I believe that... every one of God's creatures was created equal. I believe that everyone should be treated equal, that's the way I was raised and that's the way I live my life.

I think if you've been invited to someone's house, you eat what they serve you. Even if you leave hungry, you be gracious enough to eat what they've prepared.

We have made a commitment to feed 20-million people over the next two years. We are somewhere around 10 million. But I can promise you that we are not going to stop at 20 million. Because hunger, there is almost no cure for it. You can take care of the problem today, but it is a recurring problem.

I figure it's almost like a balance. We're eating these wonderful collard greens and turnip greens which are so medicinally good for you and, OK, so what if it has a little ham hock in it?

There's not one food that causes diabetes. What causes Type II diabetes is being overweight... I've just come to grips, over the past four or five months, with my diabetes.

I will never use a substitute for butter. Margarine is one molecule away from eating plastic. If I'm going to eat that type of food, it's going to be the real deal.

Of course, I will continue to share my favorite Southern recipes, just like my mama, grandmother and family shared with me over the years. And now, I’ll be adding a little bit of a lighter touch to some of these wonderful dishes.

Stone-ground grits are wonderful, but because they take so long to cook, I usually go with quick cooking grits – which I also love. But I never make the instant kind – some things a Southerner just won’t do!

People see me on TV two and three times a day, and see me cooking all these wonderfully Southern, fattening dishes. That’s only 30 days out of 365. And it’s for entertainment.

I have a lot of secret uses for sour cream, which is the magic ingredient in my mac and cheese. It’s an old-timey, Southern version, and the sour cream makes it that much creamier. Oh, it’s so good!