St. Pat's and Spring coming to Worthington's Farmers' Market

It is so wonderful to have spring-like weather this week. It inspires me to break out the springtime table cloths, Easter chick and bunny cookie cutters and flowers...lots of flowers.

Its also almost St. Patrick's Day so this Saturday we will be decked out all in green, complete with shamrock decor and shamrock sprinkled sugar cookies.

At Sue's Kitchen we will also bring something that goes delightfully well with your morning coffee...Coffeecake! Look for Blueberry Cream Cheese and Apple Walnut Streusel coffeecake, cut and packaged in individual pieces (see the above pictures). If you can't wait to partake, I will be sure to bring forks and napkins for you.

See you there!

Meeting Mary Alice & Geof from the Ace of Cakes

Have I told you I have a good friend whose name is Dana Landrum? Well, Dana recently won tickets to meet Mary Alice and Geof from the Food Network's hit show "Ace of Cakes" at the Central Ohio Home and Garden show...and she asked me to go with her! We enjoyed a meet and greet during a continental breakfast and got their autographs while we were there. Pictured above is Mary Alice, Dana's daughter Janessa, Me, Geof and Dana. We later attended a Q&A session during the cake decorating contest, which was attended by at least 1000 people. We had a great time!

What do you want? What makes you happy?

I need to try some new recipes and am interested in your favorites. I'll always have my signature pies, cookies, and biker bars but what really puts a smile on your face? I know dessert breads can be yummy. My cinnamon rolls fly off the table. Mini cupcakes are super cute and tastey. What do YOU think?

Here's what's new this week: I'm making berry cream cheese coffeecake for this week's market and will focus on a variety of coffeecakes for the coming markets. You can choose from a whole coffeecake for your family or by the slice to enjoy with your morning cup of coffee. Over the past couple of years I've made blueberry, pecan crunch, apple walnut streusel, and cinnamon sour cream. All are quite yummy and you can look for these in coming weeks.

What else is a popular sweet indulgence? What's your favorite? What do you want to see at the markets or available to order?

I want to hear from you so send me your comments and e-mails!!

All Things Pumpkin & Fannie's Apple Walnut Blondies

Fall is my favorite time of year and boy, do I love pumpkin. Pumpkin Pie, Cream Cheese Pumpkin Bread, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies.............so many good things from this yummy vegetable. My next favorite fall goodie is anything with apples. Everyone seems to LOVE my Gramma Fannie's Apple Walnut Blondies. I plan to make extra this week so we can share the love. Make sure you come early while there are still plenty!

On a decorative note (did I tell you I'm no Candice Olsen?)-you can find all the beautiful fall bounty you need for your home decorating needs: mums, gourds, pumpkins, Indian corn, bittersweet........so many beautiful things. Come see for yourself!!

Apple Season!

Well, by now you know I have failed at blogging 101. I haven't entered anything since August 21st and I am so sorry! Inbetween baking chocolate chip cookies, my Biker Bars and Blueberry Crumb Bars I am attempting to catch up. I went to the Granville Orchard today and picked some of the biggest, most beautiful, delicious Cortland apples! I'll be making large and mini pies with them and they are sure to smack of late summer. I also picked up some fresh peaches so we will have these in pies tomorrow as well. Here's a picture of the apples that were hanging in the trees in the orchard-so pretty!

A Prelude to Fall

I'm so ready for fall and this weekend sounds like it may be a prelude to cooler, less humid days. Tomorrow morning we have the Granville Farmers' Market and it should be a gorgeous morning. Please come see all the truckloads of fresh picked sweet corn, gorgeous flower bouquets, fresh honey, cheeses, organic meats, and of course-baked goods! If you like fruit pies I will have plenty: Mom's Apple, Big-n-Bold Blackbery, Beautiful Blueberry, Tart Cherry, Gramma's Award Winning Peach (see the story), Summertime Strawberry-Rhubarb, and Sue's Southern Pecan. There will also be Cookie Stacks, Jumbo Cinnamon Rolls, Biker Bars and Blueberry Bars @ Sue's Kitchen. Come enjoy the atmosphere and some great food!

