Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

[captainsblog]

From the canonical, Wikipedia-approved online Guide to Buffalo English:

CHIAVETTA - barbecued chicken served at lawn fetes (see definition), named for the catering company that usually provides it. (sign ex.- "Our Lady of the Blessed Shroud Lawn Fete - Rides, Bands, Games, Chiavetta"). The word is quickly becoming a generic word for barbecued chicken - "Let's gota' Boston Chicken's and get some Chiavetta."

Methodists don't do lawn fetes in their full incarnate-word form; as the same piece notes, Protestant churches do not have lawn fetes, because there are very few of them in Buffalo and their congregations are much smaller than the massive Catholic patrishes [sic].  We do, however, have special dispensation from His Holiness to pass out the Chiavetta's at our own fundraising functions, as do schools, shuls, fire halls and virtually every other institution on the block from March to November.

At least once a year in the almost fifteen we've lived here, our church has run such a barbecue as a fundraiser, the June one marking the start of summer as much as Memorial Day, the end of school or the Allentown Art Festival. Somehow, we'd always managed to miss out on the event other than as occasional chicken-buyers.  This year, though, Em came with me to the confirmation service last Sunday- the fourth straight I've participated in as either her parent or another kid's mentor- and she signed us up for the "bag shift" from the start of the barbecue until an hour before its expected end.

In many ways, this was more of a sacrifice for her than it was for me. She took the SATs this morning, and had all of half an hour after I got her home from that before we had to head over for our designated duties on the poultry patrol. Even so, she was a real trouper about it, coordinating the customers and other baggers (ranging from one kid way younger than her, to me and another dad about my age) to keep the "for here" and "to go" orders straight for most of a three-hour shift. In those 400-odd transactions, we really got to know people on both sides of the ticket table and the kitchen, who we knew vaguely from Sunday mornings but never from such close interaction, far better than we ever had before.  When we left around 6:30 with three (fully paid-for) boxes of the dinners for our own family meal tonight, we did so with a glow approximating the one coming off the grills on our front lawn.

We also gained a lot more appreciation for how Mom feels when she comes home, every Thursday through Sunday night, having been on her feet for twice as many hours straight as we put in today.

And the chicken was yummy. The wine I acquired to go with it for Eleanor and me, likewise.

Comments

[luckycee.livejournal.com]

I just hate getting the chicken BBQ dinners to go...stuff always gets soggy in there!

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

You need to get to Chiavetta country- prolly just a few miles for you to Gasport or somesuch. They have special dispensations from the Pope which keep the chickens hot and extra crispy even if left in a hot car for hours.

[headbanger118.livejournal.com]

While the Methodist church I attended as a kid never did lawn fetes as fundraisers, we LOOKED for reasons to have "dinner on the grounds," a covered dish supper in which much fried chicken, cole slaw, potato salad, and pies would be involved. As for fund raisers, that was done in form of spaghetti or pancake suppers.

Alas, we Espicopalians have not followed that trend. :(

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

That's probably a function of your Church of England roots. They used to have Chiavettas, but King Henry wound up divorcing all the chickens and then trying to chop their heads off.

Not good for business.