First Course

Herb Buttermilk Biscuits w/ Meyer Lemon Compound Butter & Rhubarb Preserves

Second Course

Spring Mix & Butterhead Lettuce Salad w/ Candied Almond, Shaved Radish, Strawberry, Crumbled Chevre, Spring Herb Ranch Dressing

Third Course

Standard: Lemon Oregano Chicken Breasts in Hark Pinot Gris

Vegetarian: Rainbow Vegetable Tart w/ Ricotta & Parmesan

Asparagus Cacio e Pepe w/ Panko Gremolata

Dilled Potato and Pickled Cucumber Salad

Fourth Course

Coconut Layer Cake w/ Swiss Buttercream

Take Home Item

Surprise!

To purchase tickets:

click here!

Come and celebrate Spring!

While I teach classes through other venues, this is the chance to dig deeper into the entire process: a five-week course when you slow down, learn a new skill, meet people, and leave with new connections and knowledge - not only how to make a pie, but how to bake a pie for another human who needs one. One of my students baked 7 pies during the State of the Union address, channeling her energy toward finding people in her circle that needed the encouragement a fresh-baked pie can offer.

I’m opening up two slots for Level 1 (and yes, there is a Level 2 that focuses on savory!).

Classes would begin mid-April and continue for 5 weeks, meeting once per week for 2-2.5 hours at a time.

If you’d like to sign up for one of these slots, please let me know by sending an email to flourpower@gmail.com - below are just a few shots to show how great February was!

Register Here (6 seats left!)

April 16-19 (or sell out) - Spring Pie Menu Takeover at Ethos Wine & Tea

Hand Pies: Pepperoni Mozzarella / Chicken Adobo / Broccoli Cheddar / Spinach Feta Egg

Pot Pies: Pulled Pork BBQ / Spinach Artichoke / Chicken Bacon Garlic / Mushroom Leek Gruyete

Sweet Pies: Toasted Coconut Cream / Salted Honey / Lemon Chess / Dark Chocolate Cream / Fruit Pie (TBD)

(menu subject to change)

View Event Here

April 21 - Open Doors Tomato Pie Class at Albemarle High School

Register Here (4 seats left!)

April 23 - Wordplay Trivia Event for LVCA at the Paramount

Come and support Team Pie Chest at Literacy Volunteers Annual Fundraiser! All ticket purchases support their fundraising efforts to provide free and confidential one-to-one literacy tutoring to Albemarle County’s population. The event is fun, heartwarming, and engaging, with awesome raffle prizes (including an in-home pie lesson from yours truly).

Read more about LVCA here!

Purchase tickets here!

May 1 - Hark Spring Wine Dinner

While we await the link for ticket purchase, feel free to subscribe to Hark’s mailing list which will provide info for this and future events!

Register Here

May 5 - Open Doors Sweet Pie Class at Albemarle High School

Register Here (6 seats left!)

And stay tuned about a Strawberry Rhubarb Pie run at Splendora’s once the berries are bountiful!

I’ll leave it for Substack only until later in the day!

Pie on -

Rachel

Pot Pies: Beef Brisket / Chicken Bacon Roasted Garlic / Mushroom Leek Gruyere / Sausage Gravy Biscuit

Hand Pies: Sausage Goat Cheese Egg Honey / Yukon Potato Cheddar Egg / Sloppy Joe / Squash Goat Cheese Sage

Sweet Pie Slices: Dark Chocolate Cream / Peanut Butter Truffle / Cinnamon Apple Crumble / Cookies & Cream

**Menu might have slight variations but I hope to have all of the above**

Quantities are limited and I expect some of the selections will sell out!

Check out ethoswineandtea.com for opening hours each day.

AND OF COURSE WE ARE DOING PIE DAY!!!

SATURDAY MARCH 14 will mark my TWELFTH Pie Day which doesn’t even really seem possible…..

The website will go LIVE for orders February 23 at 10am!!! Mark your calendars!

I’ll slide in your DMS to let you know which pies to expect - orders will be picked up at Splendora’s Gelato in Stonefield just like last year, and I’ll give you the inside info on the best pairings.

Also, the February Pie Chest Academy sessions have all kicked off and in 5 weeks time, 25 people will be able to make their own Pie Chest pie from scratch! Next openings are in April and July. I’ll be back soon with more dates and events for you to plan your entire life around. ;)

XO -

Rachel

It’s also for many other things, such as community, joy, experimenting, and the love of food.

I have spaces for a class in February, starting the 4th, from 6pm-8pm. It will run for 5 weeks!

