Sue's Kitchen: "Christmas in the Country"

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

"Christmas in the Country"

Every year I ask myself if I'm going to have another Christmas open house...I ponder the question awhile then decide, "YES!" I started having my open house in 2005 as a way to provide Christmas baked goodies for friends and family. We gather together and enjoy good food and hot spiced cider. Over the years it has grown and this year I was joined by friends Bee Katz of "Cowtown Candies", Gretel Adams of "Sunny Meadow Flower Farms" (you may have seen her on the cover of Columbus Monthly recently), and my sister-in-law, Becky Joseph. What wonderful handmade items they brought! Delicious fudge, cards with beautiful photography, lovely scented handmade soaps...........something for each of our senses!

While the open house is a lot of work and preparation, we sure have a good time being together. Isn't that what the season is for? Being together?

Here are the "Elves" who helped me prepare for my 4th annual "Christmas in the Country" Open House.

Thanks to my Mom (Effie), Cousin Vicki and friend LeAnn, we enjoyed a very successful day. Not pictured is my daughter Caitlin-thanks for all your help Cait!! We couldn't ask for better weather...sunshine, cool but not too cold, and no slippery roads! Thanks to everyone who came and enjoyed themselves. I'll share some pictures of the goodies we had for gift buying, parties, Santa's plate, etc. We had a "make your own cookie dozen" table which was a huge hit. We'll have to have a repeat performance next year.

I baked for so many hours I lost track. I do know I baked about 60 dozen various cookies and at least 25 dozen sugar cookies. There were also Cranberry Orange Breads, Pumpkin Spice Breads, Cocoa Banana Breads, and Old Fashioned Pecan Tassies. After the open house I baked some more.....pies, cookies, breads. I sure hope everyone enjoyed what they bought. I had fun not only baking everything but also making them look pretty and packaging them for your parties and gift giving. Above are Gingerbread Men, Chocolate Sugar Cookies with Peppermint Candy Cane Sprinkles, Cherry & Apricot Rugelage, Cherry Thumbprints drizzled with White Chocolate, Peanut Butter Blossoms, Chocolate Dipped Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Beautiful Buttercream Froster Sugar Cookies.

I'm hoping everyone had a wonderful Christmas and will have a safe and Happy New Year!

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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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Wednesday, December 30, 2009

"Christmas in the Country"

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