
In The Bodyguard, the Stapleton family gathers at the ranch on Thanksgiving for a big, friendly, potluck-style neighborhood feast with friends and neighbors. They sit outside at tables with mismatched family tablecloths under string lights, drinking peach schnapps with homemade moonshine. We don’t drink moonshine —my first time to ever taste it was for research for this book—but we do gather out at the ranch every year for Thanksgiving, usually with a big crowd of family and a few extra friends. And every year since college, I’ve been in charge of bringing a homemade apple crisp, which is just about the sweetest, crunchiest, melt-in-your-mouthiest comfort food I know. The “crisp” of an apple crisp is essentially just cookie dough, so you’ve got warm, lemony, cinnamony baked apples topped with crunchy sugary crisp, and the combination is pure heaven. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and the contrasting cold creaminess takes it all to the next level.
Enjoy my own personal, beloved apple crisp recipe!
-Katherine Center
The Bodyguard Book Club Buzz: Book Club Menu, Author Note, Giveaway