To learn more about the Academy, keep reading below! If you’d like to sign up, please email me at flourpower314@gmail.com. I’m also running classes in April and July.

Please join me for a comforting and warm meal that will feel like a culinary hug.

This is for those of you who have told me that you wish I would do a dinner without alcohol, and also for you who may be celebrating (at attempting) Dry January!

Ticket link:

Click Here!

I hope to see you there as we kickoff a damn fine year of pie.

XO.

Rachel

February 19-22: Winter Pop-Up at Ethos Wine & Tea - several of the cold-weather favorites, including sweet and savory, served in-house!

March 14th: PIE DAY! at Splendora’s Gelato

April: Spring Pop-Up

May: Spring Wine Dinner at Hark Vineyard

July: Summer Pop-Up

August: Pie Chest Fest! at Hark Vineyard

September: Tomato Dinner and Fall Pop-Up at Ethos Wine & Tea

October: Fall Wine Dinner at Hark Vineyard

November: Thanksgiving Pies

December: Holiday Pies

Pie Chest Academy is Back! I am currently setting dates for February, April, and July. If you are interested and not already getting emails about this, please shoot me a message and I’ll add you! More info coming about the Academy, but feel free to read more about it as well as testimonials from some awesome students under the “LEARN” section.

In addition, I will be offering ordering windows each season where you can order your favorite seasonal pies!

XO,

Rachel

I want to share a small piece that sums up the spirit of this holiday season to me. It speaks of a moment I observed when we visited Rome.

May all your Christmases, or whatever you celebrate, be bright.

She has a crooked back bent under sundry unseen burdens, wispy and thin hair tied back in a navy blue silk scarf, not expensive silk, but bargain silk, her hands a roadmap of creases, each nook and cranny a story, every line a sentence, palms open, fingers curled, up toward the heavens, left folded over the right as if it were heavier.

She wears a simple dress, cut at the knee, sheer pantyhose, worn and faded black leather shoes that had probably carried her for miles, laces loose, ankles swollen, spilling out.

Over the dress, a black sweater, frayed, held together by threads and hope.

A prominent Romanesque nose, olive skin once smooth, dark and deeply-set eyes.

She smiles, baring more gaps than teeth.

All she wants is whatever someone is willing to give.

Phrases are spilling from her mouth, another language from my own, speaking in tongues with no interpretation. The cadence is meditative, constant, a mystical murmur, transfixing, repetition upon repetition. Standing outside of the tour exit of the Colosseum in Rome, the grand behemoth casting a shadow over her, this place of battle and blood and beasts, echoes of ancient cries hanging in the air, she remains in this posture of openness, her pleas a symphony of staccato supplication.

Tourists disregard her pleas, walking by her as if she were a hologram, there but not really, because if she were then they might be called to an account.

Yet, she persists in her mother tongue, her pleas piercing the ears of those willing to hear and bear some witness of her existence.

A woman cascades down the exit steps with a boy, maybe her son, both excitedly discussing what they had just witnessed inside, the yore of gladiators and executions and recreations of battle.

She is clad in the sort of athleisure wear that reads expensive, neon pink Nikes, clashing comfort and fashion.

Her hair is blond, pulled up in a hasty bun, wisps framing her face, lips glossed revealing brilliantly white and aligned teeth.

Her movements are confident and full of animation, her conversation with her son taking up her entire body when she regards the woman who remains pleading without ceasing.

Without pause or consideration she reaches into her pocket with a smooth and daintily manicured hand and fills it with a mix of bills and coins. She stands in front of the pleading woman, taking the crinkled and arthritic hand into her own, holding it, filling it with tangibility.

Smiles spread contagiously over both faces, smoothing wrinkles on one, creating them on the other.

The manicured woman asks the threadbarren one if she can hug her, but she doesn’t understand, so the manicure demonstrates a charade of a hug, holding her arms in the air in front of her, open-ended, squeezing someone in her imagination, her eyes plaintive for permission.

The woman in need obliges the one with means, vigorously nodding her beautiful head and widening her stance as to receive affection, touch, recognition.

Bearing witness.

The two clasp, athleisure arms wrapping around the small frame before her, their bodies touching, two broken pieces of a single human being.

Holding and being held.

The Roman’s crooked arms and hands slide up the lycra-smooth back of the American, and as one, the two sway in a motion of mutuality.

All the while, her mouth continues to proclaim some goodness that lies beyond comprehension, to sing the praise of her witness being borne in the body of another.

