Incredible Soup, from Scratch! (almost)

Whether you are vegetarian or not, you will LOVE this recipe for Mexican style tomato soup.  You can even make it vegan by simply omitting the sour cream.  Makes 10-15 bowls, and ideal for large parties or freezing

Ingredients:
45 roma tomatoes
1 can black beans
1 can corn
1 bulb garlic
olive oil
vegetable broth
salt and pepper
cayenne pepper
fresh cilantro, chopped
sour cream
tortilla chips

Instructions:
1. Cut the tomatoes in half.  Cut out the fleshy bits and seeds, and lay on baking sheets
2. Cut off top of the garlic bulb.  Cover in oil and place on the sheet with tomatoes.
3. Toss the tomatoes in oil; enough so that they are covered, not so much that they are swimming.  Lightly season with S&P
4. Bake tomatoes at 375F for about 40 minutes.  You will know they are done when the sugars caramelize and leave black marks on the baking sheet.  This is the most difficult part and may take some practice, but fortunately the recipe isn't ruined if you don't get it quite right.  Longer cooking times and more caramelization means a more smokey flavour to the end product.
5. Blend tomatoes and garlic in a food processor.  Place in a large pot and put on low heat
6. Pour vegetable broth on baking sheets and heat on medium high on the stove until the caramelized tomato juices loosen and you are able to scrape them off.  The broth should take on a dark brown colour.  Add to pot and stir
7. Drain and rinse beans.  Add to soup along with corn.  Continue to stir on low heat.
8. Add salt, pepper, cayenne pepper to taste.  If you want a bit more smokey flavour you can also introduce a bit of red wine to the mix
9. Serve in a bowl and top with cilantro, sour cream and tortilla chips to taste.  1-2 tbsp of each is about right, depending on tastes


It's a bit tricky to get it just right, but the end result is some of the best soup you will ever have.  It's smokey, sweet and springy, and just a bit spicy (depending on the cayenne).  It even works with canned plum tomatoes, so you can give it a try in season or not!

Merry Christmas! Some Quick (and yes, late) Tips for the Greenest Christmas Wrapping

Yes, I know this is extremely late for a green Christmas posting, but I would like to share what I do to cut down on waste during the holiday season. It has got a great response from family and friends, as well as from my Tweeps in the Twittersphere, so here goes...

I will be honest, I never liked wrapping gifts before; it is tedious and usually a last minute endeavour for me right before the guests begin to arrive on Christmas Eve. Last year (though more in 2009) I began wrapping all my presents in photos ripped from old magazines, and poof! wrapping became an entirely different experience.

What is amazing for me about this method is that beyond the obvious green benefits of repurposing materials, the magazine pictures hold a lot more meaning for the recipients. This year for example, I wrapped my uncle's gift in a picture of Roger Bannister, the first man to ever run a 4-minute mile. In his younger years, said uncle had been a world class 1,500 meter runner, so Sir Roger is a hero of his. My Dad's Curb Your Enthusiasm DVD (it's ok, he doesn't read my blog)is covered by none other than Larry David himself.

So maybe this isn't the greatest thing to hit Christmas since Jesus, but it does make things a little bit more special. Custom wrapping shows that you really care about the recipient, and when it's repurposed, that you care about the Earth too.

On that note, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas (or whatever your chosen holiday may be) and a Happy New Year. I have included a few more tips to greening your Christmas below as well as pictures of my magazine paper if you are interested. Cheers!

Other Tips:
1. Reuse bags for wrapping
2. Use old shredded paper instead of tissue paper as filler for bags
3. For larger packages, use newspaper- it's not as pretty but it works! You can also write personalized messages on it to make it a little more special.

Hate to Say I Told You So..

I wrote a lot in past months about how the reality or accuracy of human-caused climate change is irrelevant.  Many in the environmental community and otherwise hopped on the global warming bandwagon, hoping that it would be the spark that finally ignited an environmental movement in the mainstream.  Unfortunately, in doing so they placed all their eggs in one basket, and not even one that was worth betting on.  Worse, by pushing for change on only one front, skeptics needed to merely dismantle a single piece of the science to discredit the entire movement and the people involved in it.  In the end, it all came down to a few emails between colleagues.

As far as building a movement is concerned, climate change was always going to be plagued by the reality that the science was not 100%.  As close to a consensus as it was, it was still disputable, and difficult to use as a platform for overhauling our entire way of living.  This is in contrast to related issues like species extinction and resource depletion, which I laid out in July.  These are issues which are well documented, indisputable, and are are more threatening than climate change (if anything), and yet they are generally ignored by the public and media.  Had Al Gore given a slideshow on peak oil, perhaps we would be in a different position today.

Amazingly, amidst the leaked emails, almost nothing has changed, and yet everything has.  The science behind climate change itself is still very much intact, but this will certainly mark a shift in public perception and support.  So what do we do now?  We can decide that climate change is the hill we are willing to die on, or switch gears and try to deal with one of the real problems (as opposed to the symptom).  Unfortunately, in either scenario, the green movement has taken a huge blow to its credibility, so any route will now be an uphill climb.

Waiting to see how it all plays out...