You know the magician who says, "Take a card. Any card."

This Williams-Sonoma Salad book reminds me of that. "Open a page. Any page." The recipes by Brigit L. Binns are tempting, the photography cool, green and diffused; the graphics will call to you.

How I needed this book. My husband has been on a special diet and salads are something that I can tailor to his requirements. Salads are also easy enough for a non-cook like me to make. Given those two constraints on the time I spend in the kitchen, this was love. How about that "20 minutes start to finish" section! Simple and fast. But I also liked the exotic sounding (though still easy) recipes like Vietnamese Shrimp & Noodle Salad and Mediterranean Meze. What the heck is Meze? I told you I wasn't a cook but a book like this could easily lull me into being one.

Cooks, non-cooks, even cookbook collectors who occasionally actually use their cookbooks will love the step-by-step presentation of the how-to’s in this book. For the Greek salad with herbed pita it goes like this:
1. Make the vinaigrette--then quick instructions on how to do so.
2. Warm the pita. Yep, even instructions on how to do that.
3. Assemble the salad. The ingredients are lined up on the right so you can do it without those instructions, but they're there, just in case.

And the tips! Set aside on the two-page spread for most salads are cook's tips. For the Greek salad it shows you how to jimmy the recipe into picnic pita sandwiches.

In fact those tips alone will help me turn the salads I've already been tossing at my husband -untemptingly- into something new and alluring. There's even one tip that tells cooks how to toast pine nuts in a nonstick frying pan instead of firing up an oven (which I'd never do, anyway!) Now just how good is that?

Here's a recipe from the book, reprinted with the permission of the publisher:

Spinach, Pear & Walnut Salad
Serves 4

3/4 cup (3 oz/90 g) walnut halves
1/4 cup (2 oz/60 g) sour cream
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons walnut oil
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Dash hot-pepper sauce
Freshly ground pepper
6 ounces (185 g) baby spinach
4 pears, such as Bosc or Anjou, peeled, halved, cored, and cut into thin wedges
2 ounces (60 g) blue cheese, crumbled

Toast the walnuts: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spread the walnuts on a baking sheet and toast, stirring occasionally, until aromatic, 8-10 minutes; do not let them brown.

Make the dressing: Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the sour cream, mayonnaise, walnut oil, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, hot-pepper sauce, and a pinch of pepper until smooth.

Assemble the salad: Add the spinach, pears, and walnuts to the dressing and toss to coat evenly. Arrange on plates or in bowls, sprinkle with the cheese, and serve.

Recipe from Williams-Sonoma FOOD MADE FAST: Salad. Recipes by Brigit L. Binns
(Oxmoor House; February 2007; $17.95/hardcover)