The “Ugly Duckling” Dish

I can smell it when I am upstairs doing homework, I see it almost every Sunday on the dinner table, and it always looks just as nasty as the week before. It sits in the glass pie plate, covered with different colored cheeses, and filled with an array of vegetables. This dish is known as vegetable quiche; it is the centerpiece to the one meal in which it is assured that our entire family is present for during the week, despite our chaotic lives.

Although throughout by high school career I rarely had the time to help my mom prepare the quiche on Sunday, I still remember the quite lengthy process of making it. It always begins with a grocery store adventure. We start in the bakery section, gathering a fresh baguette to accent the quiche and then wander to the produce section for the majority of the ingredients. We collect onions, tomatoes, eggplant, squash, and zucchini along with the fixings for a salad to accompany our meal. After making a quick run to get Parmesan and mozzarella cheese, we head to the check out line.

Once back in the kitchen, the vegetables are laid out on cutting boards and we get sharp knives. We spend approximately thirty minutes chopping and dicing all the produce. After it is all chopped, a rainbow array, from the red tomatoes to the purple eggplant, of vegetables line the kitchen counter. However, this beautiful sight does not last long.

My mom then finds the biggest pot we own, turns on the stove, puts in onions, and watches them sizzle. The vegetables are then added and continually stirred for roughly forty-five minutes. While someone mans the stove, my mom mixes eggs, milk, Parmesan, and mozzarella cheese in a large bowl. As the end of the hour approaches, the vegetables mix into what appears to the eye as “dark brown, lumpy mush.” The dairy and eggs are then added to the large pot to change the color of the vegetable “mush” to light brown.

The final step is to add the mixture to a glass pie pan, sprinkle some extra Parmesan cheese on top, and place the dish in the oven for an hour. The smell of fresh vegetables and cheese fills all the rooms throughout our house. As the hour nears, we set the table, fix the salad, and toast the bread. Our family gathers around the kitchen and the steaming hot quiche is placed in the center of the table.

As it sits on the table, we know that the cheesy top layer of the quiche only disguises the brown “mushy” layer underneath. My mom cuts the pieces and places them on our plates. The quiche slowly deforms as the mixture of vegetables oozes around the plate. Despite the ugly appearance, the freshness of the various vegetables combined with the light, fluffy cheesy covering makes for a delicious bite. After an hour of conversing and eating, my family has consumed at least two-thirds of the quiche. The following day it is a fight for the leftovers.

I think of quiche as an “ugly duckling” because the dish appears very unattractive, yet it contains the most beautiful combination of flavors. I look forward to not only eating it, but also spending the time with my family. I am excited to go home for winter break and eat many helpings of vegetable quiche.