With more than 1,600 recipes, there's something for every palate in this handsomely-designed and sturdy cookbook by the author of 11 best-selling books on cooking, entertaining, gardening and home improvement. Stewart assembles her previous nine collections in one volume. New material is included in sidebars ("I have been making pastry crusts since I was a little girl") and some recipe headings ("Guests cannot believe that someone has actually stuffed a snow pea!"). Abundant among the more than 1600 recipes is the sort of labor-intensive company fare that Stewart is known for, like the nine recipes (plus more suggested variations) in "Hors d'Oeuvres" for seeded and filled cherry tomatoes, or Pumpkin Pot Pies, in which the meat from herb-roasted Cornish hens is combined with vegetables and a Cognac sauce and cooked inside hollowed-out, three-pound pumpkins that are capped with puff pastry crusts. There are, however, simple dishes such as grilled Chicken Paillard and Pencil Asparagus with Lemon; others draw on ethnic and regional cuisines, such as Saffron Couscous and Soba Noodles with Cucumbers. Line drawings illustrate some difficult techniques; "Entertaining a Crowd" offers recipes for pasta parties, tempura fetes and clambakes. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.