By My birthday is in three weeks and Tyler has been doing that thing where he gets slightly furtive and changes the subject too fast when I ask about plans. I pretend not to notice because I know he wants it to be a surprise and I want him to have that. I have spent most of my birthdays not being surprised, and not in the good way. One of the group homes forgot entirely. I was thirteen. I ate a bologna sandwich for dinner and did not mention it.
I will be twenty-six. That is still strange to say. Twenty-six feels like a real adult number. Twenty-five felt like practice. I do not know if I feel like a real adult. I feel like someone who makes biscuits from scratch and has a steady job and a man who loves her and a foster grandmother who tells her she is doing well. Maybe that is what a real adult feels like and I just expected it to feel different.
Gloria and I made apple cake Sunday. Her recipe, which involves three cups of diced apple and a full cup of oil and barely enough flour to hold it together. It comes out dense and moist and smells like October. Destiny helped peel apples. She is getting better with the peeler. She only cut herself once and it was small and she handled it with more composure than I have when I cut myself cooking, which is often.
Destiny asked me how old I was going to be. I said twenty-six. She thought about it and said that was old. I said yes. She said but good old. I said yes, good old. The best kind.
We made apple cake that Sunday, and it was Gloria’s recipe and Destiny’s careful peeling and the smell of October in a warm kitchen — and I kept thinking about how that is the thing I want more of at twenty-six, just that: warmth and fruit and people I love nearby. This Hot Fruit Salad is the recipe I keep coming back to when I want something that feels like a celebration without making a fuss, sweet and bubbling and the kind of thing you can make with whatever is in the pantry, the kind of thing that fills a kitchen with a smell that says someone is being taken care of here.
Hot Fruit Salad
Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 40 minutes | Servings: 8
Ingredients
- 1 can (20 oz) pineapple chunks, drained
- 1 can (15 oz) sliced peaches, drained
- 1 can (15 oz) pear halves, drained and sliced
- 1 can (15 oz) mandarin oranges, drained
- 1 can (21 oz) cherry pie filling
- 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
Instructions
- Preheat. Heat your oven to 350°F. Lightly butter a 9x13-inch baking dish.
- Combine fruit. Add the drained pineapple, peaches, pears, and mandarin oranges to the baking dish. Stir gently to combine.
- Add pie filling. Spoon the cherry pie filling over the fruit and fold it in gently so it coats everything evenly.
- Season. Sprinkle the brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg evenly over the top of the fruit mixture.
- Dot with butter. Scatter the small pieces of butter across the surface so they melt down into the fruit as it bakes.
- Bake. Bake uncovered for 25–30 minutes, until the fruit is hot throughout and the edges are just beginning to bubble.
- Rest and serve. Let the dish rest for 5 minutes before serving. Spoon warm into bowls on its own, or alongside vanilla ice cream or pound cake.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 210 | Protein: 1g | Fat: 3g | Carbs: 47g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 35mg