Two Kheers + Time = PIE

It's a little hard to tell that there's a kheer under there because I kinda went nuts with the garnish. But here's what happened:

The party invite I got said that dinner would be served around 6:30 and that people could come earlier if they wanted, to socialize. I arrived at 7:00, was the first person there, and was able to help my hosts do some of the cooking. The other guests all came around 9:00 p.m., and it was quarter-to-ten before the hosts insisted we stop chatting long enough to move to the table for food.

There were two kheer-like desserts in attendance: mine, which was a lot closer to a rice pudding than a kheer, and another one which used vermicelli. Both sat in the kitchen waiting their turn to be brought out, and both ended up sitting in the kitchen, forgotten, for hours. When the various desserts were served (there were many, because nearly everyone had brought something), the guests were appropriately excited about having both kheer and "rice pudding" until we realized that both desserts, having sat unattended for nearly six hours at this point, had dried out completely. (The first guest to take a bite of my kheer said, kindly, "should we add some more milk to this?") We ended up with one dish of hard, crunchy rice and one dish of vermicelli that had swollen to the size of spaghetti noodles.

Luckily there was also pie, and plenty of it.

Despite the fact that we forgot about the kheers, it was a great party. Or, perhaps, because of the fact that we forgot about the kheers, it was obviously a great party. Happy Thanksgiving!