While the elders were still packing their luggage, Xu Manman quickly prepared the dishes. Liu Hua and Li Xiao had asked Xu Manman to help prepare today's meal in advance to welcome the elders.
Although Liu Hua and Li Xiao had already prepared all the ingredients before they left, Xu Manman was still afraid that it would be too late, so she specially asked for the key from Liu Hua and took an hour off to come back and prepare.
Xu Manman used a small pot to stir-fry the pork belly to release the oil, added water, spices, fermented bean curd and other seasonings, poured it into the casserole and simmered it over low heat.
Liu Hua used a steamer on the stove, which contained the salty braised pork, glutinous rice egg rolls, and a steamed fish that Xu Manman had prepared in advance.
The big pot here continues to cook, stir-fried mixed vegetables, stir-fried beans and eggplant, tiger skin chili peppers, loofah and egg soup, and finally a cold dish of wild vegetables. Done!
Call Liu Hua and Li Xiao to take the dishes away. Since it is a family reunion, let's give them the space.
Moreover, looking at the dishes left on the table, she was able to eat so many kinds of food at once by herself, and there was so much meat left, so she didn't lose out.
After dinner, Liu Hua and Li Xiao brought their two mothers to come over to express their gratitude. They not only praised Xu Manman's cooking skills, but also brought her a silk scarf as a gift and discussed the wedding banquet with her.
Xu Manman is a little bald. The biggest banquet she has ever prepared only had about a dozen people, a wedding banquet, which she cannot handle.
"Auntie, how many people are you planning to invite? I've never hosted a large banquet before, and I'm worried I won't be able to handle it."
Li Xiao's mother quickly said, "Not much, not much. We don't want to have a big party now. We'll just invite the educated youth and village cadres to have a meal together. Xiaoxiao, how many tables did you just count?"
Xiaoxiao - Li Xiao was called by his nickname by his mother in front of outsiders, but he remained calm. However, his red ears betrayed him. Liu Hua buried her head and tried to hold back her laughter, and Xu Manman even saw the twitching corners of her mouth.
But I still had to answer my mother's question obediently, "Probably three or four tables."
"Let's prepare four tables, Xu Zhiqing, is that okay with you?"
Cooking three to four tables is a big project. It takes her two days to prepare the New Year’s Eve dinner at home, and she has several people to help. If she has to do so much at once, won’t she be exhausted?
Looking at Liu Hua who was looking at him eagerly, he still couldn't bear to refuse. After all, he was the first friend he had sent to the countryside, and coupled with the previous incident,
Forget it, after all, it is the most important thing in Liu Hua’s life, who doesn’t want it to be perfect?
"I can do it, but Liu Hua and the others know my habits. I'm only responsible for cooking. I don't care about preparing ingredients or cleaning up afterwards. Auntie, you may need to hire a few more people to help."
The two people who were about to get married and their two mothers were very happy to see Xu Manman agreed.
Li Xiao's mother said, "Of course, of course. You just need to be responsible for cooking. We will arrange everything else. It's a bit late today. Xu Zhiqing, please go to bed first. We will discuss the menu and ingredients tomorrow."
Xu Manman nodded, exchanged a few more pleasantries, and then sent them out.
After leaving Xu Manman's place, the two took their elders to visit a few educated youth they knew.
At noon the next day, Xu Manman, Liu Hua, Li Xiao, and Liu Jinfeng also called Liu Jinfeng to discuss the menu together.
The menu is easy to come up with, as Xu Manman can cook anything, but it depends on how much meat, eggs, etc. Liu Jinfeng can help find in the village.
Finally, we decided to have three meat dishes, four vegetable dishes and one soup for each table: pheasant stewed with hazel mushrooms and vermicelli, pickled fish, cured rabbit stewed with potatoes, stir-fried eggplant and beans, egg skin glutinous rice rolls, braised tofu, garlic vegetables, and fish ball soup.
After the menu was set, Liu Jinfeng was busy preparing the ingredients, mainly meat, eggs, and fish; the vegetables were all ready-made from her own private plot.
The wedding is tomorrow. The newlyweds went to the commune to get the marriage certificate in the morning and had lunch.
So after work that day, Xu Manman was busy. Liu Hua found female educated youth at the educated youth center except Chen Meizhi and Li Min to help. In the evening, the two mothers also came to help.
Stewing the chicken and cured rabbit in advance and adding the side dishes before serving tomorrow will save a lot of time. Xu Manman also has to make egg skin glutinous rice rolls and fish balls in the evening.
Fortunately, most of them are women who are used to cooking. Xu Manman only needs to adjust the seasoning and demonstrate how to make it once, and then they can start cooking directly, which saves her a lot of trouble.
They were busy until midnight that day. Xu Manman, the cook, and those who helped took a day off in advance. Although they didn't have to go to work, they had to get up early the next day.
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