Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 052 (Curry Chicken)

I really like my Wednesdays. I only have one class, and it's Lectio Devina, so I really get to zone out and relax and connect with the people in my group. Of course, there's always the bonehead move of forgetting to save your homework to your flash drive, which is what I did this morning.

With an entire unscheduled day ahead of me, I decided to make curry chicken, which takes about 5 hours, but it's mostly 5 hours of just waiting. So, here is my curry chicken recipe. I think it's more of a Moroccan curry, but I'm not really sure.

4 lbs chicken (bone-in dark meat is best)

4 onions

1 tbsp each butter, coriander and salt

2 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp each cumin, pepper, cayenne, turmeric, cardamom, garlic and ginger

1 cup chicken stock or 1 cup of water & ¼ tsp salt

1/3 cup seasoned rice wine vinegar

Slice the onions and combine them in a large sauté pan with all of the other ingredients, except for the chicken. Reduce the onion mixture over low heat, stirring occasionally, until most of the liquid is gone, about 2 hours.

I prefer to bake this in a lidded clay pot or tagine, but you can simmer the chicken in a large heavy bottom pot for an hour.

If you are going to use a clay pot or tagine, follow the instructions for your particular piece of cookware. Many will require you to soak the lids in water. Mine has to be soaked for a half hour before use, so I do this while the onion mixture is cooking down.

Apply a thin layer of the onion mixture on the bottom of the pot and then put a single layer of chicken over it. Spread a thin layer of the onion mixture over the chicken and then put another layer of chicken over that. Spread the remaining onion mixture on top of the chicken. My clay pot can fit about 4 lbs of chicken. You may have to play with the recipe depending on the size of your pot. You can always make the full recipe for the sauce and use less when cooking the chicken. Any leftover sauce can be refrigerated for later use.

Bake the chicken at 450° for 2 hours.

Serve with couscous, rice or naan. Enjoy!

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 051 (Speed Reading)

Speed reading is a skill that I need to learn, but don't have time to learn. I'm about to do some speed reading for my Lectio Devina, which is a total oxy moron if you know anything about Lectio Devina. I'd like to blog a little bit longer, but I have homework to do. Night!

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 050 (Chicken Fat)

I've discovered that the secret to really good chicken noodle soup (yes I put noodles in it now, thank you Ian and Tom for converting me) is chicken fat. And, celery.

And, lemon.

Anyway, sorry if that grosses anyone out that ate any chicken soup that I've made over the last few days. I've been making soup under the guise of feeding people that were getting sick, but I'm pretty sure on some level that I wanted the soup too because I haven't been feeling that well. I am so tired that I contemplated for a minute not blogging today and just going to sleep (yes, it's not even 8:00 yet) But, I figure that I haven't really missed a day of blogging yet, and I don't want to start now.

I've pulled out the heavy blankets and taken 2 Tylenol. Hopefully I'll get enough sleep that I'll wake up early and be able to do some homework before suicide Tuesday.

Suicide Tuesady = Old Testament, Biblical Hebrew, Improvisation in Ministry & The Sacred and the Substance

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 049 (The Girl of My Dreams)

My really good friend called me today to tell me that her stepmother-type person thought that I would find a nice girl in seminary and get married in the "normal" and obviously much better-for-me way. This woman, not my friend, the stepmother-type person, makes a comment like this about twice a year or so. It's actually kind of funny, but it's also really annoying. She obviously has no clue about what it means to be gay. It's not something that I thought was cool and decided to start doing one day. This is who I am. Why in the world would I chose to be attracted to guys? Do you have any idea how complicated this makes my life? Not to mention the fact that it is completely ridiculous to think that you get to chose who you are attracted to! This is just how I am, and to be honest, it took me a really long time to accept it, be comfortable, and yes, even appreciate it. I know that because of my religious upbringing and involvement with the church, I could just as easily have been born straight and grown up to be one of those bigoted haters holding up signs on street corners trying to get everyone to "protect marriage" by voting on Prop 8.

