Sue's Kitchen: August 2010

Monday, August 30, 2010

Fall Goodies, Buckeyes' Football and Heading to the Big Apple!

GO BUCKS!!!

I am so ready for FALL-my favorite time of the year. The Buckeyes' season starts Thursday, the weather is starting to be cooler (except for this week-it's stiflingly hot), and I'm working on my Fall Brochure....Fannie's Apple Walnut Brownies, Pecan Pie, Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread and more (YUM!). I'll start bringing fall goodies in mid-September to the markets. Look for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies as well-huge sellers last year.
The picture above is a sugar cookie I made for a Buckeyes' tailgate party. Something special and fun.
We're off to NYC this week to visit Sara and hopefully experience some more "goodies for us foodies." I'll fill you in next week.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Have a Pie Buffet

The next time you're having a family gathering or hosting a special event, why not try a Pie Buffet? Arrange a variety of delicious pies on your table using various cake stands, provide serving utensils, plates and forks and your guests will think they were in heaven!! Provide your favorite ice cream and they will know they're in heaven!

These pies were made for a special event and are all Fresh Peach Pies...YUM!!!!

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Share the Love for Back to School

Everyone wants some "lovin' from the oven" so why not have Sue's Kitchen send your college student a Cookie Care Package filled with their favorite sweets? I'm presently taking orders and will ship these carefully prepared packages anywhere in the U.S. Choose from 3 dozen or 5 dozen (feeds all their friends too) mix-n-match or all the same: chocolate chip, peanut butter, peanut blossom with a Hershey kiss, snickerdoodle, oatmeal walnut crispie, oatmeal raisin, sugar, granola "biker" bar. We can also customize a care package to fit your students' needs. Call Sue @740-963-2565 or e-mail @suebakespies@gmail.com

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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