Athleisure and neon Nikes, headscarf and thin sweater and sheer hose and worn shoes, blond hair and gray hair, smooth and wrinkled, pale and olive, pleading and mumbling, holding, holding, holding.

A new thing.

For a moment.

They let go of one another and become what they once were, before.

The American ambles away, accompanying her son.

The Roman resumes her requests and reliance.

The American is weeping as she walks away.

I’m tempted to explain away this beauty, to find some sort of parable, some meaning, application.

Where is God?

Isn’t she God, the face of need, lying in a ditch while the Holy Haves are too busy to stop, regard, or bear her?

Isn’t she God, the face of provision, possessed by the spirit of the Samaritan deemed “good,” ceasing intentions to bear witness?

Isn’t the embrace God, the holy dance between the two?

What if none of this is God?

What if James Baldwin is right, that a human being can only be saved by another human being?

What if this is just a moment of unbridled love?

What do I not notice in this beautiful world, this painful world, if I am convinced I believe I already know?

What if that moment, singular and granular, explains every last unanswered question in my unsettled soul?

What if that were enough?

Open Doors Class at Albemarle High School - October 7th, 6pm-8pm

THE Chicken, Bacon, Roasted Garlic Pot Pie!

Register here!

Fall Harvest Dinner at Hark Vineyard - October 17th, 6pm-8pm

Menu:

At the Table:

Spiced Pecans

First Course

ABC Crostini w/ Mache, Brie, Local Apples

2024 Roussanne

Second Course

Autumn Salad w/ Pepper Jelly Vinaigrette

2023 Cabernet Franc

Third Course

Standard: Braised Brisket Pot Pie w/ Beef Dripping Pie Crust

Vegetarian: Orange-Braised Winter Vegetable Pot Pie w/ Herbed Pie Crust

Goat Cheese Mashed Potatoes

Roasted Broccoli w/ Panko Crumble

2023 Petit Verdot

Fourth Course

Brown Butter Pumpkin Cake w/ Apple Cider Glaze

2022 Petit Manseng

Take Home Item

Pie Chest Chocolate Chip Cookie

Buy tickets here!

And for the big one…Thanksgiving 2026!

I always promised with this Substack subscription that you get perks. This year, you’ll get the chance to buy your pie 1 week ahead of the general public! I expect to sell out, so you can get in and secure the goods.

SAVE THE DATE: October 22nd!

I’ll reach out again via email with instructions and a reminder!

Hope to see you at any and all the things!

XO,

Rachel

September 20, 6pm at Ethos Wine & Tea on W. Main Street in Charlottesville: a 3-course pie-centric dinner paired with curated wines and tea! Every course will be pie, including a starter, savory, and sweet.

Buy tickets here!

October 17 at 6pm at Hark Vineyards - 4-course Fall Dinner! Link and info will be posted shortly, along with a menu, but I’m tossing around making the cheese I did last year that had people very, very happy, along with a braised brisket pot pie, roasted winter vegetable pot pie, and more!

The meal in July was the first in the beautiful new tasting room with some of the area’s best views. This is certain to be a lovely time.

More soon!

Rachel

I’m excited to be a part of Tomato Tomato Festival at Lampo next Tuesday, August 26!

I’ll be selling pot pie-sized Heirloom Tomato Pies, but if you would like to pre-order a whole one, please visit the website (link is live now!). Pickups will be at the Tomato Festival from 4pm-8pm.

CLICK FOR TOMATO PIE!

And….this coming weekend, August 23, I’ll be camped out at Hark Vineyards for Pie Chest Fest - please join us between 12pm - 4pm where I’ll be hawking TEN of the shop’s favorites:

Sausage Egg Goat Cheese Hand Pies

Sloppy Joe Hand Pies

Blueberry Nectarine Pie

Dark Chocolate Cream Pie

Triple Citrus Pie

Crab and Sweet Corn Pot Pie

Pulled Pork Peach BBQ Pot Pie

Summer Vegetable Pot Pie

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Oatmeal Cream Pies

Quantities will be limited, can’t wait to see you!

XO.

Rachel

August 23 - PIE CHEST FEST at Hark Vineyards!

I’ll be baking up several of the fan favorites from the shop over the years, more details on time and such to come! The Sloppy Joe hand Pie has already been requested as one of the items - if you have something YOU NEED TO HAVE, comment or shoot me an email!

August 26 - TOMATO TOMATO at Lampo!

More info here.

