Day 10: Caution takes flight

We sat in rows of chairs, before a white dry erase board. One designated student "presenter" sat in the front, her article underlined and highlighted, with circles, arrows, and comments in the margins. She presented an article about the introduction of television into Fijian culture, which happened in 1995, and the influences on body image and eating attitudes in adolescent girls. Fijian culture has historically revered a more robust physique, but the introduction of television sparked tension between generations as the younger girls expressed a desire to look thin like the women on Beverly Hills 90210.

"This is all very interesting to me because in my culture I am coming vrom a communist country vhere eating disorders did not exist. Nobody cared vhat your body looked like and for the most part everybody vas normal veight and novone vas fat. Food vas precious, and you didn't eat snacks..." The Hungarian professor continued on talking about her home land, "vone girl vas fat, but ve all knew she had some hormonal problems and that vas that.."

As she continued on I was reminded of my grandmother, who hungered for an audience, and never stopped to breath once she started talking. It didn't matter if she had already told you the story a hundred times (or even if you had been the one who originally told her that particular story). My grandmother could talk for hours, and often did.

"and ven I had my son, he didn't vant to be eating anything he vas very picky..." the professor continued. By now, everyone was shuffling in their seats. The professor was breaking the unwritten rules of science. She was sharing her experience of life, she was straying from the data. Here was our opportunity to talk about our experiences with food, completely unrestricted by scientific evidence, the only problem was that nobody could get a word in edgewise. The whole class seemed to be leaning forward. Eyebrows went up and down, lips pressed together in the beginnings of words, but still the professor continued.
It was agony.

Tonight is a perfect night to throw out the rules, roll down your windows, push back your chair, turn the music up, and have some quiche.

Quiche

1 1/4 cup unbleached white flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/4 sticks of cold unsalted butter

1 tsp salt

8-9 Tbsp cold water

small drizzle of black truffle infused olive oil

Mix the flours together with the salt. Drizzle in the black truffle oil. Add the butter in using two knives, a pastry blender, or your fingers, being careful not to melt the butter too much (you want coarse "peas" of butter flour). Add the water,1 Tbsp at a time (you may not need it all, or you may want to use more) bring the flour together into a dough. Do not over mix, you will end up with a tough crust. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and put in the fridge for 30 min. On a floured surface, roll out the dough and roll it into a 9 inch cake pan (I don't have a pie plate, if you are using a pie plate, you will want to use less eggs for the quiche).

Cut the excess dough off so that it hangs about 1 inch over the side, evenly all around. Pinch this dough up with your fingers and use it to make pleats for the crust. Poke a few holes with a fork in the bottom of the pan. Cover the dough with tinfoil and pour about 1 cup of dried kidney beans on top (for weight) Bake the crust at 400 for 20 min, then take it out and remove the tinfoil and beans.

Pour in 4 Tbsp shredded cheese (whatever kind you like, I used mozzarella because I had some leftover), vegetables (see below) and egg mixture (see below). Bake at 400 for 25 min.

Note: The quiche will rise a bit, so you don't want to overfill the crust with egg mixture.

Vegetable mixture:

1/2 small yellow onion, diced

1/2 bunch asparagus, cut into small pieces

1 cup chopped portabello mushroom

1 Tbsp olive oil

salt pepper and paprika

Heat the oil and a little salt and add the onion, mushroom and asparagus. Cook for about 10 min, stirring occasionally. Add chopped watercress and turn off the heat.

Eggs:

Whisk together 8 large eggs

1 Tbsp cream

1 tsp pepper

a tiny drop of black truffle flavored olive oil

Christina's vote: "This dinner made me feel less afraid of the dark"