And, why is it that the people judging me are always the people that have some definite flaws of their own? Apparently it's okay to get divorced, have extra-marital sex and snort cocaine, just as long as you're not gay. (Those are actual real-life personal examples of people that have judged me in the past, not hyperboles) It's never the soccer mom with four kids that remained a virgin until she was married and volunteers at the soup kitchen and sings in the church choir that tells me it's wrong to be gay. It's always people who have issues of their own, but for whatever reason, their issues are "okay" and they think they have enough moral standing to be telling me how I should be living my life.

So yes, I am thankful that God made me gay. I'm glad that I was forced to see both sides of the issue as I grew up so that I could become a sensitive and rational human being who does realize, albeit imperfectly sometimes, that there is usually more than one side to every issue. The fact that I am a gay Christian forces me to really examine things that are just accepted as the status quo. I try not to take things for granted and I try not to jump to conclusions about things. I try to learn as much as I can before making decisions, and I will always be the last person to judge someone because of the things that they've done. So, yes! Yes, I am glad that God made me this way and I am proud to be a gay man for God!

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 048 (Dear God)

Dear God,

I know that you want me to be here, and there are probably multiple reasons for me to be here, but this is all getting really intense. I don't want to mess everything up; I think we have a really good thing going here. Do I get too involved with things that I shouldn't, or am I supposed to be sticking my nose into everyone's business? You're the one that made me, I guess you made me this way for a reason, but you've been putting me in some pretty awkward situations lately. I hope I'm doing what you want me to. But, that's all you expect of us, right? To just do the best we can with the gifts that you've given us? I still have so much learning to do. Not just with Hebrew and History, but with how to communicate with people and meet them where they need to be met. (figuratively, not literally) I always thought I was a pretty good communicator, but it's obvious I still have a long way to go. Just keep an eye on me, please. Make sure I don't mess up too bad. If something goes wrong, I'm totally blaming you, just saying. Anyways, thanks for everything, thanks for getting me through this week. I'd really appreciate it if you lightened up for a while, but you're gonna do what you're gonna do, so whatever.

Love you, Amen.

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 047 (Wise or Otherwise)

So, I've survived another week of seminary. Did really good on the Hebrew quiz today; might have gotten a point or two off for the translation portion, but if I do, it's totally the professor's fault cuz he never gave us any translation instruction. I don't understand why we would find the most wooden way to translate something anyway.

We all went to the Flatiron Grill for lunch; very good burgers over there. Watched Entourage and Brothers & Sisters, then it we had a game night.

I finally got to break into Wise or Otherwise, the super fun board game my sister gave me for my birthday. I've never played Balderdash, but I've been told that Wise or Otherwise is basically a proverb version of that game. You are given the first the first half of a proverb, and the proverbs are from all over the world. Each player needs to make up the 2nd half of the proverb and then everyone votes for which one they think is real. One of the ones we got tonight was a Moorish saying that started, "You must kiss a dog on the mouth..." I'm sure you can come up with all kinds of interesting ways to end that one. The real ending, believe it or not, is, "until you get what you want from him." Fun game.

Also learned about this new gamed called Pandemic, which puts an interesting twist on the board game. In this one, each player is part of the same team of specialists that is trying to stem the tide of several outbreaks of disease around the world, so instead of playing against each other, the players are all on the same team playing against the board. It was actually pretty hard and we lost twice before finally winning on the third try.

Overall a really good day. Now eating ice cream and watching Margaret Cho, the funniest comedian in the world.

Gay Guy in Seminary: Day 46 (Ha Haa Huh )

Ha, Haa and Huh are the Hebrew articles. They all mean "the." The one you use depends on what the word it's attached to starts with. I tried to figure it out, but my brain is literally refusing to accept any more input right now. I did manage to finish my Old Testament paper at 4:00 today, then I made carne asada tacos with pico de gallo and salsa verde for my classmates. After that I did a little bit of Hebrew, but then totally hit a wall. It's only 8:00, but I think I need to go to sleep before I crash.