This is not a cooking blog, but I love to cook and several people asked for the recipe once I tweeted about it. Plain tomato soup can be thin and sharp. Adding cream—the usual stodgy solution—merely dulls it. I wanted to tame the tartness without losing flavor. I found this recipe in Cooks Illustrated. You have to be a member to get it, so I’m posting it here for you. The Problem Too many versions of tomato soup either feature an acidic, watery broth or an overdose of cream. Though it’s meant to tame tartness and lend body, adding cream goes hand-in-hand with muting flavor.The Goal we wanted a tomato soup with good looks, velvety smoothness, and a bright, tomatoey taste. And we wanted it without the cream. The Solution First, we chose canned tomatoes—they’re almost always better than the average supermarket tomatoes plus they’re already peeled. To begin brightening…

Friday night my friend Chad called to tell me his good friend Martin had just dropped dead after returning home from a run. I didn’t know Martin, but he was practically my age and, according to Chad, very healthy. So what does that mean to you and me? Well, there are probably many lessons here, but the obvious often escapes us: we are not guaranteed another day on earth. Today is all we have. Carpe Diem before it’s too late. Chad called not only to tell me the sad news, but also to let me know that 1. my hair looked good and 2. that he loved me (he knows me well). I’m sure he hugged his children specially tight Friday night. I snuggled up with boys on the couch and told them both I loved them within minutes of the call. Interestingly, last week another friend had asked me…

I’m happy for Rio’s win bid to host the 2016 Olympic games. I think it’s past time that a South American country host the games. But beyond hosting the world for the games, I hope that this opportunity along with the World Cup event in 2014 (in many ways a bigger deal than the Olympics for most non Americans)will help Rio deal with with their crime situation. During my last visit to Rio a few years back, I heard horror stories from residents of how organized crime ruled the city. One that stuck with me was a large area “shut down” (where stores are forced to shut down for hours in the middle of the day or risk being burglarized) was staged and directed by a crime boss from inside of one of the city’s prisons. For it’s amazing beauty, and let me tell you it is a beautiful city,…

Half-way through a great Sunday morning service at The Life Church of Memphis, it hit me: they need new language to help define their uniqueness both theologically as well experientially. And then I realized that there are potentially hundreds of churches in America in the same place. They need a new expression to help shape their movement and give them new context in American Christianity. Not long ago the term “spirit-filled” evoked images of people falling down, speaking in tongues and, yes, even “barking in the Spirit.” Some of the neo Charismatic churches that still believe in the demonstrative gifts of the spirit on an individual level but not as much corporately are still using this outdated phrase to define themselves. That’s a problem. Those who are looking for the old school spirit-filled experience will be disappointed with the lack of, what I call, chaos in the neo charismatic services…

“I like you. How can we work together?” I remember hearing that from a person who barely knew me at the time and today is a client, and, more importantly, a friend. We all buy services and products, but we often buy them from some one, and the nature of sales has more to do with the salesperson than it does with the buyer. Great salespeople can sell most anything. In my experience, people want to buy from those whom they like. All things being equal, I want to buy from someone I relate to and trust. I might even be willing to pay a premium for good service and a smile. Just ask the girl at the sun glass store where I bought a new pair of expensive glasses after she convinced me it made me look younger. (Ok, I was grasping for a reason and the phrase “they…

So art is subjective and it’s supposed to evoke feelings, thoughts, or just a simple “hey, this is not the ordinary, so look at me” type of reaction. This slide show is of some of the most unusual sculptures from around the world. I haven’t decided on a favorite, but I’m pretty sure it’s not the big thumb from Paris. Ah, the French should stick with food.

This weekend I found myself in the middle of a 32-hour technology ban with 20 people I’ve never met before. What was I thinking? Well, that was one of the “privileges” of being chosen for the Leadership Brentwood class of 2010. I had not heard of the program until my friend Bob Knestrick urged me to apply for this year’s class. My first reaction was the typical: “Oh, for the love, not another thing to do. Have you seen my schedule?” However, the more I though about it, the more I realized that I know very little about my own community, and due to my business’ broad, national scope, I’m not engaged much locally. On a whim, I delivered my application on afternoon of the cut off day. I heard from a friend who went through the program a couple of years back that there was a lot of interest…

Most people in business has heard, worked on or paid for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) on their websites. SEO attempts to setup a website in a such a way that when search engine bots and crawlers visit your site, they are able to find, index and eventually display your information well. Here’s how Wikipedia describes it: Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. Typically, the earlier a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines. But a new science/art is emerging along with the growth of Social Media, I have heard it called SMO for Social Media Optimization. SMO is about an…

If you’ve lived long enough, you’ve had to apologize multiple times and, if you’re a married man, you’ve done it countless times. But not all apologies are the same. Some people apologize because they get caught and now must find a way clean it up. Others manage to say sorry while shifting the blame to someone else like their employees or to the ever-so-nebulous “unforeseen circumstances.” Sunday I had to apologize to my youngest son for losing my patience with him and behaving in a matter that was inappropriate and frankly, wrong. He quickly forgave me and we ended up snuggling on the couch as we watched a movie together. As a leader, I have had to make my share of apologies as well. This week I was reminded of how powerful and effective an apology can be by Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com. Amazon “erased” several books from people’s…

In this 16-minute presentation from TED, Clay Shirky, author of “Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations” makes a compelling presentation on how social media has changed the way we communicate. The landscape of information has changed dramatically. Today media is global social ubiquitous cheap In a world of media the the former audience is now increasingly full participants, producers. In that world, media is less and less often about crafting a single message to be consumed by individuals and is more and more often a way of creating an environment for convening and supporting groups. center http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf Open communication is messy and sometimes painful. What are the implications for churches, Christian organizations that face many critics?