I'm definitely a "servantless cook"

I went to see "Julie and Julia" yesterday and just loved it! You could tell the foodies in the crowd-we laughed, commented, and were totally enthralled with Julia Child and Julie's ambition to make all 524 recipes in Julia's cookbook "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." If you haven't seen this movie-GO!! It is very inspiring. Today I sifted through my cookbooks and found one by Julia Child--will I have the guts to take on her recipes? Time will tell........

Blueberries are GOOD for you!

Summer is in full swing and there are so many good things to find at the Farmers' Markets. Its hard for me to choose what to make each week with so much fresh fruit available for pies, fruit bars and coffee cakes. This week I definitely will return with Blueberry Crumb Bars-what a hit they were last week! I'll also have mini Beautiful Blueberry Pies as well as many other fruit pies, cookies, breads and coffeecakes.

If anyone knows where I can find Black Raspberries, fresh or frozen, please let me know. The season was so short this year. I appreciate all input.

See you this week, Sue

Oatmeal Walnut Cookie Stacks, Chocolate Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread, Blueberry Pie.....our little sweet indulgences.

Mini Blueberry Pie

Oatmeal Walnut Crispie cookie stack

If you have a garden then you are probably looking for things to do with your zucchini. Grilled, baked, fried, sauted, in casseroles, baked and stuffed, whatever you do with it I think its a nutritious wonderfully versatile veggie. Tomorrow I will have Zucchini bread: Chocolate Chocolate Chip and Zucchini Spice with Walnuts. YUM!

I just finished baking for the night and I have 30 mini and 6 large pies to bring to market. There's also my usual cookies stacks and one more new thing: Blueberry Crumb Bars. They have a shortbread base, blueberry middle and shortbread crumb top. Very good if I must say so myself!!

Don't let the rain scare you away-we will all be there rain or shine. Just bring your umbrella and rain jacket. I'll see you tomorrow!!

Lodi Apples

I am so sorry but when i went to Granville Orchard they told me they wouldn't have Lodi apples due to the late spring freeze. BUMMER! But, they did have some transparent apples which I picked a bag of for applesauce. I used a few for pies earlier this week but they are little and somewhat of a pain to peel so the rest are destined for sauce. I will keep you posted on apples and other fruits that are available.

If you want fabulous blueberries you must visit "Z" Blueberry Farm. I plan to bring several blueberry coffeecakes to Granville's market this Saturday. They are so big and sweet!! The farm is in Fredericktown and their phone number is 740-694-1911. You can go pick or buy picked. I hope to also have small blueberry pies Saturday.

See you soon!

What is your favorite pie??

What would you say is your favorite fruit pie? National surveys show that Americans love........Apple pie!! No surprises there. Cherry pie is our 2nd most loved. I plan to make both of these pies this week to bring to my markets. I can't say which pie is my favorite because I could easily eat either one, especially warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream-YUM! You must keep checking the markets because peaches and apples will start arriving by the truckloads and the berries will be coming on before you know it. That means blackberry pie, red raspberry pie, cherry pie, and all kinds of apple pies. I love this time of year!

One of my favorite parts of baking pies is making crispy cinnamon sticks from the left over pie dough. Mom always made these and we grabbed them hot to eat right out of the oven. I like to bring them to market for samples, because if you remember from last week-its all about the crust! If you can taste the quality of my flakey crust then you know you are going to be getting a great pie.

Its amazing to me how many people no longer bake, let along make pies. And if they do make pie they use boxed or frozen pie crust (HORROR!). But, when my customers taste my cinnamon sticks from handmade pie crust, their eyes roll back in their heads, they get a big smile on their faces and they always say, "My Mom used to make these!" And everyone had their own family name for them. I've heard them called "rolley polleys", "snickerdoodles". "cinnamon buns", and some other names I can't recall.

