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You can imagine the kind of dinner parties I had to go to at a young age... pretty dull.

I was always a relatively quiet and introspective kid.

I was like one of those nauseatingly nice children. I was very, very well behaved and boring.

In those days, between the ages of 12 and 18 you meant nothing. You were the extra place at the side table if someone came to dinner. You were of no interest to anyone.

Growing up, dinner was when we would sit down, the whole family, and we would talk about our days and just create memories with one another. Now some of my favorite memories are eating and making food with my son.

I didn't have a good childhood because I never could get along with other kids. I was the child that sat in the corner eating lunch by herself.

As a child in the early 1980s, I tended to talk with things in my mouth - food, dentist's tubes, balloons that would fly away, whatever - and if no one else was around, I'd talk anyway.

Some of the most important conversations I've ever had occurred at my family's dinner table.

Growing up in Ireland, there never seemed to be the notion that children should be seen and not heard. We all looked forward to mealtimes when we'd sit around the table and talk about our days. Storytelling and long, rambling conversations were considered good things.