In my generation, except for a few people who'd gone into banking or nursing or something like that, middle-class women didn't have careers. You were to marry and have children and be a nice mother. You didn't go out and do anything. I found that I got restless.

Cooking well doesn't mean cooking fancy.

My mother was independent. She had grown up in Dalton and Pittsfield, in western Massachusetts, and she was one of the first women drivers in that area.

The dinner hour is a sacred, happy time when everyone should be together and relaxed.

Life itself is the proper binge.

Forget the cheap white wine: go to beef and gin!

Once you have mastered a technique, you barely have to look at a recipe again