Happy Waitangi Day!

Yesterday was Waitangi Day in New Zealand (actually now 2 days ago...the time difference is still so weird to me!). Here's the Wikipedia explanation of what it is:

Waitangi Day is the national day of New Zealand. It is a public holiday held each year on February 6 to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand's founding document, on that date in 1840.

Basically it's the day that the Maori Cheifs and the white settlers signed a peace agreement.

In celebration of this day, I made a meat pie. Most of us Americans would wrinkle our nose at the thought of a real mincemeat pie (not the sweet Thanksgiving kind), but you are missing out on a flaky-crusted slice of heaven.

New Zealand has little bakeries everywhere and in each one you can find individual meat pies: steak and mushroom, mincemeat (ground beef), potato-topped pies, cheesy meat pies, and anything else you can imagine. And they're all little and cute like the chicken pot-pies we know here in the States.

I didn't take a picture of our potato-topped mincemeat pie (mashed potatoes for the top layer instead of pie crust) because it didn't last long before we devoured it, but you get the idea. I hope one day everyone has the opportunity to eat one of these divine little pies made from pure goodness! Yummy!