I’ll be taking pre-orders for the famous Heirloom Tomato Pie that I’ve now baked for people all over the Atlantic Seaboard! I will also have some pot pie versions to purchase the day of the event. Stay tuned for ordering info.

September 20 - POP-UP at Hark Vineyard

October 17 - WINE DINNER at Hark Vineyard

November 27 - THANKSGIVING PIEMAGEDDON

XO.

Click here for event link which will be posted soon.

Menu:

First - Heirloom Tomato & Caromont Goat Cheese Tartlets on Puff Pastry

Second - Greenest Salad w/ Fresh Local Herb Dressing, Snap Peas, Romaine, Cucumbers, and Green Onions

Third - Green Goddess and Buttermilk Roasted Chicken w/ Tomato Gravy

Skillet-Baked Orzo w/ Zucchini, Mint, Spinach, and Feta

Roasted Corn Salad w/ Fresh Peaches and Basil

Vegetarian Entree: Baked Panzanella w/ Crusty ABC Bread, Leeks, White

Beans, Roma Tomatoes

Fourth - Summer Berry Trifle w/ Pastry Cream, Raspberry-Strawberry-Blackberry Compote, Vanilla Cake, Whipped Cream

All courses are paired with wine by people smarter than me on how to do so, but please feel welcome to come if you do not imbibe!

Summer Pie continues on July 11 with Peach Cobbler! Be on the lookout for the Squarespace link for purchase, which you will receive first.

XO.

I’m doing a run of our classic Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble Pie and my subscribers get first dibs.

Follow the link below to make your order. I’ll have these ready by June 6, and pick-up location is to be determined. Please pay attention to your email for more info on timing, etc.

Click here!

July 26: Summer Wine Dinner (four courses, family style, lots of love)

August 23: Pie Chest Fest! (several of your favorites from the shop, fun, and more)

September 20: Pop-Up (TBD)

October 17: Fall Wine Dinner (four courses, family style, more love)

Save the dates and stay tuned for more info!

XO.

The best event of the year is April 24 at The Paramount Theater - come play along and cheer on The Pie Chest for Wordplay! Every dollar spent on admission and raffles goes to support the mission of Literacy Volunteers in Charlottesville.

My first Winery dinner at Hark Vineyards is May 10 - mark your calendar now (I’ll provide the link once it is ready for ticket purchases). Four-course meal with wine pairings, but no need to imbibe!

Since this is so close to Mother’s Day, the menu will contain direct inspiration from each of my grandmothers along with short readings from my manuscript.

I have one remaining Open Doors classes through Albemarle County that still has spots for registration:

Cherry Almond Crumble Hands-On Class, May 20, 6-8pm

Click here to register.

More to come, including a Summer Dessert Pop-Up at Hark Vineyards in July, Peach Cobbler Pop-Up, Tomato Pie Pop-Up, and more classes!

XO,

Rachel

(Quite possibly my arriving moment as a baker…)

As promised when I asked you to follow me here, you all are the first to know about events/ordering.

The website will go LIVE for pre-orders February 24th at 10am for you and will open more widely at 10:30am.

Click Here for site!

See? Told you there would be perks to following me here.

This year, the sweet pies are the perennial favorite, Dark Chocolate Cream, the refreshing Triple Citrus, seasonal Cherry Almond Crumble, or the niche Salted Honey.

For treats, the big-ass Oatmeal Cream Whoo-pies!

And to round it out, an homage to West Virginia - Pepperoni Roll Pie. Each year at the shop, I would personally make a one-off savory item to celebrate our anniversary so consider this that!

Pie On -

Rachel

Ellen Naomi Cohen, better know as Cass Elliott, died in her sleep when she was 32.

She died in a bedroom in Harry Nilsson’s flat, the put-the-lime-in-the-coconut that everybody’s-talkin’-at guy.

Four years later, Keith Moon of The Who would die in the same bedroom at the age of 32.

Mama Cass died of a heart attack in that bedroom. The autopsy revealed no drugs in her system.

Her choking to death on a ham sandwich story was an intentional rumor in “The Hollywood Reporter” because asphyxiating on a chunk of swine was preferable to any association with drugs.

Mama Cass first rejected the pressure to produce “bubblegum music.”

She wanted to make music that really said something.

But Mama also conceded that maybe her voice wasn’t suited for heavier material.

“Make Your Own Kind of Music” at least said a little of something. The lyrics make a case for striking out and doing things on our own, a forward-thinking take on Sinatra’s “My Way,” which looked back and applauded the same spirit of living.

In other words, you can’t do it “(your) way” unless you “make your own kind of music.”

