Impress your dinner guests and family

I purchased this book being a fan of Martha's TV show, but afraid that the recipes may be too complex and time-consuming for me (a 20-year old beginning homemaker). I was also expecting that many dishes would call for extra trips to the grocery store for exotic ingredients I would rarely have on hand. As it turns out, most of the recipes can be prepared with a few staple pantry items and really don't take much time at all. However, for those of you who want a few unique, impressive dishes to add to your dinner party menu, you'll find those in this book as well. The book is also appealing to the eye and looks great on any bookshelf or in the kitchen. For the beginner or the family's favorite cook, this book will be used over and over and it's recipes will become favorites not only of yours but of the others who taste them. By using this cookbook alone, I have improved my cooking and baking skills more than I thought possible in a month. I highly reccomend this cookbook for anyone.

This is a nice collection.

I have to disagree with another reviewer here. Every recipe I have tried by M. Stewart and her staff has always turned out well. This book is a nice collection of the recipes from the TV series. I made her mom's meatloaf, it was easy and my family thought it was very good. For Martha skeptics, check this book out of the library first, as I did, then purchase it once you find out what a good cookbook it is!