A Follower of the Dalai Lama
The recipe for Bellinis came from the famous Harry's Bar in Venice and was first concocted in the 1940's. Schuyler mixed up a batch for tonight, using exquisite fresh peaches, crème de pêche (a peach liqueur) a dash of peach bitters and sparkling wine, Prosecco in this case. It's a good thing we have a strict limit of one cocktail per person only, otherwise many of us would have lined up for seconds. Delicious.

We didn't have a lot of logs in the fireplace because we got a break in the weather and had a fairly mild day, but the night seemed charged with pent up emotions, mainly Bob and Judy's. They went home for the holidays, and during one of their meals they excitedly and fondly told the story of one of our neighbors who is basically a shut-in. This neighbor has had a pretty rough time of it, and depends, to his regret, on the kindness of the neighbors. Well, Bob and Judy told their family that this rough and tumble grizzled farrier had the kindness and generosity, not to mention goodness of heart you don't often associate with tough old farriers, to once a week call our neighbor to make sure that he is o.k., that he has heat and enough to eat.

Immediately, Bob and Judy's relatives and friends, all born-again "christians" remarked about what fine qualities this guy possessed and what a kind and Christian spirit this man was guided by. Then, the fireworks! Bob and Judy interrupted the born-agains while they were praising the farrier, to report that actually he was a follower of the Dalai Lama and routinely spent time at Tibetan retreats in New England. Apparently, for a second you could have heard a pin drop, Judy said, but an instant later there was this horrendous, obscene, cacophony of violent, explosive, near-emetic sounds of disgust as all the gathered guests started to reveal their immense hatred for the kind-hearted farrier and his faith.

Well, Bob explained, the farrier's humane and decent concern for an older and weaker neighbor was admirable just while the guests sitting with Bob and Judy thought this man had to be a born-again Christian, but as soon as they found out what his faith really was they were totally repulsed by him and in an instant scorned him and derided him; the kind gestures had lost their importance. Judy of course, said she doubted even one of those guests would have been kind enough to look in on this neighbor on a regular basis, year after year.

The Moral Compass of the Republicans?
If these people, Max said, are the ones supposedly setting the moral compass for the Republican Party, it's no surprise things are turning putrid in Washington. Buddhism encompasses performing positive actions, as the Democrats do; it encompasses avoiding negative deeds, which the Democrats try bravely to avoid; lastly, Buddhist morality is underscored by the principles of harmlessness, as in not depriving the poor, the poor elderly, the very young or the people with disabilities benefits that go beyond the paltry bare minimum.

Charity and Compassion
Liz, with her inexhaustible supply quotes, told us what British politician Neil Kinnock once said: "Compassion is not a sloppy, sentimental feeling for people who are underprivileged or sick; it is an absolutely practical belief that, regardless of a person's ability, or ability to pay, he should be provided with the best that society has to offer."

That, Liz said, sounded rather like the Democratic Party, our Tibetan farrier, and kind people everywhere. It didn't, she said, sound like anything a Republican would feel. Perhaps, if the born-again christians followed our farrier friend's moral compass, they wouldn't be so judgmental and cruel.

Startled by the Dinner Gong and Spurred On to a Wonderful Dinner
We'd gotten so engrossed in Bob and Judy's horror story that we'd forgotten the teenagers were going to be hungry, and when that was brought to our attention, we realized we too were ready for dinner.

Art and Terry prepared some flawless Spinach Gnudi, a dish of Tuscan origin, which naturally seemed to go well with a Tuscan wine like a Vernaccia di San Gimignano and 2002 Rocca delle Macìe, with clean and lemony mineral flavors. It's hard to explain exactly what the gnudi are, but perhaps the simplest description would be a comparison to spinach, tomato, garlic and ricotta all mixed up and made into tiny little dumplings.

An hour after we declared that it wasn't very cold, it did start to get a bit chilly so we were glad to see that Carmen and Jim had made a hearty Provençal Vegetable Soup. To make a long list of vegetables short, just imagine a delicious vegetable, and Carmen and Jim had put into this hearty peasant soup. Paired with a just-chilled Fino sherry, the soup was exactly what we needed after the gnudi.

Remaining in the slightly Italian mode the dinner began with, Art and Terry prepared Pork Chops with Kale. The kale and the fennel seeds used in the dish married perfectly, and to top it all off, Art and Terry had brought over some wine we instantly liked, a Renato Ratti Monferato Villa Pattono 2000. This wine has fresh and fruity flavors with hints of berry, currants and tobacco. It is medium-bodied and now, in 2006, ready to drink.

We had an inkling that Carmen was going to serve us individual ramekins of Crème Brûlée and were hoping the rumors were true, since that is one of her classic desserts. Sure enough, after our wonderfully prepared pork chops, Carmen brought out terrific ramekins of Crème Brûlée with perfectly caramelized tops. When we asked her how she achieved these beautiful, crusty tops, she confessed that she had used one of her new tools, a fairly salamander rod. She said she'd rather get the job done quickly, so she had several of these salamander rods keeping red hot on a bank of indoor charcoal grills that Max had set up for her. Basically, they are like small hockey pucks, made of steel and with a long handle, sized to fit perfectly inside the perimeter of the individual ramekins once they salamander is red-hot, thus caramelizing the desserts. We bought ours through that amazing culinary Nirvana, Sur La Table.com

Coffee with The Teenagers
After-dinner coffee, courtesy of Max and his gorgeous, antique espresso machine, we had coffee back in the great room with the kids. They too had enjoyed Carmen's glorious dessert, and were sad to hear that no, there were no seconds. We thought she was super brave just to caramelize almost 50 individual desserts. With sweaters on and ready to go home, we all felt comforted by the knowledge that our kids, whatever their faith, would not laugh at or deride anybody who was kind to another person.

Summary:
Charity, compassion and concern are a better moral compass than depriving the poor, the poor elderly, very young children or people with disabilities of desperately needed benefits and help. A culture of hatred in religious matters has no place in our country.