The author muses in this book on the joys and rewards of food, eating, and fellowship. Her "sense of pleasure and delight in the bounty of the table" is palpable. Colwin's recipes are tailor-made for harried families. Only a person with a spiritual perspective could write about lentil soup as "the Miss Congeniality of the bean world" or biscuits as "the utility infielder of the culinary world."