A mannerist barbecue party

When Davide Vitali comes to the States everybody wants to see him. As a result, his schedule is heavily booked. That Bill and I were fortunate to play hosts to the Humanities dinner on his behalf is either proof that "the early bird gets the worm" (I invited him to dinner while we were still in Roma) or that he took me up on the promise to serve him brownies for dessert.



Bill says that the flurry of activity around our house was propelled by this social event. While it is true that most of the dining room was repainted, new curtains were made, the silver was polished, the linens were ironed, the yard was landscaped, and yes, I even dusted the toe moulding, these activities were related to a zealous use of my excessive amount of free time as an unemployed graduate rather than to Davide's visit. However, I wasn't exactly a slacker in planning the barbecue party either.

I did start planning the meal while in Roma. You see, I love to plan things when I go to bed. I will plan gardens, spaces, logos, events, wardrobes, whatever, at bedtime. It's no wonder that I frequently have difficulty falling asleep. My mind is just a fertile spread of gray matter at that time of night. Davide requested barbecue so I began to develop the meal around spare ribs. Of course, why stop at one barbecue dish when you have two in your repertoire? There were the pulled pork sandwiches I served at my graduation party. But how to fit both recipes into the same meal--that was a "poser" as they say in these here parts.

Over the months I worked on the menu I was also sitting in Dr. Kim Sexton's Architecture II class that covered among other things Mannerist architecture. Without providing a term paper on the subject, the idea of Mannerism is to subvert the established rules of architecture, rules that would have been known to the audience. So I decided to subvert the rules of both a formal dinner and a barbecue by melding them into one event: a formal barbecue. The two barbecue courses which might also be viewed as lunch and dinner were separated by a palate cleanser--a lovely pear/cardamom/lemon zest sorbet--and the ribs were followed by finger bowls and lemon wedges. While the finger bowls might be viewed as a bit precious (even baroque), they were a necessary intervention. Fork and knife were put aside in order to eat the ribs as God intended--with fingers.

And true to my word, I prepared the brownies, as promised. Davide was thrilled to be served the entire platter!



I also made a coconut cream pie, Bob Baker's personal favorite, for the people like me who avoid caffeine in the evening. I'm glad I made a second dessert because it left more brownies for Davide to take back to the hotel with him, and heaven only knows I don't need any stimulants working overtime on my brain at bedtime!

Below is a picture of our little Humanities group. From left to right: Chuck and Rhonda Adams, Anita and Dave Fredrick, myself, Bill, and Davide.



Billy and his girlfriend, Sarah, dropped by for a visit (and some food), as well. Billy knew Davide from our first trip to Roma when we "dragged" him with us. In the fall, Billy will take Chuck for a Poe and the American Gothic course and Dave for Ovid. Billy snapped the above picture.

And then Billy snapped this one of Chuck! There goes Billy's A in the course! Actually, Chuck, Dave, and Davide were keeping us in stitches. Chuck and Dave were doing British accents, and then Davide did a British accent in Italian. It was a hoot.



It was a delightful evening. During a week and a half of nothing but rain, the skies cleared early enough in the afternoon so that we could sit on the deck to enjoy our Prosecco. The ground was too slushy, however, to play a game of Wild West bocce. The only remedy for the limitations of last week's weather is that Davide will have to return for another dinner, one preceded by that game of bocce. And as an incentive, I promise to make more brownies!