JULIE EISENHOWER'S COOKBOOK FOR CHILDREN

Julie's cookbook is based on the belief that ""opening one can may be unexciting but opening three is fun""--and she tells parents at the start that as the recipes ""reflect my style of cooking"" preparation time is kept to a fifteen minute maximum. In fact possession of an electric can opener may well cut this in half as the time limit is generally achieved by starting with such items as canned macaroni and cheese sauce or spaghetti in tomato sauce, bottled Wishbone Italian dressing, and prepared doughnuts, yogurt and stuffing. (And parents who have only their own money to spend for groceries might well balk at all the canned crab meat.) The slapdash recipes range from the tasteless canned soup concoctions (one adds grape juice to the Campbell's Golden Mushroom on baked chicken legs) to the supersweet atrocities we'd rather leave kids to dream up on their own. Hot dogs with catsup, cornflake crumbs and grated cheese is typical fare, though for an exotic touch the combination of curry powder and shredded coconut appears more than once; sugar is added to everything from canned beans and canned sweet potatoes to bean salad, on which half a cup is dumped. But the publishers no doubt rely on the author's name to sell this (where it doesn't have the opposite effect) and Julie throws in some favorites of famous friends Mister Rogers, Clare Boothe Luce, Mrs. Billy Graham and others for the targeted bookstore customers. Have we missed Mrs. Chiang Kai-shek's chop suey recipe or Mrs. John Dean's pigeon pie?