Thanks to all the readers who have sent their creative and heartfelt ideas on how they save money on the high cost of food. I will be sharing these ideas with you in the next few weeks. . . . And this week's winning idea (drumroll, please) comes from Carol Williams of Bedford, NH, for her "3-Fer from one inexpensive chicken." Although this would only feed a small family and not with those of you who have hungry teens in the house, this is great advice and something we all can do. You could double this for larger families. Carol begins with a whole chicken, bought on sale.

My heart goes out to the victims after tornadoes belted through Tennessee Tuesday night. More than 30 people died and hundreds were injured. Tornadoes are something we've gotten used to, living in this part of the country, but unlike the flat Midwest our middle Tennessee terrain is of rolling hills. When tornadoes come through they hop, skip, and jump around, and the path is tough to determine no matter how sophisticated the weather-tracking equipment.

Anne has been busily criss-crossing the nation, sharing wonderful recipes from her new book, the What Can I Bring? Cookbook. Click Read More to see photos from the events.

Anne's new book, What Can I Bring? Cookbook is in stores, and you all know what that means. Anne is traveling the nation, visiting bookstores, meeting readers, and showing off delicious creations from the new book. See if she'll be coming to a location near you.

Anne's 3rd appearance on QVC with What Can I Bring? will be this Friday, November 16th from 3:00 to 4:00 pm. Don't miss this chance for more recipes from the new book and Anne's answers to your questions!

Plus, she'll be on tour this fall, and she might be coming to a city near you. Check her schedule here to find out.

A friend stopped me today and asked if I had a great recipe in one of my books for a Halloween potluck lunch. Hmm, I hadn't thought about Halloween lunches but we always do a potluck dinner with neighbors on Halloween night, after the trick-or-treating has ended.

Sorry for the confusion about ordering a copy of the Christmas cookbook/magazine I wrote last year for Oxmoor House. The toll-free number in the recent newsletter is correct, but honestly, the operators don't always know about my book. The reason, as it was explained to me, is that the publication is more of a special release magazine, not a hard cover book. So the Oxmoor people are advising you order copies online—there'll be no confusion. Go to www.oxmoorhouse.com. Just to make sure this worked, I went to the site, typed "Christmas Cake Mix Doctor" in the search box and there the book was! Hopefully (fingers crossed) this will work for you, too.

It was a crazy summer at my house, but on top of my usual three children out of school, my reminding them of their summer reading, fun out-of-town guests, a trip to the beach, and a new yellow Labrador puppy named Cooper, I've been working hard on a new book and a newsletter coming to you soon. If you're not already on my newsletter list, I hope you'll take a minute to sign up, because I've got so many exciting things to share with you all this fall.

I love the convenience of a brownie mix, but I adore the flavor and texture of the cakey brownies my mother used to make. So in trying to recreate them in a fast version, I poured a package (Ghirardelli) of brownie mix into a mixing bowl, added a stick of very soft, almost melted, butter, and 2 eggs.

Don't let winter fly by without baking a gingerbread cake. This gorgeous cake was baked by Danielle from New Jersey (danibakes) just before Christmas.

Give me your input on my new cake mix line!

I adore holiday dinners because I enjoy getting together with family and friends. And I love to sample everyone else's cooking for a nice change.

I've been getting a lot of questions about my Christmas Cookbook, so I decided to answer them all here on the blog so that everyone can see them.

In the carpool line again. I figure I spend 40 minutes each afternoon just sitting in the car, waiting. And since we're not allowed to talk on cell phones in the carpool line I read the newspaper, open mail, jot notes, but mostly think about what's for dinner.