One of the things I do in my cookbooks is I will do a conversion from outdoor to indoor grilling so you can do it year-round.

Lack of sleep makes me less productive. I need a good seven or eight hours a night.

Give yourself permission to get the most out of your life. If you're spending all your time scrubbing corners with a toothbrush, you're kind of missing the point. Taking shortcuts doesn't mean shortcutting the end result.

I'm the only girl on The Food Network who grills - I have two bestselling grilling books. I try to really focus on what men and women can do outside together out on the grill. I think it's really fun to have men and women out there together, having fun, working and enjoying themselves.

Instead of doing cinnamon, nutmeg, and all those baking spices I'll have one spice that's for sweets, and that's pumpkin pie spice.

I'm not sure that some of the food purists are in touch with what really goes on in American households.

My audience knows me, and I wear beautiful clothes as a badge of honor. They remember where I came from.