Spinach Bacon Quiche

Release day. "Cab Kitchen" published Tuesday, April 19, 2022. I spent the morning at home in the sunroom trying to read the newspaper and failing. At noon Sarah arrived from the Omaha airport. At 2 we drove to Hastings Bookstore. At 4 we set up a table. At 6 the event started. At 6:01 people began coming through the door. At 7 there were eighty-six people in a bookstore that holds forty. Dave stood in the corner holding Josie's hand. Tyler and Justin stood against the back wall. Amber was at the front handing out name tags, a job she had invented for herself because Amber thrives on invented jobs. Gayle sat in a folding chair next to the signing table, immovable, royal.

Sarah introduced me. I read three paragraphs from the book — the opening. I took questions for forty minutes. A woman in the back asked me about Darla. I answered. My voice did not break. The room was silent. A trucker from North Platte named Carl Handers stood and said, "Brenda. You wrote a book about us. We have never been written about like this before." I said, "Thank you, Carl." He sat down. He was crying. I was holding it together by a wire.

I signed 102 books. The bookstore ran out. They had ordered 80. People bought the display copies. People left deposits on future copies. Sarah looked at me at 9 p.m. and mouthed "TOLD YOU" across the room. A line formed for photographs after. A newspaper photographer from the Grand Island Independent took a picture that ran on the front page Wednesday. I was signing a book for a woman named Delphine whose face I will never forget because she said to me, "My husband drives. I read the book and I understood what he does." That is the whole point. That is the whole book in a sentence. If I had written the book and only that woman had understood, it would have been worth it.

Dave drove me home. I did not speak. I could not speak. He held my hand in the truck. We got home at 10. The kids were in bed. Dave made me a grilled cheese. I ate it at the counter. He made himself one too. We ate grilled cheese in the kitchen at 10:45 p.m. on the night my book was published, and I thought: this is exactly right. This is the right meal for this moment. A grilled cheese with a man who has stood next to me for nineteen years while I did the slow work of becoming myself. Grilled cheese is the right food for a woman who has become herself. I am going to put that in the next book. (I am going to write another book. I have decided tonight. I did not know it until I ate the grilled cheese. I know it now.)

Dave’s grilled cheese that night was perfect — I mean that without irony — but it was also a one-time thing, unrepeatable the way that night was unrepeatable. What I reach for now, when something big and quiet has happened and I want to mark it with food that feels like being held, is this spinach bacon quiche. It takes a little longer than grilled cheese, which is the point: the slow work of making it is part of how I honor the slow work that earned the moment. I made it the morning after “Cab Kitchen”’s first week on shelves, and I have made it every time since when the occasion is too tender for a party but too important for nothing.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 45 min | Total Time: 1 hr 5 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

1 9-inch unbaked pie crust (store-bought or homemade)
6 strips bacon, chopped
1 small yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups fresh baby spinach, roughly chopped
4 large eggs
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cups shredded Gruyère cheese, divided
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Instructions

Preheat oven. Heat oven to 375°F. Press pie crust into a 9-inch pie dish, crimp edges, and prick the bottom several times with a fork. Blind bake for 10 minutes, then set aside.
Cook the bacon. In a skillet over medium heat, cook chopped bacon until crisp, about 6–8 minutes. Transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate. Reserve 1 tablespoon of drippings in the pan.
Sauté the vegetables. In the same skillet with the reserved drippings, cook onion over medium heat until softened, about 4 minutes. Add garlic and spinach and cook, stirring, until spinach is wilted and any liquid has evaporated, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
Make the custard. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, heavy cream, and milk until smooth. Stir in 1 cup of the Gruyère, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
Assemble. Scatter the cooked bacon and spinach mixture evenly across the bottom of the par-baked crust. Pour the egg custard over the top. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup of Gruyère evenly over the surface.
Bake. Bake at 375°F for 35–40 minutes, until the center is just set and the top is lightly golden. A knife inserted near the center should come out clean. If the crust edge browns too quickly, cover it loosely with foil.
Rest and serve. Let the quiche rest for 10 minutes before slicing. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Nutrition (per serving)

Spinach Bacon Quiche — The Quiet Celebration That Follows the Loud One