By Week 451. Fall 2024. I am 41 years old and standing in my kitchen — the Bench house kitchen, the one that held cancer and divorce and cinnamon rolls — and the stove is on and something is cooking and the house smells like cinnamon and falling leaves and this is my life. This is the life I built.
Brett came Wednesday. We sat on the porch and talked about nothing, and the nothing was perfect, the way nothing between siblings is always perfect — full of history, empty of agenda, the purest form of company.
Mason is 13 and navigating middle school with the quiet competence that has always been his way — focused, kind, certain of who he is in a way that took me thirty years to achieve.
Lily is 11 and riding horses with the fearlessness of someone who has never considered the possibility of falling.
I made chili and cornbread this week. The food continues. The food always continues. It is the thread that connects every week to every other week, every year to every other year, every version of me to every other version — the woman on the kitchen floor, the woman at the chemo recliner, the woman at the grill, the woman at the outdoor table under the string lights. All of them, connected by the food they made with their hands. All of them, me.
The chili had been simmering all afternoon, the cornbread was cooling on the rack, and I still had a pint of raspberries in the fridge that weren’t going to last another day — so I made a crisp, because that’s what you do when your kitchen already smells like fall and you’re feeling grateful and you don’t want the evening to end. Mason ate two bowls. Lily asked if there was more. Brett would have loved it. This is the recipe that closed the week.
Raspberry Crisp
Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 35 min | Total Time: 50 min | Servings: 6
Ingredients
- 4 cups fresh or frozen raspberries
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
Instructions
- Preheat oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly butter an 8x8-inch or similar baking dish.
- Prepare the filling. In a large bowl, toss raspberries with granulated sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice until evenly coated. Pour into the prepared baking dish and spread into an even layer.
- Make the topping. In the same bowl, combine oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Add the cold butter pieces and work them in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse, clumpy crumbs with pea-sized pieces of butter throughout.
- Assemble and bake. Spread the oat topping evenly over the raspberry filling. Bake for 30–35 minutes, until the topping is golden brown and the filling is bubbling around the edges.
- 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.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 290 | Protein: 3g | Fat: 12g | Carbs: 44g | Fiber: 5g | Sodium: 105mg