THE BUSY WOMAN'S COOK BOOK

This is both more and less than a cookbook, for it outlines procedure for planning, organizing a kitchen, marketing, scheduling the time allotment for preparing a meal (the aim is a 30-minute schedule throughout), suggesting short cuts, etc. An experienced housekeeper will find it very elementary; the neophyte will find it very helpful. The advice is pertinent and constructive; the charts and lists are instructive; the menu planning sound if uninspired. The book is less successful on the actual cooking procedure. For the experienced cook, the recipes are simplicity itself; but for the inexperienced cook, the ""hows"" are sketchily taken for granted. While the author is very gadget-minded, she isn't specific enough in her directives. On one score I differ with her consistently; she scorns leftovers, urges avoiding having them, and almost ignores the boon they can be to the busy women and the challenge to the imaginative cook. The recipes are comprehensive, with sufficient variety. But there's none of the ""lift"" of, for instance, Elinor Parker's Cooking for One: no contagion of enthusiasm.