We planned this cookbook so that even abeginning cook could successfully use our recipes simply by.t-ollowing the diagrams of the steps along with the recipe itself. Inthis collection of recipes, we demonstrate all the fundamentalcooking techniques, from folding in egg whites, to kneading bread,rolling piecrusts, decorating cakes and cookies, even boning certaincuts of meat and poultry. We've included recipes that are oftenconsidered difficult as well as everyday ones.Since recipe selection and meal planning are easier when a pictureshows exactly how the food will look, all of our recipes are shownin the large color picture index at the beginning of the book. Youcan browse through these pages and select the recipe best suited foryour specific occasion. The color pictures also suggest how togarnish and serve the dish. Captions to the pictures provideinformation on the recipe seasonings, cooking methods used, timeneeded to prepare the food, number of servings and so on.For the first time in a cookbook, menu planning is made easier asthe pictures are arranged according to the course of the meal,starting with all the appetizers and going through to maindishes, salads, breads and desserts.Many of these recipes are classics, direct from the pages of GoodHousekeeping Magazine. Others are newly developed for this book.All have had the careful scrutiny of Mildred Ying, GoodHousekeeping's food editor. She and her staff checked andrechecked these recipes, trying several brands of ingredients,eliminating extra steps, using fewer utensils, confirming the cookingtimes, making sure they are nutritionally sound and, mostimportantly, that they tasted as good as they looked.Besides Mildred, Ellen Connelly of the food staff helped especiallywith the planning of the chapters; Lucy Wing helped with checkingour how-to drawings and with many hours of proof-reading.

    "They want to be part of something, even when they can't identify that longing as a need. They show up. Feed them. It isn't much more complicated than that." Regular dinners with family and friends, he argues, are a metaphor for connection, a space where memories can be shared as easily as salt or hot sauce, where deliciousness reigns. The point of Sunday supper is to gather around a table with good company and eat.From years spent talking to restaurant chefs, cookbook authors, and home cooks in connection with his daily work at The New York Times, Sam Sifton's See You on Sunday is a book to make those dinners possible. It is a guide to preparing meals for groups larger than the average American family (though everything here can be scaled down, or up). The 200 recipes are mostly simple and inexpensive ("You are not a feudal landowner entertaining the serfs"), and they derive from decades spent cooking for family and groups ranging from six to sixty.From big meats to big pots, with a few words on salad, and a diatribe on the needless complexity of desserts, See You on Sunday is an indispensable addition to any home cook's library. From how to shuck an oyster to the perfection of Mallomars with flutes of milk, from the joys of grilled eggplant to those of gumbo and bog, this book is devoted to the preparation of delicious proteins and grains, vegetables and desserts, taco nights and pizza parties.