Christmas Pie!

What's this?

What's this i find when I am google image searching for Christmas Pie?

A place that goes by the name of CHRISTMAS PIE?!?! Amazing!

According to Wiki:

"Christmas Pie is a hamlet, in the parish of Normandy in the borough of Guildford in Surrey, England. The curious name of Christmas Pie, which has excited much humorous comment, owes its name to property owned by a prominent local family named Christmas. There are many references to this family in the Court records of the Manor of Cleygate which date back to 1513 in the reign of King Henry VIII. Christmas's are often noted as serving as members of the Homage which was the Jury of the Court. The "Pie" part of the name comes from the Saxon term "pightel" or "pightle" meaning a small piece of arable land. Until the area was built up during the 1920s there was a small field called "Pie Field" near the Christmas Pie crossroads.[1]."

Well I never... you learn something new about pie every day.

More Post-Pie-Party-Posts

Hiya all,

Hope you've all had a lovely christmas or holiday period. In the usual spirit of Christmas, I have of course over indulged in pretty much everything that is bad for you and dramatically under-indulged in all that is healthy.

Needless to say, more Christmas pie was consumed (as part of tea on Christmas day).

Santa obviously wants to be a member of Private Pie, as he seemed to bring me a variety of pie related gifts. I got a shiny new red pie dish (to co-ordinate with Rudolph's nose?), a pastry server, a blackbird pie funnel, and the PieMinister cookbook.

So, I am all set for the next meeting of Private Pie!

I'm also wanting to draw your attention to PrivatePie-r Lisa's Blog Post about the event. She has some lovely pictures, and you can find her delicious and hearty game pie recipe there also.

I shall leave you with news that we are still in the process of organising our next meeting, but we do definitely intend it to go ahead.

see ya's later for now,

Hayley xx

First Meeting!

Ohai,

So eventually I manage to get round to writing a blog post about our first meeting on 10th December... The run up to Christmas has been rather busy.

Our first meeting was really lovely... After so much worry (will anyone turn up at all? Will far too many people turn up?!), it was such a relief and a proud moment to meet everyone and eat some very marvellous pie.

So our venue was Flat Caps Coffee. This place is a great little find, really cosy and with exceptional coffee. It's on Ridley Place, in a new age kind of shop called Elula. You go into the shop, then down the spiral stairs into a coffee scented sanctuary of calm. The owner was really accommodating and provided us with facilities for making both custard and gravy and half of his cafe in return for a few bits of gratefully received pie.

I made my Christmas pie, a savoury affair stuffed full with turkey, sausagemeat, chestnuts, apricots, and cranberries. I make this pie every year at christmas time and it always seems to go down well.

Matt made his award winning apple and raspberry pie. You can read all about why it is award winning at my baking blog, Baking Beautiful. Note the very thoughtful decoration.

Ack! I don't know how to make the picture turn around the right way... Ah well, you get the idea.


Nancy brought a rhubarb and custard crumble topped pie, Lisa brought her delicious game pie, Caren brought an amazing salmon and watercress pie, and Claire and Sam brought along a hearty, cheese topped cod and prawn pie.

There was actually very little left afterwards. Conversation flowed brilliantly and a good time seemed to be had by all. All that is left now is to show you some photos, and of course look forward to the next meeting.

Apple & raspberry pie, and rhubard & custard pie

Christmas pie, salmon & watercress pie, cod & prawn pie, and game pie

Yours truly. "Let them eat pie"

Hope to see you at the next meeting. Look out for announcements!

Hayley x

Pre-meeting excitement!

Hi all,

Well, It's the day before our very first meeting and I AM SO EXCITED! Also nervous, but looking forward to a really great few hours and some really delicious pies.

Those of you who are attending will be receiving your venue email very soon....

Date of the first meeting announced!

The date of the first meeting of Private Pie will be
10th December
at 3-5pm

The venue will be a secret sanctuary for coffee lovers in the heart of Newcastle City Centre.

The theme is:
your Go-To Pie. 

Do you have a reliable pie recipe that you use time and time again? Or a particular type of pie that you turn to when in need of comfort? Is there an old family recipe that has been passed down through generations? Or do you just really want to try a recipe you have seen? We want to try and enjoy your go-to pie.

Places are limited so make sure you book your place quickly. To reserve your place, send us an e-mail at privatepieclub@gmail.com, and let us know if you would like to bring along a non-baking guest, and what pie you are going to make (although this can be decided later). You will receive an e-mail 24 hours before the event advising you of the venue.

You can make a sweet or a savoury pie, but please note that it needs to be big enough to feed 8-12 people.

Hope to see you soon.

Original image: By Bah je sais pas, je dirai 2-3 metres? (De l'appareil photo a ma maman) [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Look out for announcements of our first meeting

Hi everyone,

Just to say that we have now decided on a date and venue for our very first Private Pie Club meeting. We will announce the date soon but it will be in December, in the centre of Newcastle

Keep an eye out for further announcements!

Private Pie Developments!

And so the arrangements for Private Pie continue. There has been rather a lot of excitement as our followers on twitter and facebook continue to mount up, and we've also had some interest by e-mail too.

We are hoping to get a guest speaker from a local pie company, and we have some venues and dates in mind.

Now that I'm back from my holiday, Nancy and I are going to get our heads together next week to come up with some Pie Club rules, and of course we will have to go on some reconnaissance missions to various pubs and cafes to "check out" the venues. Such a hard life...

Any ideas for rules for Private Pie Club? let us know in the comments or send us an e-mail at privatepieclub@gmail.com or tweet us (@private_pie)

Private Pie is coming soon!

Who's excited?

This idea started at a Clandestine Cake Club meeting. I took my friend Joanne, who thought it was great, but who doesn't have a hugely sweet tooth, so I thought, what about doing a similar thing, but a savoury version, and so Private Pie was born.

We have an email address privatepieclub@gmail.com.
We have a facebook page
We have a twitter account
We have a website, which is currently under construction
We have a date in mind
We have a venue in mind
We have this blog!

So, this is a really exciting time! If you're interested in Private Pie, give us a shout and we will add you to our interested list. Then, it's just a case of holding tight until we contact you to let you know that Private Pie is go go go!

Love,

Hayley and Nancy,
Private Pie Cofounders.