Un-medicated Schizoid Paranoia of Hitlerian Proportions
With this really bizarre weather we're experiencing this winter, we don't know from one day to the next if we're going to need the fireplaces going or not, and if there's any grilling to be done, we don't know if Max will be able to use the grills on the porch or if he'll have to make his runs to the pool house and use the grills we have set up in there.

Because we enjoy the fireplaces blazing away, we were glad for the sudden cold snap that allowed us to use the fireplaces in both the great room and the dining room. For every fire we start, we plant a sapling, so we don't feel guilty about cutting our own firewood.

Bob was busy mixing Czarinas for us. This is a very old cocktail, and from what we could tell as Bob prepared them, they were going to be delicious. He used Chopin vodka, Angostura bitters, Martini & Rossi vermouth and apricot brandy.

Liz was decrying the Hitlerian hysterical reactions and dangerously psychotic paranoid behavior of this administration. Collectively, George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and Alberto Gonzáles have, in a show of ridiculous paranoia, decided to spy on and monitor all the actions of Quaker groups around the country. Now, Liz said, they have never in the history of their existence been considered dangerous people. On the contrary, everything they stand for is good, unlike other faiths that have nefarious agendas, the Society of Friends, or Quakers, strive only for reaching the highest ideals of humanity.

Liz told us that she had recently read what John Humphries, a Hartford Quaker, said: that Quakers, as citizens and people of faith, are called on to follow a higher law and to take personal responsibility when their government violates international law. Now, Liz said, how scary can that be? Well, to this sick administration, plenty scary said Bob. Mr. Humphries was quoted as saying: "What we do comes from moral and deep spiritual conviction. We have a long pacifist history. Under the current situation, this is an administration that finds that threatening, and it goes into attack mode against people upholding their rights and responsibilities as citizens."

George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and Alberto Gonzáles each is the 21st Century version of the Nazi Verbindungsmann, or police spy. Funny, Judy mentioned, how the letters 'dung' are in that word, but not funny that we, the people, and the Quakers, are being spied on by our own government. Our own government rendered unrecognizable unless viewed through the prism of fascism and the Nazi mentality.

Goosestep Mentality and the Führerprinzip
Our Führer, who wants dictatorial, absolutist powers, also requires unquestioning obedience of inferiors, and, like Hitler, has openly revealed his disdain for democracy. Á la Hitler, all power and authority flow from the top in this administration, and like Hitler, Bush wants to transform a democracy into a totalitarian state while hypocritically expounding the virtues of democracy in the Middle East, on which he decided to execute a 21st Century Crusade.
Hitler, Bob said, removed all remaining limits on his power and suppressed all remaining political opposition, as Bush has attempted to do with Congress and the Supreme Court and is now doing even with innocents such as the Quakers.

Like Hitler, Max said, this Führer has his own 21st Century equivalent of the Gestapo SS Complex, responsible for repression of supposed "enemies of the state." And like the Gestapo of old, how much more sinister can you get in appearance and sinister looks than Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice and that Aztec torturer, Alberto Gonzáles, who renders quaint the notion that this was once a democracy that abhorred torture and found spying on citizens abhorrent?

Are You Terrified, Like the White House Is, By Quakers?
Liz and Beatrix were repulsed by the news of the White House spying on the Quakers. They found it profoundly risible but abysmally distressing, that this president is so psychotically paranoid, as were Hitler and Nixon,that he would order the Quakers be put under surveillance. How pathetic, Liz and Beatrix thought.

Another Quaker, Abigail E. Adams, Beatrix had read, said this: "I'm hoping this [surveillance] will heighten people's awareness that concerns over security are trumping the foundations of our country and the Constitution, and I would hope that this will start what Quakers call a 'query,' an open-ended question that starts you on the road to a broader perspective." Oh! How scary a notion! Who is next, Beatrix asked, birdwatchers? I mean, Beatrix said, they're just as threatening to the nation's security as the Quakers are!

Blessedly, The Dinner Gong is Rung
Buckle your seatbelts, we were told; tonight was going to be a wild ride. Our two newest neighbors who recently moved to some neighboring farms, Rania, a Muslim from Iraq, and Sagidah, a Jewish Iraqi, planned to be in charge of dinner tonight. Bear in mind that these two ladies are far more cosmopolitan and international than a lot of us, so our fancy Continental or French dinner menus don't really impress them all that much. No, they want to become immersed in more exotic fare and learn to prepare it. So, we asked them the other night, what do you mean by exotic? Mexican Food, they both said instantly! Their second region of interest was Southwestern Cuisine. Both of these cuisines they found intriguing and exotic. Not for them our beloved Vichyssoise or Escargots. So, we were really looking forward tonight to what they had prepared.

