Dish-Houston

DISHIES!!! Do you love...we mean LOVE food??? Tell us how much you love food and the best story wins tickets to this weekend's Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaining show!! PAULA DEEN WILL BE PUTTING ON 3 SHOWS!! OOOHH Pass the Butterrrrrrr CLICK HERE to sobmit your story!

The Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaining Show is THIS weekend at Reliant Center and headlined by celebrity chef, restaurateur, cookbook author, and Food Network star Paula Deen, with special guest Heloise, the writer, author, and speaker who specializes in lifestyle hints and hails from San Antonio, Texas. The "Queen of Merrymaking," Tara Wilson of Dallas, rounds out the show’s stars.

The James Beard Foundation has partnered with the event, presenting a rotating roster of Texas-based talent set to entertain and enlighten attendees on an exclusive cooking stage. The current list of James Beard affiliated chefs includes Chefs Bryan Caswell and Robert Del Grande of Houston, Chef Jason Dady of San Antonio, and Chefs Ty Thoren, John Tesar, Larry Matson, Scott Gottlich, and Gina Gottlich from the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.

More personalities are conducting a variety of workshops over the weekend, including entertaining and event décor expert Rebekah Johnson, cake decorating aficionados Cynthia Bayne and Sheila Brooks, enviro-centric Tru Meals owner Renee Herndon, and etiquette authority Virginia Johnson, all of Houston. Lecturers from around Texas and beyond round out the list of talent on hand to discuss such far-ranging topics as chocolate, knife skills, coffee beans, olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and food and travel writing.

Amidst the live discussions and demonstrations with Paula Deen, Heloise, and the rest of the impressive list of participants will be a labyrinth of vendor booths featuring samples and wares from more than 100 exhibitors. Local and international specialty foods and food-related products will be for sale throughout the weekend.

General Admission tickets are $22 in advance and $25 at the door. Children ages 4-12 are $12 in advance and $15 at the door. Children ages 4 and younger are free. General Admission tickets allow entrance to demonstrations, entertaining presentations, and vendor booths on the exhibit hall floor. Additional tickets are required for special events, such as a luncheon with Paula Deen and entry to special lectures by the headliners. For a full listing of events and tickets, visit www.metrocooking.com.

TUTS (Theatre Under the Stars) has brought the two time Tony Award-winning Guys & Dolls to The Hobby Center playing Sept. 27 - Oct. 9, 2011.

Made popular by the film starring Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra, Guys & Dolls follows a group of gamblers, gangsters and gals in the seedy, after-hours underworld of the city that never sleeps. Featuring all new scenery and filled with hits like "Luck Be A Lady" and "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat," this show is one the whole family will enjoy - you can bet on it!

TUTS cast of Guys & Dolls is a sure bet starring Susan Powell as the Save-a-Soul Mission's ultimate "good girl" Sarah Brown. Chasing after Brown's affection is Sky Masterson, performed by Joseph Mahowald. Acting in the role of loveable chronic gambler Nathan Detroit is Matt Merchant. Starring opposite Merchant is longtime Broadway professional Jen Cody as Miss Adelaide, Detroit's fiance of 14 years and lead entertainer at the Hot Box.

Groups save up to 30% on tickets to see Guys & Dolls! It only takes 10 tickets to book your group today! Call 713.558.888 for more information.

PLUS....and how DISHIE is this...
It's A Guys and Dolls Best of Havana Mojito Contest!
Celebrating Guys & Dolls, TUTS is partnering with local hot-spots in a Best of Havana Mojito Contest! We love the classic story of gambler Sky Masterson luring Sergeant Sarah Brown into a date in Havana where they drink delicious rum-infused "Cuban Milkshakes", and we're looking for an equally tempting Cuban cocktail in their honor. Test your taste buds at the selected restaurants September 8 - 26, then vote at TUTS.com/mojito for the best Mojito in town for the chance to win 4 tickets to opening night of Guys & Dolls. Participating locations include III Forks, Americas, Artista, Ava Kitchen and Whiskey Bar, Churrascos, Hard Rock Cafe, Monarch Bistro at Hotel ZaZa, Philippe Restaurant + Lounge, Samba Grille, Soma Sushi and The Flat.

