My First Thanksgiving as a College Student

After a short, stressful week filled with tests and a midterm, I finally took that momentous five-minute drive to my house. Although my arrival home was most likely not as dramatic as my friend’s, who flew home to Seattle for the first time since she arrived at Emory, I was still overjoyed to see my family, visit with old friends, and sleep in my own bed. I woke up Thursday morning under my warm comforter to the smell of pancakes. I got up and enjoyed my first homemade breakfast with my family since fall break. They told me that we would be spending Thanksgiving dinner with my best friend’s family.

My mom, dad, sister and I spent most of the morning cooking for the grand meal we would experience later in the day. My dad cooked four of his famous homemade pies, my mom made her delicious stuffing, and my sister and I assisted wherever was needed. First, we decided to learn the art of preparing piecrusts from scratch from my dad. My sister and I mixed together flour, shortening, and salt to form a ball of dough and then lathered it with ice water. We rolled the dough out and carefully placed it into each pie plate. Finally, we added the filling to each one. About five hours later, four pies sat on the kitchen table: an apple, a pumpkin, a lemon meringue, and a chocolate. My mom added the final touches to the stuffing, my dad cooked some broccoli and corn, and we loaded up the car to go to my friend’s house.

After a careful drive down the street, my friend’s welcoming family and the smell of turkey in the oven greeted us. We were then introduced to one of their family friends who would be joining us for dinner. She was from China and cooked homemade dumplings for us to eat as an appetizer. She made three different types: pork with corn, pork with green beans, and pork with Chinese vegetables. She paired them with a dipping sauce and we enjoyed delicious, fresh dumplings. When we finished eating the appetizer, we played a game of Clue until dinner was ready.

As we tried to solve a murder mystery, the smell of Thanksgiving dinner filled the room. There was an aroma containing the smells of turkey, fresh vegetables, ham, and stuffing. My mom came around and asked what we wanted to drink with dinner, which signaled that it was time to eat. A colorful buffet was set up along the counter. I grabbed a plate and began to fill it with everything on the counter: turkey, ham, broccoli, corn, stuffing, bread, green beans, mashed potatoes, and I even put some brussel sprouts on my plate. The room silenced as we all stuffed our faces with food. As I neared the end of my plate, all the food seemed to mix together to make one flavor-filled last bite. It contained the creamy potatoes, fresh vegetables, seasoned turkey, juicy ham, and savory stuffing. As I entered the highly anticipated food coma, I walked to the couch to lie down.

Everyone eventually joined me and we spent about an hour talking. Finally, my sister mentioned the pies that sat on the counter glowing under the light. We finished the night playing board games and trying all the different pies. I went to bed that night with the taste of tangy lemon meringue pie, creamy chocolate mousse pie, zesty pumpkin pie, and sweet apple pie lingering in my mouth.

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.