When life is hard and the day has been long, the ideal dinner is not four perfect courses, each in a lovely pool of sauce whose ambrosial flavors are like nothing ever before tasted, but rather something comforting and savory, easy on the digestion - something that makes one feel, if even for only a minute, that one is safe.

I do not believe that you have to spend a lot of money to eat well: it is hard to beat a plain old baked potato.

And, for an unsurpassed double whammy, there is talking about eating while you are eating with friends.

Lentils are friendly - the Miss Congeniality of the bean world.

A world without tomatoes is like a string quartet without violins.

Both happy and sad people can be cheered up by a nice meal.

On Saturday mornings I would walk to the Flavor Cup or Puerto Rico Importing coffee store to get my coffee. Often it was freshly roasted and the beans were still warm. Coffee was my nectar and my ambrosia: I was very careful about it. I decanted my beans into glass...and I ground them in little batches in my grinder.