PRACTICAL ENTERTAINING

Recipes that require little tending, arranged according to preparation times--impromptu, night-before, or day-of-dinner. The impromptu recipes are quite forgettable: except for the fish dishes, many require obvious shortcuts--canned gravy, frozen chopped onions, instant flakes for mashed potatoes, canned carrots for salad. The other groups are somewhat better: stews and goulashes made the night before; poached or baked fish, boiled beef or tarragon chicken when hours right before dinner are free. A reasonable selection of soups (homemade and spiced-up cans), vegetables, and desserts are also given--not sterling but geared for relatively easy preparations. Practical but hardly exceptional.