Growing up in Cajun country where fish is battered and deep fried, the idea of sushi was completely foreign to me. I first ate at a Japanese restaurant in 1986 when I visited a friend in Houston. It was something I had only heard of on TV.  I recall that excursion to Miyako—the original out Westheimer—I marveled at the novelty of dining on raw fish and balled up rice wrapped in seaweed. Over the years since then I have been lucky to experience a wide variety of Japanese restaurants all over the world and have come to learn that the cuisine isn’t just a California Roll or a slice of tuna drenched in soy and wasabi. In fact, there is a beauty and sublime ...

Today’s wintery pic for Photo Friday is courtesy of Erin Glover-Arathoon of Albuquerque, New Mexico–though originally from Jennings, Louisiana.  She recently shot this surreal, silvery forestscape while hiking in the Sandia Mountains near Albuquerque.  Snapped on her cell phone, the scene is exactly as it appeared to her without any photo manipulation.  Amazing isn’t it?  Thanks for the photograph, Erin!

I had a lovely evening a few nights back; I attended a kick-off party for the Best Friends Brunch. The Best Friends Brunch benefits aniMeals on Wheels, a division of Interfaith Ministries Meals on Wheels program. I found out about this worthy charity through my friends, sisters Kristy Phillips and Wendy Phillips who are serving as brunch chairs. Apparently administrators for the Meals on Wheels program learned of a need for pet food when questioning drivers about what they were learning on their routes. Seems program recipients were not finishing their meals in order to save a portion for their four-legged companions. The aniMeals program was created so that home-bound seniors would not feel compelled to share their limited food with pets. ...

No, I did not erect Santa’s Village in the parking court, a manger on the patio, nor a heard of reindeer pulling a sleigh across the rooftop. This Christmas season I very tastefully hung a row of white lights along the edge of the awning over my front door. And with sunset before I get home from the office I have especially loved coming home to their soft white glow, and I can see to open the gate and to get my key in the lock. It seems colder and darker than ever at this point of the year and I can’t help but wonder how long white lights can stay up after Christmas? I posed the question on social ...

I love having a birthday on January 2nd; I start a new year with a new age, it’s like a full cycle. But celebrating in a big way can be difficult.  It’s like just when you thought the holidays were over, guess what! People are partied out by January 2nd. And to travel somewhere sensational is expensive because airlines and hotels are charging New Year’s premiums. And then this year, given the loss of our dear Lisa Benitez and the epic funerary festivities that followed, I was absolutely exhausted both mentally and physically. So this year I opted for a low key birthday with Sisterwoman, wine, and art… Sisterwoman Julie Boggio picked me up for lunch—I opted to use my birthday bonus gift ...

On Wednesday, December 31st, we will say goodbye to our dear friend Lisa Benitez, a day that should have been reserved to celebrate her birthday.  Some would say that a funeral should be a day to celebrate her life, but how can one celebrate when a life is cut so short? I’ve known Lisa for 20 years, give or take a few–I met her through a mutual friend Johnny Hooks.  And it seems to me that everyone in Houston knew her also as she trancended every group and socio-economic class in the city.  She was able to touch lives professionally as well as philathropically.  But most of all she touched lives as a great friend.  Lisa had an illusrative carreer with Foley’s and Macy’s as an event coordinator.  Her experience managing fashion shows, ...

There are few portraits by American painters as famous and recognizable as Madame X—perhaps American Gothic or Whistler’s Mother, or even Gilbert Stuart’s George Washington. But to most art aficionados, Madame X is considered one of the best portraits ever painted; and John Singer Sargent is considered by many connesseurs as one of the world’s greatest portrait painters. I just finished a novel about Virginie Gautreau—she WAS John Singer Sargent’s Madame X. Sargent pursued the wealthy and beautiful Creole socialite as a sitter for the portrait as a way to display his talents to Parisian society, hoping to build a clientele in France. But when the painting was unveiled at the 1884 Paris Salon, with subject boldly posing in a provocative ...

Is it just me or did Christmas seem to begin earlier than ever this year? Sure, stores started putting decorations out the week before Halloween which I find disturbing, but not unusual. Perhaps the number of retailers opening on Thanksgiving for Black Friday acted to set the Christmas clock forward. I guess this is my own bah humbug to Christmas commercialism… I found a Forbes Magazine study from 2011 that over $450 billion is spent in the USA in the month of December, much of that spurred by “holiday” shopping. And Wikipedia states, “The exchanging of gifts is one of the core aspects of the modern Christmas celebration, making the Christmas season the most profitable time of year for retailers ...

This week’s TroysArt Dog on Monday is little Lucy Dora, a wriggly young Jack Russell Terrier.  Lucy lives in Lake Charles.  Her person is Terry Donovan. Lucy enjoys playing in her big back yard–especially when Delta Dawn stops in for a visit!  Delta Dawn is Lucy’s best friend… look out this Christmas holiday, the two will meet again soon. Thanks, Terry, for the cute photo!

Today’s Photo Friday pic comes from Sarah Durham Kespelher of Bossier City, Louisiana!  Thanks for the beautiful photo, Sarah…