The Martha Stewart Cookbook: Collected Recipes for Every Day

Stewart assembles her previous nine collections in one volume. New material is included in sidebars (``I have been making pastry crusts since I was a little girl'') and some recipe headings (``Guests cannot believe that someone has actually stuffed a snow pea!''). Abundant among the more than 1600 recipes is the sort of labor-intensive company fare that Stewart is known for, like the nine recipes (plus more suggested variations) in ``Hors d'Oeuvres'' for seeded and filled cherry tomatoes, or Pumpkin Pot Pies, in which the meat from herb-roasted Cornish hens is combined with vegetables and a Cognac sauce and cooked inside hollowed-out, three-pound pumpkins that are capped with puff pastry crusts. There are, however, simple dishes such as grilled Chicken Paillard and Pencil Asparagus with Lemon; others draw on ethnic and regional cuisines, such as Saffron Couscous and Soba Noodles with Cucumbers. Line drawings illustrate some difficult techniques; ``Entertaining a Crowd'' offers recipes for pasta parties, tempura fetes and clambakes. (Nov.)