A Kinder, Nobler, More Compassionate Government
As they say, baby it's cold outside! But with the huge fireplace in the great room roaring it just took a moment to get re-warmed after leaving our cars and trucks. Schuyler was already busy mixing drinks as we all started arriving for dinner. Tonight he made us a drink that was first made in Mexico in the 1930s, a Tequila Sunrise. Mexico in the 30s and 40s was the heyday when most of Hollywood called Mexico its playground, and this drink reminded some of us of Hollywood's greatest. Generational problem, a lot of our group didn't know what the heck I was talking about, but everybody who had one loved the drink Schuyler made with Tequila Sauza Conmemorativo.

The teenagers settled down in one area of the room and we remained by the fireplace, where our drinks filled with ice cubes didn't seem incongruous. Jane was talking to Beatrix and Jeremy about new ways the government was looking at old alliances, health care for all, housing for the unfortunate who needed help in getting housing and the generosity of the government in providing heating fuel assistance to the poor during the cold winter months.

The rest of us, upon hearing this, immediately joined the discussion because it sounded so much like a newer kind of government that rejected the idea that only the wealthy deserved the attention of the government. The talk of having a government that actually took into consideration the needs of the middle and lower classes over the avariciousness of the wealthier classes sounded like a real turn-around in policy, and that thought warmed us as much as the blazing fire did.

Jeremy we overheard telling Jane that he had heard that the government was forming tighter bonds with countries like Argentina and others in Latin America, as well as with China and the European Union. Things bode well for 2006, Jeremy seemed to be saying.

Hugo Chávez, Social Reforms and Broadening Horizons
Well, that's what I get for joining in on a conversation after it has begun. I thought Jane, Beatrix and Jeremy had heard somewhere that things were getting better here in this country for the middle and lower classes, but I was soon disabused of that ridiculous notion. No, what they had been talking about all this time was Venezuela's president Hugo Chávez, the grass burr that's perpetually caught in George Bush's knickers, irritating the living daylights out of him.

Chávez, sitting on enormously vast oil reserves, and one of our most important sources of oil, could turn off the faucet at any time. It would cost him, but he could do it and severely impact this country's economy. However, Mr. Chávez, in the past, has done just the opposite. Hearing about the plight of impoverished people in the U.S. northeast and their difficulty in paying for oil to heat their homes, he volunteered help. Last winter, a dozen U.S. Senators (not George Bush) asked 10 oil companies to donate a portion of their huge profits to help the poor keep warm. Of course, none helped, only President Chávez' oil division Citgo did, sending tankers to housing projects in Massachusetts and New York. Judy asked, why couldn't our own government and our own oil companies help? Poor Judy, she got some pretty strange looks from all of us since we know that things don't work that way with U.S. oil companies

Mr. Chávez, unlike our president, is working assiduously to help the poor of his country and when the need arises, helps the poor in the United States. While we forget that Latin America exists, Mr. Chávez is making friends all over Latin America, which seems quite logical, but he has expanded his horizons and bonds to include one of the greatest powers in the modern world: China, which just today was reported to be in third place among the world's traders, behind only the United States and Germany.

Jeremy thought that we, as a country, should take a broader view of the world than our administration does. George Bush and Condoleezza Rice are so focused on Iraq, and the neocons, or neoconservatives, are so focused on Iran, that they seem to have forgotten that there are other spots on earth of great import. Just imagine, Jeremy theorized, what a new power like China-Latin America-Europe could do, especially since we are not particularly well-liked in that triumvirate?

I wasn't sure if the dinner gong was being banged, or if the sounds I heard were thump, thump, regime-change, regime-change!

Beatrix and Charlotte, Chefs for Tonight
Dynamic duo these two, who enjoy cooking together. Beatrix is British and Charlotte is Belgian, and here they are, miles from any town or city, living happily in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by cattle, sheep, goats, horses and vineyards.

Their first offering was served in the spirit of a Spanish tapas bar, Seared Ono and Apple Salad with Chorizo-Pepper Relish. The ladies cheated a bit, substituting ingredients as necessary when the authentic Spanish ingredients were not available, but the dish was pretty Spanish in the end nevertheless. We know they had planned this dinner very well because they went to great lengths to get an authentic Spanish wine that you would find in a tapas bar. Tonight, for the first time, we tried a Talai-Berri Getariako Txakolina (yeah, you try to pronounce it; we couldn't since its Basque, not Castilian) from Bibulous in San Francisco.

