INFORMAL DINNERS FOR EASY ENTERTAINING

. . . or, ""Over 150 Easy but Elegant Meals You Can Eat With a Fork""--and prepare ahead, starting with soups (presumably they'll take a spoon) with which you make ""the first impression."" Anyone just past bas cuisine will find them relatively easy--certainly the Quick Crab Soup or the desserts which only require a little assembling. The Scotts (he has done a book on pasta and collaborated with Gilly on Feast of France) seems particularly strong on many variations of crepe/cannelloni recipes and pastas but have a diversified selection of fowl and meats, a few vegetables and salads, still fewer sweets. The whole has a continental inflection, even if one corn pudding surfaces, and you'll find the Scotts adaptable, willing to cut a comer with a frozen or convenience ingredient. . . . Relaxed.