Recipes. Cooking all comes down to the recipes -- those ingredient-by-ingredient, technique-by-technique, step-by-step instructions. In Recipes , Susan Spungen , founding food editor and editorial director for food at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia for twelve years, presents her own easy, unfettered ideas for cooking simple food rich with freshness and flavors to share with family and friends. Recipes is organized by technique, explaining why sautéing is great for two or four but when feeding a crowd braising is the better choice. "Prepare" focuses on the basics, from making a vinaigrette to roasting garlic and peppers. "Chop" includes not just salads, but gazpacho and a Provençal sandwich that requires knife skills. "Sauté" explains how to pan-sear fish and make a layered omelet. "Grill" shows proper techniques for cooking scallops, asparagus, and steak over an open fire. "Roast" offers the perfect roast chicken and a roasted squash salad. "Bake" features a variety of pizzas as well as mushrooms baked in parchment paper. "Simmer and Braise" coaxes the most flavors from soups and lamb shanks. Finally, there's "Indulge," a selection of desserts from simple brownies and peach melba to a fruit crisp and a rich chocolate cake. Susan believes that one of the most pleasurable parts of a meal should be the making of it. Recipes encourages home cooks to become confident cooks. Susan Spungen, the founding food editor of Martha Stewart Living , knows her cooking. Recipes , her collection of 100-plus formulas for home cooking, is deceptively unassuming; cooks at all levels of skill and sophistication will find it a source of superior, easy dish making--and instruction. Arranged by cooking techniques, the recipes include basics and old favorites like Pan-Seared Striped Bass, Rosemary Focaccia, and Herb-Crusted Lamb, as well as reworkings and "newer" dishes like Peanut Noodles with Mango, Baby Back Ribs with Coffee BBQ Sauce, and Pancetta Chicken with Lemon Fries. A section on sweets offers the tempting likes of Saucepan Brownies, Caramel Apple Tart, and Lemon Curd Cheesecake. Spungen's accomplishment is to provide a well chosen collection that readers will turn to again and again. Her small volume is thus more useful than many of its larger cousins, which seem overdone by comparison. Spungen's stint at the magazine has also undoubtedly attuned her to the importance of the visual, and each recipe is accompanied by a color photo of the dish in all its simple glory. With a forward by the very Martha herself, the book deserves wide kitchen circulation. --Arthur Boehm Recipes. Cooking all comes down to the recipes -- those ingredient-by-ingredient, technique-by-technique, step-by-step instructions. In Recipes , Susan Spungen , founding food editor and editorial director for food at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia for twelve years, presents her own easy, unfettered ideas for cooking simple food rich with freshness and flavors to share with family and friends. Recipes is organized by technique, explaining why sautéing is great for two or four but when feeding a crowd braising is the better choice. "Prepare" focuses on the basics, from making a vinaigrette to roasting garlic and peppers. "Chop" includes not just salads, but gazpacho and a Provençal sandwich that requires knife skills. "Sauté" explains how to pan-sear fish and make a layered omelet. "Grill" shows proper techniques for cooking scallops, asparagus, and steak over an open fire. "Roast" offers the perfect roast chicken and a roasted squash salad. "Bake" features a variety of pizzas as well as mushrooms baked in parchment paper. "Simmer and Braise" coaxes the most flavors from soups and lamb shanks. Finally, there's "Indulge," a selection of desserts from simple brownies and peach melba to a fruit crisp and a rich chocolate cake. Susan believes that one of the most pleasurable parts of a meal should be the making of it. Recipes encourages home cooks to become confident cooks. Susan Spungen was the founding food editor and editorial director for food at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia from its launch in 1991 until 2003. She wrote a bimonthly column called "Easy Entertaining" for the magazine until June 2004, and helped launch MSO's first all-food title, Everyday Food . She is coauthor of the best-selling Martha Stewart's Hors d'Oeuvres Handbook . She lives in New York City.