FRENCH FRIDAYS WITH DORIE: Spinach-Bacon Quiche

I was working this afternoon on this recipe for the French Fridays with Dorie cooking group so that I could get it posted tomorrow. I made a pastry crust, got it all fitted into my quiche plate and assembled my ingredients: bacon, spinach, onion, garlic, eggs, heavy cream, some salt and pepper, parmesan cheese...quiches are generally pretty easy to put together and I'm glad about that, particularly today. Last night, you see, we had some of the worst thunderstorms I've ever quivered my way through, complete with tornado sirens and howling winds, hail and whirly, twirly clouds in the sky. It was quite a night and left me with a storm hangover: all day long I've been twitchy and dove for the downstairs bathroom -- a windowless interior room -- when an ambulance's siren wailed by outside.

Anyway, quiche is a lovely, comforting food and this one sounded so good. I finally have given up on Dorie's pastry crust because it just never turns out right for me. Instead, I tried one from Paula Deen's cookbook, Paula Deen's Kitchen Classics, and I'm happy to say that it turned out perfectly: easy to throw into the food processor, easy to roll, chill and then fit into my quiche plate. Plus it was delicious, flaky and light the way pastry is supposed to be. I don't know what it is about those Dorie Greenspan pastry crusts, but I just hate them. All that butter and shortening going into a crust that shrinks and tears and doesn't cook evenly is a bit of wastefulness that I find extraordinarily annoying.

So! Quiche! It wasn't until I had everything ready to go that I realized that the bag of spinach I bought last week? It was nowhere to be found. Did I actually buy it? Did I buy it and then didn't realize that the girls were making salads like busy little rabbits? I don't know.

What I do know is that I made a very delightful Spinach-Bacon Quiche with no spinach, and it was very good indeed.