Unlike some people, who love to go out, I love to stay home.

That family glaze of common references, jokes, events, calamities-that sense of a family being like a kitchen midden: layer upon layer of the things daily life is made of. The edifice that lovers build is by comparison delicate and one-dimensional.

Dinner alone is one of life's pleasures.

For the socially timid, the kitchen is the place to be. At least, it is a place to start.

The sharing of food is the basis of social life, and to many people it is the only kind of social life worth participating in.

There is really a je ne sais quoi about turkey cooking - the air of festivity, the family squabbles, the constant basting - that does not apply to the turkey breast, which is, really, a convenience of food... A turkey without seasonal angst is like a baseball game without a national anthem, a winter without snow, a birthday party without candles.

The best way to eat crabs, as everyone knows, is off newspaper at a large table with a large number of people.