The rest of us had all attended "cooking tamales class" with a Mexican lady who doesn't live in the area but is still close enough that we were able to go learn from her, and some of us returned so Rania and Sagidah could learn how to make tamales also.

Well, the teenagers were already seated at their dining table in the great room, and we rapidly went in to the large dining room to see what wonders these two new neighbors had prepared for us.

Superb Shrimp Tamales were our first course. Rania and Sagidah had, with only two sessions, mastered making tamales. They served the tamales with a bit of perfect guacamole on the plates. We were thrilled with the tamales and the wine they selected to pair with them, a Portuguese white wine, Vinho Verde from Casal Mendes.

The tamales were followed by a classic Tortilla Soup, prepared with delicacy and not a heavy hand, leading us to believe that we were always going to enjoy dinner when this pair teams up. If the soup had been spicier, we would have broken the white wines first rule and had it with an Australian full-bodied Shiraz, but since the ladies had gone easy on the spices, they decided instead to pair the Tortilla Soup with a very good dry Alsatian Riesling from Pierre Sparr.

Showing that they had really studied up on "exotic" Mexican food, their next course was fish perfection: Achiote Marinated Braised Gulf Grouper with roasted tomatoes, green chiles and onions. On the plates, they served green chile rice and black beans. Instead of going with a light, white wine, they decided to pair this fairly complex dish with an Italian Chianti Classico, a 2001 Isole e Olena which was a beautifully colored wine, rich and with dense fruit, perfectly standing alongside the achiote marinade.

Next, they tackled a dish that only the bravest of Mexican food cooks tackle: Black Oaxacan Mole. Now that's a feat, but it demonstrated to us how committed they were to learning as much as possible about what they considered the exotic cuisine of Mexico, and of course we were thrilled since every last one of us loves true Mexican cuisine.

The Turkey in Oaxacan Mole was superb, served very simply with some exquisitely prepared Mexican rice, fried plantain slices and avocado slices, and paired with an interesting wine none of us had ever tried before, the Argentine 2002 Tikal "Patriota" from Mendoza. This wine is 60% Bonarda and 40% Malbec, and was a superlative match for the super rich, very flavorful Mole. This wine has abundant aromas of black raspberries, plums and blueberries, and is lush, ripe and balanced.

Carmen kindly offered to help Rania and Sagidah with the Flan, which is Carmen's specialty and one of our favorite desserts. We had ours with some Grand Marnier, and then returned to join the teenagers for our after-dinner coffee.

End of A Magnificent Dinner
Well, this "initiation" into cooking for around 40 people, and preparing fare that they were not even aware existed, certified Rania and Sagidah as bona fide members of our "cooking and wining farmers and ranchers" gang. Dinner was a success, judging from the delight we felt and the expressions of appreciation from the teenagers, who always love anything Mexican. Neither of them had ever used one of the gadgets we use all the time because it allows us to stir our pots and grind pepper into them with only one hand, the Chef'n Pepper Ball-Grinder, which has two little handles at the top that you can squeeze with just one hand and grind pepper into your cooking utensils.

Staub, the manufacturers of those wonderful enameled cast iron cocottes, Dutch ovens and braising pans we have by the dozens had certainly come in handy tonight, especially for the Braised Gulf Grouper. These pans hold heat beautifully and are perfect, even if they are a bit heavy. (That's why the teenagers come in so handy at cleaning-up time comes around for the kids who want to earn some extra pocket money.)

The fire in the large fireplace was dying, most of the cleaning up had been taken care of, and everybody left for their respective farms and ranches, each of us, I think, saying a little prayer of one kind or another for the Quakers, the Society of Friends.

Summary
The psychotically paranoid administration in power right now, like the one in Nazi Germany, is spying on everybody who might remotely oppose its policies. The height of the ridiculous is its intensive spying efforts directed at the most gentle Society of Friends, the Quakers. You know an administration has sunk into the cesspool when it spies on and begins to harass people long-known for their innate gentleness and love for humankind. It takes a dangerously paranoid schizoid president to sink to these depths, and he and his minions really need to be force-fed antipsychotic medications.