Apricot Crisp — The Sweetness Behind the Glaze, and the Card That Made Me Cry

Christmas in California, year two (second time at Pendleton). The tree is up. The baking is done. The FaceTime schedule is confirmed. And for the first time, Christmas is not just a family holiday — it's also a career event, because the book makes a perfect Christmas gift and the sales are spiking. 'Dinner at 1800' hit 25,000 copies sold this week. Twenty-five THOUSAND. Clara called: 'You're one of the top-selling military family books of the year. The buzz from the second book deal has boosted first book sales. People are discovering you.' Discovering me. In bookstores, in base exchanges, in Amazon carts. People buying a book about my mother's casserole for their mothers, their wives, their daughters. Christmas Eve: baked ziti (the tradition). Christmas morning: Ryan's breakfast casserole (the tradition — he's perfected it; Dad would approve without caveat). Christmas dinner: my glazed ham (MY glaze now — more Dijon, always more Dijon). FaceTime Christmas: Mom, Dad, Megan (married now — she married Grant in a small ceremony in Arlington this fall; I was there; it was lovely; Grant is still wallpaper but Megan loves him and that's what matters). Caleb opened presents: books about cooking (from Mom), a play food set (from Mom — the woman is RELENTLESS), and actual cooking tools sized for children — a real apron, a real whisk, a real rolling pin (from me, because if Mom is going to equip him from Norfolk, I'm going to equip him from the kitchen). Hazel opened presents and ate the wrapping paper. She's ten months old. The wrapping paper was more interesting than the gifts. This is correct. Mom sent me a Christmas card this year that was different from the usual. Inside, she wrote: 'Rachel. The book changed my life. Not because I'm in it. Because reading it made me see what I did. All those years of cooking — I didn't know it mattered this much. I thought I was just making dinner. You showed me it was more. Thank you for showing me. Love, Mom.' I read it standing in the kitchen on Christmas morning and I cried the hardest cry of the year. Because THAT'S what the book was for. Not for readers or royalties or bestseller lists. For HER. For Donna. For the woman who made dinner ten thousand times and never once thought to call it extraordinary. It was extraordinary, Mom. It was always extraordinary. Merry Christmas. The ham was mine. The card was hers. And the kitchen, as always, is ours.

The apricot in my ham glaze has always done the heavy lifting — that bright, jammy sweetness underneath the Dijon that makes the whole thing sing. So when Christmas dinner was done and Mom’s card was still sitting on the counter and I needed something to do with my hands, I turned to this apricot crisp: the same fruit, the same warmth, just quieter. It felt right to end a Christmas like this one — the kind that changed something — with a dessert that tastes like the best part of the meal we’d already had.

Apricot Crisp

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 35 min | Total Time: 50 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 4 cups fresh or canned apricot halves, drained and sliced (about 2 lbs fresh)
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

Instructions

1. Preheat oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly butter an 8x8-inch or similar 2-quart baking dish.
2. Prepare the fruit. Toss sliced apricots with granulated sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla extract until evenly coated. Spread in an even layer in the prepared baking dish.
3. Make the crisp topping. In a medium bowl, combine oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Add cold butter cubes and use your fingertips to work the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse, clumpy crumbs with some pea-sized pieces remaining.
4. Assemble and bake. Scatter the topping evenly over the apricot layer. Bake for 30–35 minutes, until the topping is golden brown and the fruit is bubbling at the edges.
5. Rest and serve. Let the crisp cool for at least 10 minutes before serving. Serve warm, plain or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 290 | Protein: 3g | Fat: 12g | Carbs: 44g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 105mg