For those of you who want to make your own "Cinnamon Stix", here is the quick and easy recipe:
Sue's Pie Crust Cinnamon Stix

Pie dough: use your favorite recipe and roll out a disc very thin on a floured surface.
Brush the pie dough with melted butter and sprinkle with a mixture of 1/2 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Using a pizza cutter cut strips 1 inch wide. At this point you can twist them, roll them up like a cinnamon roll or just keep as strips. Place them on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake @350 degrees til brown (about 10-12 minutes). Watch closely-they burn easily. Cool on a rack then enjoy!! These are fun treats for kids to make. They keep well in a baggie and can be frozen as well. If you make them give me a shout and let me know how they turned out.

Hope to see you all this week. It will be a hot week for markets but, hey-it's summer!

From Sue's Kitchen: Welcome to my first blog post

Welcome to my first blog entry!!

I think it is so appropriate to start this adventure with you during the week of Father’s Day because there is nothing my Dad would have loved more than to socialize with friends and family at a Farmers’ Market and graze his away around the various vendors’ tents. He especially loved anything chocolate and any kind of cookies or pie, except maybe strawberry rhubarb, although my strawberry rhubarb pie is AWESOME and I probably would have changed his mind on that. Anyway, here’s to all you Dads for your love of family and friends.

My goal is to make 40 mini pies and 20 large pies this week to bring to my two markets. It’s Father’s Day and Dads like pies and we need to celebrate our Dads, hence the focus on PIE. Plans are for Apple, Cherry, Blueberry, Blackberry, Strawberry-Rhubarb, Peach and Pecan. I might have mini red raspberry as well. I always tell my customers the mini pies are just big enough for a dollop of their favorite ice cream plopped right in the middle…and all they need is a fork.

Here is a picture of a Big-n-Bold Blackberry Pie - those of you who know me know my pies have to be pretty.

I’ll share with you Sue’s 3 rules for terrific pies:
1. I think pies need to be visually appealing. Sometimes I get a little carried away in this creative process but it is fun!
2. It’s all about the crust. All homemade. All hand rolled. All hand decorated.
3. Fruit pies should have lots of fruit. Fresh fruit when it’s available and delicious frozen fruit during the off season. Nothing canned. I currently have about 60 pounds of rhubarb in my freezer and a gallon of red raspberries. YUM!

For those of you who want sweets but not pie I also make lots of old fashioned cookies. These, unlike my pies, are not fancy. They are sturdy, big, one-in-each hand cookies like Chocolate Chip, Snickerdoodle, Oatmeal Raisin, Peanut Blossom, Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Crispie. Many of these recipes are heirloom, meaning they’ve been handed down over generations from my Gramma Rose, Gramma Fannie, Mom (Effie) and my Aunt Eileen. I’m sure a dietitian wouldn’t agree with my motto but it brings a lot of smiles to my customers’ faces-------

My motto is “A balanced diet is a cookie in each hand.”

Kissable Peanut Blossom Cookies

I don’t stop at pies-n-cookies, however. I guess I’m a baking fool…or a glutton for punishment. You will find I make various goodies depending on the market: Coffeecakes and Cinnamon Rolls for the morning market; Dessert Breads for evening markets. I’m just now delving into the fun world of cupcakes. Red Velvet with cream cheese frosting…….German Chocolate with Pecan and Coconut topping………..Vanilla with buttercream frosting….the list can be endless. Here’s a picture of a mini Carrot Cake cupcake with Cream Cheese frosting. I think its really cute (pretty darn delicious too)!



So, here's to all you Dads out there...pray for good weather and I'll see you at the market!

All photo images belong to Sue's Kitchen and may be used with permission only. ©2009 Sue's Kitchen. All rights reserved.