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The issue I have always felt most strongly about is hunger in America, in particular the children.
Raising myself and caring for my brothers and sisters allowed me the benefit of a lot of information that I wouldn't have otherwise gotten. I had to be frugal, thoughtful, resourceful. I didn't have anyone to tell me, 'You can't.'
When I'm really stressed out, I go to church. I light candles and sit and pray. And I'll ask myself, What's the lesson? Why am I going through this? There's got to be a reason I'm here. What am I supposed to learn?
I like to create what I call 'tablescapes.' It's so much more fun when you organize your table around a theme, don't you think?
My audience knows me, and I wear beautiful clothes as a badge of honor. They remember where I came from.
How do I cope with stress? I clean and organize.
My most cherished possessions are my grandma's letters and my vintage Martha Washington cookbook.
As a kid, I thought John Denver was the perfect Prince Charming.
You don't need Montreal steak seasoning on everything.
Why I have had such a huge career and why I have sold over four million books, is that people can do what I share with them to do.
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.
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.
Sure, you can mix the flour, baking soda, salt, shortening, and the whole nine yards, but why wouldn't you just pull out a box of Bisquick?
When I was at the Cordon Bleu things took hours and hours and hours to make. And they were beautiful dishes - and I know how to cook that way - but I was like, 'no one is cooking like this.'
Different types of chicken come at different price points. Filets are going to be more expensive. If it's bone-in and skin-on it's going to be less expensive.
Baking is how you start kids at cooking in the kitchen. It's fun whether it's baking bread or cookies. With baking, you have to be exact when it comes to ingredients.
I always buy the smaller turkeys. On the pre-baste put pats of butter on the meat under the skin, put the skin back on, put a bunch of seasoning on the top, call it a day, put it in the oven. With a 10 - 12 pound turkey you are done in a couple of ho...
When you're young, you think you can do anything, and that was really a gift. That's why I can never understand someone telling me 'no' today. 'No' just isn't an option.
When I came to the Food Network, I didn't want to do a cooking show. I told Kathleen Finch for nine months I didn't want to do a cooking show, I wanted to do a home-and-garden show.
