My favorite fall or winter lunch is big steaming bowls of soup. I usually invite people for around 12:30 and have two hearty soups like shrimp corn chowder and lentil sausage soup, which can be made a day or two ahead.

When I thought my professional career was over, it hadn't even started yet.

Never let 'em see you sweat. Guests feel guilty if they think you've worked too hard to make dinner for them - which of course you have!

I love Alton Brown's show 'Good Eats,' about the chemistry of food. It's really thoughtful.

Take one flower that you like and get lots of them. And don't try to 'arrange' them. It's surprisingly hard to do a flower arrangement the way a florist does one. Instead, bunch them all together or put them in a series of small vases all down the table.

The most overrated tool: a pasta maker. Why make it when you can buy it? It's a lot of work!

I think that I had a very clear vision when I started writing cookbooks what I wanted it to be, and that you would open the book, that you would look at the photograph and go, that looks delicious. And then you would look at the recipe and say, I can actually make that and I can make it with ingredients I can find in the grocery store.