And Mama did do it her way, didn’t she?

She made her music, her own mythical explanations for unintended or undesired experiences.

John Phillips, and wife Michelle, later two members of The Mamas and The Papas, first did not allow Cass Elliot into their group at the time because of her weight.

She didn’t fit his image of what a Mama should be, especially next to a Mama like Michelle Phillips, a skinny white blond waif. Mama was a stocky Jewish girl.

John Phillips instead blamed it on the lack of Mama Cass’ lack of vocal range, claiming it too low.

So what did Mama Cass do?

She got hit on the head with a lead pipe, then claimed that the accident enabled her to reach new high notes in her vocal register.

Mama followed the other three Papas/Mama around, trying to get into the group any way that she could. Finally, John relented after understanding the vocal value she brought.

Mama Cass made her own kind of music.

“Make Your Own Kind of Music” is one of those songs that penetrates the public consciousness once every two decades or so.

Last year, it was a prominent part of a trailer for the “Barbie” movie.

Barbie, that franchise that preaches to little girls they have choices and aspirations.

There is a climactic sequence in the very beginning of the second season of LOST.

We are taken into an underground bunker of sorts, one of the island’s stations. A man wakes up to a beeping sound, gets out of bed and stumbles over to a retro-style computer and inputs a series of numbers. There is a clock counting down on the wall that resets after this input. The man then puts on a vinyl record and the velvet voice of Mama Cass fills the cavern.

He exercises, eats breakfast, then shoots himself with what appears to be a vaccine, all while Mama’s strong and earnest vocal implores him to make his own kind of music.

LOST, among a myriad of other things, is about the interplay of fate and free will, the possible existence and mirage of both. The island where the plane crash victims find themselves is full of mystery and no apparent answers. As viewers, we plug along, episode after episode, hoping for a revelation, not understanding until the end that it was a celebration of asking questions instead of answering them.

Mama’s daughter, Owen Elliot-Kugel, noticed “Make Your Own Kind of Music” was all over Tik-Tok last year, due to it’s use in “Barbie” and “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.”

Elliot-Kugel added, "And I'm loving, in particular, the context that people are using the song because it's completely accurate in the whole attitude. 'Make Your Own Kind of Music' is really about like 'f*** you. I'm gonna do whatever I want, no matter what anybody thinks.'"

I started this essay before trump’s 2.0 attack on American democracy, decency, morality, goodness, diversity, inclusion, civil rights. I thought I would shelve it in the hopes that in two years we will be in a better place and Mama’s song about making my own kind of music would make a bit more timely sense.

Nothing feels like bubblegum music right now, which is how Mama Cass labeled her own song. She compared it to Chinese food; you stuff yourself on it but you’re hungry again in an hour.

But maybe this is the best time for it.

Maybe we need bubblegum and Chinese food.

Maybe it needs to be the soundtrack to our time, where our routines might not make sense in the larger scheme of the world that is on fire, inputting a series of random numbers into a computer to stave off the specter of a looming tragedy.

John Cage also made his own kind of music.

John Cage was an American composer with great interest in the indeterminacy in music, or leaving the possibility of chance or change up to the composer in any given moment. This gives any piece the option of being performed in different ways and allows for greater interpretive ability to the one making her own music.

Here is an example:

Listen here.

(Go ahead, I’ll be here when you get back.)

What the hell was that?

If you aren’t familiar with “4’33”’ it is an entirely silent composition (on the surface). This piece was reportedly Cage’s favorite. It was inspired by his visit to Harvard’s anechoic chamber which was designed to eliminate any sound and produce exact quietude. Instead, Cage could hear the sound of his blood pulsing, his nerves afire.

No two people will ever hear 4’33” the same.

No two people could duplicate their environment, the rhythms of their own hearts.

4’33” will take on the sound of the cosmos around you.

In fact, you’ll never hear it the same anytime you give it a listen.

It is a deeply personal experience.

It is your own kind of music.

Listen, the world feels batshit crazy right now. And it’s hard to grasp onto anything firm. For Desmond, the man in the bunker in “LOST,” he found purpose in the routine, the necessity of the series of numbers every 108 minutes or the end of the world while Mama’s croons filled the space with her own kind of music.

So, the best thing I know to do right now is my routine. Walking my dog, baking the pies, writing the words, capturing the joys, feeding the people, feeling the fears. It’s fighting off the end of the world.

And all this while, I’ll keep on making my own kind of music.

It won’t be like yours - yours will be your own.

But together, it will be deafening.