Mary Jane Henderson and Jean Galton authored the most recent additions to the Half-Baked Gourmet series of "quick-and-easy" recipe books, Family Suppers and Pasta respectively.

The recipes in this series are for "not quite homemade" meals, utilized pre-cooked and prepared fixings from the grocer or market -- roasted chicken, pesto, pre-chopped onions, etc. Most are relatively simple, with less than a dozen ingredients each and only three or four steps from preparation to serving. Prep and cook times rarely consume more than 30 minutes total.

The easel-back format of these books allows them to stand upright on the kitchen countertop facing the chef. Most recipes, ingredient lists and instructions take up a single page.