Wow — the last mass e-mail I wrote was at the end of November. Here’s a 5-sentence summary of everything in the past six weeks:

After writing three good papers at the end of the term, I stayed in Chicago for a couple of extra days and reorganized and cleaned my room. While this may not seem a big deal for most people – my room needed it so bad I knew I must end the year on that good note; it did need it. Spending almost three weeks at home I took WAY too few pictures. But, I still managed to read two books while my brother rebooted my addiction to the Nintendo GameCube. I finally returned to Chicago and classes began on January 3rd.

My family and I reached a fun equilibrium a couple of years ago on how we should manage to live together during breaks. You may laugh, but, it’s not as easy as you would think. I’m in my early twenties and my bed time depends on what’s happening the next day; it rarely depends on what I’ve done that day! I did have a great time at home, though, and my Dad and I watched Season 2 of the stress-inducing series “24”.

During winter break I normally expect snow and ice. I only remember two moments during the 2005/2006 break that fulfilled this expectation. However, at that time it didn’t matter since I witnessed a great snow when returning to the States from Florence.

This break didn’t contain much winter weather. Hence, the picture above. Most of you know that I grew up on a horse farm. This is a picture of one of the stallions after a great snowfall two winters ago. The pictures I took this break weren’t nearly as good. While they show great progressions of the newborn foals from when I shot the pictures in Easter until now, the pictures are bland: there’s no snow!

Another highlight over break was cooking with my Aunt Becky. Ever since my time in Florence, and those many e-mails, Becky has me come to her house in West Des Moines and cook whenever I’m back in town. Usually we will coordinate two or three days in advance of when we’re cooking. I e-mail her recipes the night before we cook and then we tag-team the grocery purchasing, depending on who runs errands. For our cooking time during this break, however, I was stuck. I had no good ideas of dishes to make! So … I made up a new one.

reductio ad esculentus
I’m not positive that the Latin above is correct (it should end up as “reduction to deliciousness”). The recipe I created needs some work on the texture, but has amazing flavors. I started by slicing eggplant length-wise so that each slice was about 1/4″ or thinner. After grilling those, battering them with egg and bread crumbs and then frying them with a mixture of oil and Cabernet Sauvignon, I placed them to the side to dry – slightly. I then created little wraps out of each eggplant and filled them with parmesan, mozzarella, a mushroom-tomato ragu, and the coalesced bread crumbs left over from the frying reduction. After setting all of the eggplant rolls onto a bed of the mozzarella ragu and then forming a laager around it all with the even-more-reduced cabernet mixture, we transported it to my grandma’s house and rewarmed it in the oven.

The recipe is another example of why it’s important to start with a great wine and slow-reduce it as long as possible. Reduction, in fact, is often a great thing! Theologians who can reduce their complex works into manageable chunks deserve more credit, in my opinion, than those spouting at the pen. The same is true for the successful photographers. They can take thousands of pictures (or – to rekindle/parallel the cooking metaphor – a 750mL bottle of wine), and pick out 30 great ones and tell a story with better quality and length than a movie. It’s all part of the art of reducing something in order to accentuate the desire. Flavors, images, words: they are all desirable.

Even though any new pictures of horses in the snow must wait for another year, and the cooking experiments will now be alone instead of with family, it was great to return to Chicago. My classes this semester are stellar: Greek, the Public Church and its Ministry, and the Old Testament in the Gospel of John. Those of you who know me well are probably reading ‘Greek’ and thinking, “Surprise, surprise, Adam. Don’t you ever take anything new?” You’re partially correct. I’m already nervous for the Spring quarter. It will be the first academic term since 2002 that I am not taking a foreign language! At the same time, it may be a great move to trade that challenge in for a different (notice I didn’t say better!) one.

Now, to conclude this random e-mail, I have to point out one of the best tools for my alma mater: TCU. Everyone constantly asks why we’re called the Horned Frogs. Well, National Geographic’s latest Podcast issue shows one taking on a coyote. To see it, either subscribe with iTunes or visit the site in your web browser. You’ll notice that they call it a horned lizard (read: Horned Frog … science evolves); no matter the name, TCU calls it a mascot!

Peace and Blessings,

Adam