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........

Apple Pie ala mode YUMMY!

I visited the Granville Orchard the other day and picked a large bag of Paula Red apples for just $8!! From those I have made 6 large and 10 mini apple pies for the markets. There's nothing like fresh apple pie........

Follow me on Twitter!

Hey, I'm on Twitter now so if you want to know all the crazy things going on in my kitchen-check it out!

http://www.twitter.com/suebakespies

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Sue

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!!

Please don't rain tomorrow

I know we need rain for our gardens, flowers and crops but it gets really old when Jym Ganahl says we're going to have rain yet again on Wednesday! It puts a real damper on the spirit of the Farm Market. Even though our steadfast market customers still come see us, the rain keeps less weather resistant, (I'm being politically correct, they're really called "market woosies"), customers from coming.

I am still baking tonight in hopes we won't be rained out for tomorrow's market. I'll have lots of small berry, apple, peach, cherry and strawberrry-rhubarb, and pecan pies and 6 or 8 large pies. Of course I'll have cookies, including Sue's Oatmeal Walnut that everyone's been asking for and I've made some deliciously moist Banana Walnut breads.

So-don't leave us out in the rain! Come to the market and wear your rain slicker and bring your umbrella because we are there rain or shine :)

Its Not Funny Snickerdoodles :)

The first time I made Snickerdoodles was with my daughter Sara when she was taking "Fun with Foods" as a 4-H project. I don't recall how many batches we made until we got the perfectly round, perfectly cracked, soft in the middle and crispy outside cinnamony sugar cookies just right for judging, but it was a lot!

If you are making these delightfully addicting cookies, here are Sue's hard and fast rules for perfect Snickerdoodles:

• Always use the CREAM of TARTAR-never omit it!


• Use chilled dough-it helps with the proper crackage and in keeping the inside soft. Is "crackage" a word?


• Make sure you hand roll the dough and roll in the sugar/cinnamon mix.


• Remove the cookies from the oven as soon as they are deeply cracked.

Good luck with your Snickerdoodle baking and remember........if you screw them up, you can always come to the Farmers' Market and get them from me!

*This week's pies include: Big-n-Bold Blackberry; Beautiful Blueberry, Razzle Red Raspberry, Fence Row Black Raspberry, Mom's Granny Smith Apple, Gramma Rose's Award Winning Peach, and Summertime Strawberry Rhubarb. I'll also have Pastry Lemonade w/Pecans. See you at the market!!

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!

It's Black Raspberry Season!!!!

Okay, let's get something straight...black raspberries are not the same as blackberries. They are way different. Both being utterly delicious but having their own distinct sweet flavor. Today I went out in the field along the fencerow and picked black raspberries. Some are wild but some are transplants that came up on their own from my Pap Parker's raspberry patch that he use to tend judiciously. I remember it well: the patch was down by the grain house and had its own fence around it and had aluminum pie pans strung to scare away the birds. Pap would pick quarts of big delicious berries for Gramma to make cobblers and pies...or just eat with fresh cream. Us kids were NEVER allowed in that patch. It was forbidden territory. I smile today as I pick these beautiful berries for market pies, knowing that Pap would finally think this is ok. :)

On another note-you can now find Lodi apples at the Granville Orchard (Granville) and Legend Hills Orchard (Utica). They are wonderful for pies which I will be bringing to market this week.

I'll also have a variety of yummy Cookies, Pastry Lemonade Bread with Pecans, Blueberry Coffeecake, and my Signature Biker Bars and Jumbo Cinnamon Rolls. Of course, I'll have several other fruit pies available as well.

See you at the markets!

Red, White and Blue Pies

What a great time of year for fresh fruit pies! The first apples of the year are ready to be picked and the Montmorency tart cherries are coming on as well. I plan to visit the orchard tomorrow to pick some Lodi for my apple pies. Lodis make wonderful applesauce as well as pies and remind me of the old fashioned Transparent apples. There aren't too many of those apple trees around anymore. This week I'll have Cherry pie (RED) Apple pie (WHITE) and Blackberry or Blueberry pie (BLUE) to help celebrate the 4th of July. All you need is ice cream and a fork!!!!

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!