hands on her apron and scooped up the dragon-phoenix twins and Little Dou Zi.
She asked with a smile, "You little rascals, why did you come to the kitchen? Jia Hui, Jia Yao, didn't Mother tell you the kitchen is hot?"
As she spoke, she carried the three of them towards the living room.
Turning back to Hu Tou and Little Shi Tou, who were still sniffing the fragrant air at the kitchen door, she said, "Hu Tou, Little Shi Tou, you two hurry back too. No going into the kitchen, understood?"
Jia Hui, the little foodie, was very unhappy about being carried away. She kept mumbling, "Mother, it smells good, look." Dealing with a little foodie like this, Chen Lan was utterly speechless.
At this moment, the three people who had been chatting happily heard the commotion from the kitchen and turned to look.
Seeing the children gathered at the kitchen door, they were all startled.