Sue's Kitchen: February 2011

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Sue's Kitchen at Market 65

Hey all you foodies...there is a new restaurant in town and it's called "Market 65". It is located at 65 E. State Street and opens tomorrow, February 28th. Sue's Kitchen has been asked to provide some of the delicious fresh baked goods (muffins, cookies and triple chocolate brownies) on the daily menu so please check it out! You can view the menu on their website: http://www.marketsixtyfive.com/ or facebook page.
Good Luck with the grand opening tomorrow, Pat & Anthony!

Monday, February 14, 2011

To Die For Buttercream Frosting

If you want delicious and pretty frosting for your special cupcakes, cakes and cookies, there is nothing as good as buttercream frosting. It's easy and you can color it any color your little heart desires.
Here is the very basic recipe I use for my cookies, cakes and cupcakes like the ones you see above:

Delicious Buttercream Frosting
2/3 cup butter-room temperature
4 cups confectioners' sugar
2 Tbsp. milk (or more to get spreading consistency)
1 tsp. vanilla (use clear if you want whiter frosting)

Beat the butter til creamy then add the sugar a little at a time. I usually end up with a sugar shower so be careful. You can add some milk a little at a time to help prevent this. After you've added the liquids beat the frosting for 2-3 minutes until its nice and fluffy and creamy and just the right consistency. If you're adding food coloring put it in when you add the vanilla. Gel colors are brighter. You can also get fluorescent colors now that are really bright-great for kids. Sanding sugar or Sprinkles top off your masterpieces and look like a real bakery pro came to your kitchen for the day.

Enjoy making something special for your sweetie this Valentine's Day and I'll see you soon!!
Sue

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

We had a wonderful market yesterday and I wanted to share some of my handmade Valentines with you. They went well with the pink buttercream frosted sugar cookies and triple chocolate brownies. Here are a few more:

Hope you all have a great Valentine's Day with those you love :)
Sue

Saturday, February 5, 2011

February 12th: Sue's Kitchen does "Valentine's Day"

How perfect! We're having a Farmers' Market 2 days before Valentine's Day!! I love this "Hallmark" Holiday and can't wait to start baking later this week. If you want something delicious and homemade for your Valentines, come to Sue's Kitchen. Here's what I'll be making for you:

Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

Buttercream Frosted Heart Sugar Cookies (large singles and minis drizzled with chocolate)

Triple Chocolate Brownies

Cherry Pie (remembering Pres. Washington :)

And my signature cookies: chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, skinny jean and biker bars.

Complete your Valentine gift with a homemade card from Sue's Kitchen. Remember the market starts @10 am and we wrap up at 1pm. See you there!

Happy Birthday Rose!

I recently was asked by one of my customers, Jane, to make a double layer chocolate cake with chocolate icing for Rose who was turning 10. She wanted peace signs and bright colors and the shapes to be "10". Well, as I've said before...I'm a pie baker and not a cake baker but here is my effort and I have to say I was pretty happy with how it turned out. Jane said it was a hit so that's all that counts. Happy Birthday, Rose!!

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.

Sue's Kitchen

Sue's Kitchen Menu