Martha Stewart's Dinner at Home: 52 Quick Meals to Cook for Family and Friends »

MARTHA STEWART is the author of dozens of bestselling books on cooking, entertaining, gardening, weddings, and decorating. She is the host of The Martha Stewart Show, the Emmy-winning, daily national syndicated program, and founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, which publishes several magazines, including Martha Stewart Living; produces Martha Stewart Living Radio, channel 112 on SIRIUS Satellite Radio; and provides a wealth of ideas and information on www.marthastewart.com.

Two hundred recipes perfect for dinner when you have a little time—but not all day—to cook. For meals that are meant for sharing with friends and family but created with busy cooks in mind, Martha Stewart's Dinner at Home is a new classic that cooks of all levels will depend on. Whether you're making a Sunday supper or hosting a casual get-together, Martha Stewart has put together 52 diverse menus that make the most of each season's flavors—and the various ways we like to cook as the weather changes.

The menus—featuring starters, main courses, side dishes, and desserts—are cleverly designed with a simple preparation schedule that enables you to plan and cook dinner so that it is on the table in about an hour. Using easy-to-find ingredients from the grocery store or farmers' market (and Martha's helpful tips and shortcut techniques), each meal is fresh and inspiring without demanding too much effort. Examples include:  
•  Watercress-Cauliflower Soup, Roasted Pork with Sage and Garlic, Braised Fennel and White Beans, Pears with Candied Walnuts and Gorgonzola  
•  Asparagus-Parmesan Tart, Shrimp in Saffron Broth, Couscous with Golden Raisins, Apricot-Almond Ice Cream Sandwiches
•  Roast Chicken Breasts in Creamy Tarragon Sauce, Warm Lentils with Spinach, Caramelized Endive, Poached Pears with Chocolate Sauce  
•  Avocado and Lemon on Toasted Rustic Bread, Seared Tuna in Tomato-Basil Sauce, Green Beans with Lemon Butter, Peaches in Honey Syrup

Martha has put so much thought into Martha Stewart's Dinner at Home that cooking for family and friends will be something you look forward to doing again and again.

Publishers Weekly

Created with busy cooks in mind, culinary guru Stewart's newest collection offers complete menus that take advantage of seasonal produce. Showcasing 13 menus for each season, Stewart groups recipes into meals, with each including a starter, main course, side dish and dessert. Especially helpful are the preparation schedules that head each menu and provide a to-do list for the entire meal, not just one dish. Sample menus include spring's salad with fresh mozzarella; turkey and pancetta meatballs; pasta with mint pesto and fava beans; and coffee ice cream affogato. As a summer dish, one can create a menu of salmon with creamy leeks, dilled rice salad, sugar snap peas with toasted almonds, and raspberry-mint gelatin cups. For a fall meal, there's warm Swiss chard and bacon dip, braised chicken Marsala, sage polenta, and sautéed pears in honey syrup. Throughout, Stewart provides helpful hints on a variety of topics such as how to make espresso, roast vegetables and make caramel. She also includes a helpful Basics section that covers how-to instructions for stocks, bread crumbs, toasting nuts and more. Gorgeous full-color photos (225 of them) add to the book's appeal. (Oct.)