Sue's Kitchen: Birthday Pies

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Birthday Pies

Happy Birthday to you! What better way to celebrate your birthday than with PIE! Who gives a hoot about cake-give me pie! This past week I made 2 very different pies for birthdays: a Boston Cream Pie (not really a pie in my book but it has pie in the name), and a Cherry Pie for my cousin Vicki. Both looked scrumptuous and were enjoyed by all (thanks Pam for the return phone call-always wonderful to get feedback!), along with candles to complete the celebration. So, if you ever want a pie for the big celebration, remember-it's all about the pie.

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About Me

I grew up in the country in Ohio on the family farm baking alongside my Mom and Gramma…back when we grew huge vegetable gardens, foraged the fields and woods for summer’s blackberries, and picked tart cherries until the juice ran down our arms. We spent many a hot afternoon “putting up” gallons of transparent applesauce for our enjoyment later in the winter. Those hot summer afternoons were also just right for raising bread dough on Gramma’s dining room table, later to be hand-rolled into buns and slathered with butter when they emerged from the oven for us to eat. Now that I think about it, it seems only natural to me that one day, many years later I would decide to share my love of baking with others.

After leaving Ohio, moving around, going off to college and working as a nurse, my husband Jim and I came back to our family farm and built our home. We raised our two daughters, Sara and Caitlin, and have been fortunate to have our parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents and extended family close by. How blessed we are to have such wonderful family! Then about seven years ago I decided I wanted to do something to make extra money. Sara was going off to college and I thought this would help with expenses. Farmers’ Markets were just starting to become a popular Saturday morning venue for socializing, buying fresh produce and sampling all kinds of delectable goodies artisans, like myself, baked and brought to sell at the market. I visited our town’s market one day with my Mom and I thought to myself. “I can do this!” And so, our local farmers’ market is where I took a leap of faith and “Sue’s Kitchen” was born.

Each week as I set up my table and put out my pies and cookies I was amazed by how many people do not bake anymore. Is it our fast paced lives that prevent us from throwing flour and butter together to produce yummy cookies? Are fewer people being taught this art as they grow up? Or is it just too easy to hit the local supermarket and pick up a pre-packaged sweet to take home? Whatever the reason, I quickly found how much that lost art of baking is truly missed.

Baking with heirloom recipes has brought smiles to the faces of my customers over the years, especially my homemade pies with flakey crusts and fresh juicy fruit fillings. When I use the leftover pie dough for cinnamon sticks I find my customers have their own family story and nickname for these treats: “roley poley” “cinnamon rolls”,etc..Whatever the name, they say when they were kids they waited in anticipation for them to be done baking then devoured them while still warm. I remembered the cookies Mom baked for us kids and she gave me her Oatmeal Raisin cookie recipe, which I make every week. I always loved Gramma Rose’s Molasses Sugar cookies, which are a fall favorite. I am lucky to have her old wooden recipe box complete with all her handwritten recipes, tips and even some letters. Some interpretation is needed here and there to replace her “butter the size of an egg” with actual measurement.

Another summer farmer’s market season is just beginning along with the growing anticipation of what new to bake, how to reach out to more people and how to design my new logo and website with the help of my friend Linda and my daughter Sara. I hope you all enjoy the ongoing happenings from Sue’s Kitchen.

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Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Birthday Pies

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