I love how Matha Steward uses real ingredients, real butter real spices and real fruit, yet most of the ingredients are practical and inexpensive, with a few exceptions. I believe she uses both recipes from friends and family recipes that she made growing up, so a lot of these recipes have probably been baked and for decades before that book was published. One reviewer said the fillings were bland, but Martha Steward does use adequate spices and flavorings in my opinion, although after reading her review I would like to have Levy's Pie Bible too. I think Steward just does not like to make the pies too sweet, but I think her belief is that with good ingredients you do not have to; she likes the nice flavors that come from nature. The pecan pie recipe is not as sweet as some but I think she found a good balance; sweet enough for the sweet tooths and not too sweet for people who do not like things very sweet. I think she likes a more gormet pie recipe that is not so sweet. (If you want a sweeter richer Pecan pie recipe, I've had great results with the recipe from "The Joy Of Cooking," 1960s edition)I like how Steward uses an all butter crust. Most pie crust recipes using all purpose flour call for all vegetable shortning and even though her recipe calls for regular all purpose flour it is still flaky enough with all butter. Its also helpful that she mentions other types of shorning you could use in place of or in place or part of the fat for a more flakey crust. I've also tried her recipe with a stick and a half of butter and quarter cup vegetable shortning and had good results. She really explains well and has some unique ideas. The only think I found was that the pie recipes might be better off halfed, as the proportions are generous. Also, I know substituting ingredients is common sense, but she should still say how to do so. For example, where it says vanilla bean, I use a tbsp of vanilla, but some people might be confused by that. She does usually tell you how you could substitute though. For her keylime pie, she says how you could use any lime. This is a book that makes everything completely from scratch though, which I like, but you may or may not find it time consuming, depending on how much you like to bake and how much time you have to do so. Still I suppose you could always use it for holidays. The only recipe that I am not sucessful with every time is the lemmon meringue, and that is my favorate. For some reason, I always mess up on that, but I could always do the keylime. My favorate recipe is her fudge pie (I've never made the cream aglaise with it, but its nice by itself). Its very rich and creamy, but its a nice treat to have once in a while. Also, since most of her pies are not loaded with sugar, are natural and are not too rich, they are a lot healthier than most store baught pies I think. If you eat a small pies in monderation I think they are even fine to have often (okay easier said than done, but if its halfed you wont have the opportunity to eat a lot if it).