Dying for Dinner: Spinach Quiche and Florida Pie

Dying For Dinner

When newspaper columnist and critic Harriet van Horne said, “Cooking is like love: It should be entered into with abandon or not at all,” we have to agree. Otherwise, time in the kitchen is monotony, and who wants that? Here are a couple of recipes that are simple, yummy, and will leave plenty of time for writing.

Spinach Quiche

By Stacy Allen

In “Spark of Silver, Flash of Gold”, the second in my Riley Cooper Series (pub date TBA), Riley is living and working on the island of Cypress where she rents a small room in a B&B, that has a kitchenette. A fan of the quick-to-make spinach quiche, she makes it at least once a week for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, depending upon her mood. The red peppers are her secret ingredient. The other characters love this quiche, so she sometimes makes it to give as gifts or to take to events, since it travels well. Riley is an adventurer, and though she loves to cook, she is way too busy to spend hours in the kitchen.

Ingredients:

3 cups raw spinach
3 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 medium white onion, finely chopped (can use ¼ c. shallots or 1 large leek, minced)
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes, muddled in a mortar and pestle
1 (9 inch) unbaked deep-dish piecrust
4 eggs, beaten (can use egg beaters if preferred)
16 oz heavy cream (can use light or even half and half if you prefer)
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp ground white pepper
1 cup shredded provolone cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Bake the piecrust blind, and set aside to cool. (Blind baking simply means giving the empty crust a head start in the oven before filling it. Do not bake it until golden brown. It will continue to bake when you return it to the oven with the filling.)

2. Heat olive oil in a deep, French sauté pan or wok, and over medium heat sauté onion for a few minutes until tender. Mix in the spinach, and toss with two wooden spoons, for 1 to 2 minutes. Add garlic and red pepper flakes, and toss and sauté for another minute or two, until spinach is mostly wilted. Transfer to the piecrust.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs and heavy cream. Pour over the spinach mixture in the piecrust. Season with salt and pepper. Top with Provolone.

Bake 35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Maggie's Florida Pie (aka Orange Chocolate Coconut Pie)

By Kathleen Cosgrove

Maggie Finn craves pie, and her desires to get a slice are thwarted through most of Kathleen’s novel, “Entangled”.  Here’s an excerpt: “A side dish of pretzels sat near me while I watched a documentary on the history of pie. I developed a craving for one and looked in my refrigerator in case there was some in the back I had forgotten. Since I couldn't remember purchasing any pie the entire time I lived here, not surprisingly, there was none to be found.”

Ingredients:

1 package Orange Jell-O mix
1 package Jell-O Coconut Cream pudding mix
1 package Jell-O Vanilla pudding mix
3-ounces semisweet chocolate morsels
¼-cup condensed milk
1 graham cracker pie shell
Cool Whip

Directions:

1. First, make the filling by combining all the Jell-O mixes into two cups boiling water. Stir constantly until it boils again. Cool in the refrigerator for about two hours.
2. While the filling is chilling, melt the chocolate morsels and mix with the condensed milk. Pour into the graham cracker pie shell.
3. Pour in the orange filling and top with Cool Whip. (Optional: Mix 1 tbsp orange rum or Kahlua into the Cool Whip.)
4. Garnish with orange rind around outer edges and chocolate morsels in center.

Stacy Allen holds an advanced open water diver certificate, with specialties in night, cave and wreck diving. She is also certified in enriched air nitrox.  Her passion for adventure has taken her to five continents to explore over sixty countries. She is the author of “Expedition Indigo”, the first in a new series featuring Dr. Riley Cooper, an archaeology professor from Boston who goes to Italy with a team of researchers to find and excavate the Indigo, a cargo ship full of treasures that sank in the 800s off the coast of Italy. 

Kathleen Cosgrove is a writer living in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, just a stone's throw from Nashville. Rubbing shoulders with some of the most creative and talented people on earth has nourished and helped her grow as a writer. She is best known for the unique voice she brings to all her writing. Her style of wit and humor along with snappy dialogue and offbeat characters has reviewers comparing her work to the likes of Janet Evanovich and Carl Hiaasen. She can also be found on-stage in venues in and around Nashville reading her always funny and sometimes touching memoirs.

These recipes are so good they should be a crime. If you concoct either of these great recipes, let us know what you think and send us a picture. We may include it here with a link to your website.

What are you cooking? Submit your favorite recipes. They can be based on your favorite literary character, your Aunt Clara’s, or some amalgamation of ingredients you’ve discovered that makes life worth living (nothing with arsenic seasoning, please). Make sure to include your contact information and explanation of the origin of the recipe. Send your submissions (to which you avow in a court of law that you have all rights to and are granting the nonexclusive rights to Killer Nashville to use in any form and at any time) with subject line “Dying For Dinner” to contact@KillerNashville.com.

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