Pie Night. Does it get much better than that? I think not. Which is why IT Guy and I dreamed up the idea of having a pie night at Pioneer House. Sadly, we can’t remember why this even became a ‘thing’. But, we had been talking about it for a month or two and finally decided to stop faffing about and set a date (last night). Now Pie Night was going to be a real thing. But what to cook? Savory or sweet? IT Guy made that decision easy by opting for sweet, leaving me with the savory pie.
So many options for savory pies, I am not a huge fan of the service station ‘mystery’ meat pies so it would have to be a yummy pie. Mince pie? Chicken pie? Tart? Does a tart count as a pie? To avoid that very philosophical question I opted for a Smoked Chicken and Mushroom pie from my old school cookbook. To make it obvious that it was indeed a pie I made sure it said ‘Pie’ in pastry on the top. No false advertising at Pioneer House.
That sorted out the main course but I still had a starter to dream up, I did contemplate making a pie starter as well. But I suspect triple pastry abuse would not have gone down well in our overall life expectancies. So settled instead of homemade foccacia bread with some dips.
This only leaves the sweet pie – what was IT Guy going to pick? Pumpkin pie? Banoffie pie? Apple pie? Pecan pie? Turns out the options for sweet pies are even more numerous that savory. Mystery DIY Man helped narrow the field slightly by not liking nuts and requesting (a polite demand) Goody Goody Gumdrops ice cream. I am not quite sure how many things go well with Goody Goody Gumdrops – but somehow IT Guy settled on an old favourite of mine. Apple pie. And so it was, the menu for Pie Night at Pioneer House was complete.
Dunedin turned on a very classy day for Pie Night with a ‘pea-soup’ sky and drizzle all day, so the fire went on and the pie creation started. Nothing better than a pie (or two) on a cold drizzly evening. Breads and dips are always a winner, somehow we managed to demolish a whole loaf of foccacia between the three of us – perhaps we should have paced ourselves earlier on? Smoked Chicken pie was next, served with broccoli and rabbit food (aka a green salad – in the hope of combating the copious amounts of butter to be ingested during the evening). The pie was delicious, but I could only manage 1 slice. The boys managed 2 slices each, but I suspect they experienced the errors in their ways. Thankfully, we had decided to have some downtime between the savory pie and dessert or I suspect we would not have made it at all. By, this stage I was regretting having the fire on as I was starting to overheat a little. Now is probably a good time to mention the accompanying drinks, nothing to flash but it should serve as a break to pie descriptions. The boys had some Monteith’s Black and Monteith’s Pacific Pale Ale, I had a very poorly made Lemon, Lime and Bitters (I will never make a barmaid). Right, time for more pies. IT Guy had created a beautiful looking apple pie complete with leaf and quaver decoration – decorated for intelligent people (i.e you had to guess it was a pie). I should mention at this stage that I have a terrible sweet tooth (and accompanying dessert stomach), thankfully IT Guy shares this affliction and was feeling invincible approaching the apple pie. Mystery DIY Man and I managed 1 piece of pie each, with IT Guy braving 2 pieces. As we were clearing up IT Guy offered me a spoonful of ice cream…I should have said no (felt a bit like Mr Creosote). So here commenced the postprandial dip from hell, made worse by the knowledge that this was self-inflicted. This lead to a food coma which lasted until 1.30pm this afternoon, when I finally experienced hunger again.
Rather than swearing off food I have moved on to dreaming up the next ‘night’ of eating at Pioneer House. But what should it be? Indian Night? Pasta Night? Thoughts?
