Crepo Elementary School fourth-grader Brandon Curbow tackled the timely topics of school safety and gun control while presenting his winning speech at the 24th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Oratory Competition.

Inclusiveness is the only way we can ever be whole.

Making risotto cakes from leftover risotto is super-easy, and super-good.

Practicing mindfulness, I really looked at this bird house when I came upon it in a friend’s yard. What would it look like to a bird?

Thornton Winery bills itself as Temecula’s Original Champagne House, so of course we had to go there. We had a marvelous time enjoying the wines and our wide-ranging conversations.

This gift encompasses two things that delight me: gumbo and playfulness with words.

Gumbo is a “fusion of culinary creativity that all landed in one massive pot”.

Our January blooms are sprawling wildly, bursting with color, ignoring the season, crowding each other and competing for Most Beautiful.

Hollandaise is a perfect little creation, a bright, tart and smooth sauce that transforms whatever it tops.

Another original jazz composition by our Musical Millennial, performed live by the University of Texas Jazz Orchestra. It is soooooo upbeat and fun!

The only metric that means anything to me is to have touched another person or two in some way.

Hollandaise in a jar or a package is fake food. Period.

In our louder and louder world, says sound expert Julian Treasure, “We are losing our listening.”

What to do with leftover seafood boil yumminess? How about an omelet? It makes a perfect brunch.

Seagulls and brown pelicans in Bay St. Louis give me a lesson in mindfulness reminiscent of Thoreau’s experience at Walden

There’s a birding boat in our future!