Fortunately, the laws have changed and we can now receive wines from other states via different carriers. This wine is slightly fizzy and reminds us of Portuguese Vinho Verde or a French Muscadet, and it pairs beautifully with seafood. This is a light and very zesty wine, perfect for tapas.
Tonight, Beatrix and Charlotte decided to break with our normal pattern of having a light appetizer or tapa, followed by soup and then the fish and meat course we enjoy. They consulted with everybody and of course gained our approval, so tonight they planned to combine the soup course with the fish course, by serving us an amazingly satisfying Braised Seafood and Shellfish Chowder with Red Pepper Sauce. An enormous variety of fish and shellfish make up this hearty dish and of course, being a Spanish or Basque dish, the Red Pepper Sauce is not made with chiles, but rather with red bell peppers and piquillo peppers.

Both Beatrix and Charlotte once again sang the praises of the immersion blenders we had gotten from KitchenAid, since it saved them from having to transport huge pots of steaming-hot soup to blenders. With the immersion blenders, they simply placed the immersion blenders in the stock or soup pots and blended the ingredients safely. For our wine with this superb chowder, they poured us another Spanish wine, a 2000 Finca Allende Rioja white, with plenty of oak and enough acidity for backbone, to stand up to all the ingredients in our amazing chowder.

The next course they prepared for us was a flawless Pecan-Crusted Beef Tenderloin. Tonight the vast collection of extra large Le Creuset enameled cast iron skillets came in handy, as several tenderloins had to be browned at the same time before placing them in the huge roasting pans we have quite a collection of. The Le Creuset skillets, being extremely heavy, allow for good heat retention, making the scraping up of the brown bits left in the skillets for another step in the preparation of the tenderloins a snap. These brown bits, called 'fond' are used for the jus that will be served with the sliced tenderloin and therefore, indispensable. We were served plates with the tenderloin slices, roasted fingerling potatoes, zucchini cooked in a tomato-Serrano chile sauce, and crowning the list of vegetables, baked endives with pancetta and mascarpone.

With so much effort put into this meal, they decided to go for broke and served a very delightful wine we had never tried before and that we'll discuss in greater detail later. The wine was a 1997 Querciabella Camartina, Beatrix and Charlotte were extremely generous tonight, as they had decided several weeks ago on the menu for tonight, and knew that the wine they would bring to our dinner would be very much more expensive than the wines we usually enjoy, purely because of the large numbers in our group of neighbors. So, tonight, knowing the background of this wine, we sipped it slowly, enjoying its aromas and flavors, which were full of fruit, almost of strawberry, and the oak was not too prominent. This was an excellent wine with great elegance and a lot of power.

After such an excellent wine, we just wanted some biscotti with Max's special blend of decaf espresso, which we enjoyed back in the great room with the teenagers.

Our Wine Discussion in the Great Room
Naturally, after such a fine dinner, our anger at our government and our admiration for what Hugo Chávez is trying to accomplish had receded a bit, finding a niche in our short-term memories. What remained alive, was our enjoyment of tonight's crowning glory, the 1997 Querciabella Camartina.

Beatrix informed us that it was a masterful blend of 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot and 70% Sangiovese. It is aged 18 to 36 months. When it reaches your table, it will have exotic wood flavors and very fine, concentrated stylish fruit. It also will not be over-oaked.

From the vineyard's owner, we gathered the following information: Querciabella is dedicated to producing among the finest Italian wines. Quality begins in the vineyard and with minimal intervention one can produce a wine that is truly a reflection of the soil in which the vines are grown. The grapes are rigorously selected from low yielding vines with the emphasis placed on concentration and richness from nature.

Querciabella began with a few hectares of vineyards and a few old buildings in Greve, in Chianti. Since then, the estate has expanded to almost 500 acres and a state of the art winery.

Summary
Is the U.S. administration becoming kinder, gentler and more compassionate? Oh, no. You'd have to look south for a country that actually feels compassion for its less fortunate citizens. Hugo Chávez had once before stepped in to help poor United States citizens. To achieve the same level of help, we'll have to press for regime change here in the good old U.S.A.