CLICK HERE or on the photo above to purchace tickets!

DISH has seen it....have you? If not, make time to take a little fieldtrip for PEACE! It went up on the 5th of September in anticipation of the 10th anniversary of 9-11. The provocative artwork IMAGINE PEACE the billboard along highway I-45 and I-10 East going into downtown Houston.

The opening of Positive Perceptions exhibition at Colton & Farb Gallery is Saturday Sept 10, right before the first Houston Fine Arts Fair.

The Billboard is sponsored by Deborah M. Colton of Colton & FarbGallery in Houston in conjunction with their Positive Perceptions exhibition in which Yoko Ono is included. With a size of 14 by 48 feet, the starkly visible billboard will be seen by thousands of commuters everyday bringing and unexpected art experience to the daily commercial environment.

Yoko Ono produced IMAGINE PEACE for New York City in 2001, responding to September 11thWorld Trade Center tragedy. Deceptively simple with its basic black and white palette the billboard engages the thoughts of the viewer on an almost subliminal level, inevitably provoking discussion of current events. At a time now when the news, movies and videogames often draw audiences into seductive worlds of warfare, Ono offers us a refreshing reversal of perspective.

Ono created her first billboard piece, WAR IS OVER! IF YOU WANT IT, with her husband John Lennon in 1969 and posted it in 12 cities worldwide to protest the war on Vietnam. The concurrent Bed-In for Peace events where John and Yoko received visitors while lying in bed during their honeymoon took place in Amsterdam and again in Montreal, making their wedding a celebration of hope for peace throughout the world.  Since then Yoko Ono has been a leader in the PEACE movement through her art and music in all continents, with many important projects about to unfold this fall also.

This is not the first time IMAGINE PEACE has been to Houston. Deborah M. Colton had brought the IMAGINE PEACE billboard first to Houston at the same location September of 2006 at the time of the Gallery's WORD show. 

"We are delighted to be working with Yoko One and bringing the IMAGINE PEACE billboard to the city of Houston again... the fourth largest in the country where the arts are strong and in the State of Texas that is dynamic, entrepreneurial and vibrant,says Deborah Colton, founder of the Deborah Colton Gallery, now Colton & Farb Gallery in Texas.   "Ono's ability to subvert advertising for the purposes of art demonstrates the power that conceptual art can have."

The Positive Perceptions exhibition runs from September 10th to November 5th at the gallery on North Blvd in Rice Village.  The Billboard and the exhibition reveal that art is free for those who will engage with it in the minds and their hearts.  Positive Perceptions, featuring such artists as Robert Indiana, Ultra Violet, Jonas Mekasand Texas artists and a DISH fav McKay Otto, JD Miller and Philip J. Romano also, is about HOPE, LIGHT, LOVE...  and bringing more positive connectivity into our world's human condition.

As Colton states, "Yoko Ono's IMAGINE PEACE speaks on so many levels: peace in your own being, peace in your relationships or global peace. It comes back to John Lennon's song IMAGINE.  It's simple but powerful. It's not confrontational but it's about promoting positive change  This art piece like the others in this Positive Perceptions exhibition reveal that through our having the right perspective, we CAN all make a positive difference in the world, just by relating to each other in the right perspective."

Deborah Colton Gallery, which is the Colton Farb Gallery in Texas, is founded on being an innovation showcase for ongoing presentation and promotion of strong historical and visionary contemporary artists world-wide whose diverse practices include painting, works on paper, sculpture, video, photography, and conceptual future media installations. The gallery aspires to provide a forum through connecting Texas, national and international artists to make positive change.

Click HERE for the Shopping DISH for the DISH on Fashion's Night Out - Houston!