On November 12th, We had Theron Schmidt volunteer his time and he taught us how to bake homemade pies and vegan quiche with a Caesar salad to pair with it. My group was tasked with making the tops for the pies, while other groups were tasked with other specifics like the Caesar salad or creating the crust of the pie and adding filling. It seemed more like an assembly line, which is very different from what we usually do, where we all make a dish for the entire class and share that. It was a nice switch up to make things feel different. As far as what other groups did, I can’t speak for them, but my group actually had a little bit of trouble making the tops for the pies. We used one part vegan butter to two parts flour. I also accidentally spilled some of the flour, but it ended up helping me in the long run I think. The trouble for our group was that when we tried putting the mixture into a ball for it to be rolled out, Katelyn and Lars had a bit more

trouble getting it to stick, but because I spilt some of the flour, I think it helped to get the mixture to stick together. We then froze the mixture to get it to stick together, but this made it just that much harder to roll out. We eventually got it to relatively work, but Katelyn had to make her pie a crumble top. We then all waited for the pies to bake and we set the table and Theron started a discussion about democracy and other ways of leadership. We made a pros and cons list of each form of democracy. Before we got too deep in discussion, the pies were ready and we got up and got food. We the ate, listened, and discussed the current situation of democracy that America is in, as well as other countries. We talked about how, right now, we elect people who voice their opinions for us for the sake of speed, instead of where we have a national election over every decision that is made, which is a much slower process . As Theron came from living in Australia and England, he has experienced a wide variety of forms of government, and he provided a great thought exercise, especially since Midterm elections were very recent. It was a very different experience on this Monday as opposed to others. We were are interacting quite a lot more during the second half of the class. We oftentimes just listen to the speaker and ask just a question or two and we go clean up, but we were much deeper in thought this class, which is always a benefit. I also noticed that we got out of class much later than normal, which may have been a side effect of how we did things this class period, so it may not have been as efficient, but it was very nice to switch it up from the usual formula that we follow in class.