HAPPINESS IS A KITCHEN IN MAINE, by Paula Boyer Rougny, Peapatch Press, Woolwich, 1998, paperback, 182 pages, $12.95.

A cookbook may contain the secrets to the tastiest food in the universe, but if it doesn’t read right, it’s no fun cooking with it.

Tone is important. The cookbook’s attitude, if you will.

In “Happiness is a Kitchen in Maine” by Paula Boyer Rougny, you will not be told to roast some peppers (in your spare time). If you lack a certain herb, you will be given permission to substitute.

If something shows up that might not be familiar, it will be explained.

How can you not like a cookbook that contains recipes for Tuna Wiggle, Divorce Casserole and Emergency Salad?

After thumbing through the book a few times, you start to feel like you know Rougny, her family and friends. Even if you can’t understand why she didn’t call the book “Happiness is a Maine Kitchen.”

Rougny strikes a nice balance between new food and old food. By “old food,” I mean standbys handed down mother-to-daughter: lemon squares, congo bars, baked beans, corn chowder.

New food (new to Maine, maybe, not new to the world) is urban, ethnic or vegetarian. Miso soup. Tabouli. Tempura, pesto and hummus.

Is it jarring to flip back and forth between these two worlds? Not at all. Good is good, and handy is having both kinds of recipes in one sleek paperback.

Without sappy, smiley faces or forced country lore, Rougny introduces us to some of the women who make these dishes, with the precise, concise details that journalists use to paint a picture.

Liz, creator of Indecently Delicious Pasta (squash, scallions, carrots, radishes, light cream, mustard), is “a former student of dance at the Joffrey Ballet in Manhattan who now drives 20 miles from her Stetson farmhouse to a supermarket — and a dance studio.”

I made the Mustard Chicken Extravaganza For Four (which lasts all week for one) and was thrilled with how easy it was, and how good. Equally pleasing were the Eggless Maple Honey Cookies, which use honey and maple sugar instead of sugar, plus walnuts, oats and coconut.

I was charmed by the reassuring note next to Lemon Ginger Chicken — “This casserole is piquant with the taste of lemon, ginger and cilantro, and it has too many ingredients. CARRY ON REGARDLESS.”

I did, summoning artichoke hearts, rice, mushrooms, scallions, butter, bread crumbs and cheese, among other things. I didn’t regret it.

Some of Rougny’s recipes are startlingly simple, reminding us that food can be uncomplicated without being McDonald’s. Her Avocado Salad for Two entails cutting an avocado in half and filling the twin cavities with olive oil and lemon juice.

A newspaper columnist who lives near Bath but recently purchased a house in Bangor, Rougny collected recipes for years on index cards, with critical notes attached (too soupy, too much garlic). The card collection turned into a loose-leaf notebook, which became the self-published “Happiness.”

Every step of the publishing process was difficult, the author said. “I wanted someone to come along and buy a million books and make a movie of it, but it doesn’t work that way.”

Her cookbook dishes advice with the same salty blend of common sense and sharp humor. “Quiche Lorraine is to other quiches what a Rolls Royce is to a bicycle,” Rougny writes. “Do not eat big American apple pie pieces … Don’t serve potato chips on the side.”

Or, about Country Pizza for Real Men (ricotta, eggs, Italian sausage, prosciutto, pork, mozzarella): “Even a 200-pound man must eat this slowly and wisely.”

She mixes in colorful morsels of history about rhubarb and chocolate chip cookies, and her short, vivid descriptions are inspiring.

Creme brulee is “unspeakably rich and a smashing spectacle as you crack the glazed surface and set the fragrance free.”

With that, you just have to try it.

The Perfect Scone (breakfast, not tea)

The cake (also called pastry) flour provides a light, silky texture. Failure to use it will not result in a failed scone but an ordinary one.

3 cups cake flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

4 tablespoons sugar

Pinch salt

1 1/2 sticks butter

3/4 cup milk or half-and-half

2 egg yolks, beaten

Optional: lemon zest, crushed rosemary, currants or Maine blueberries

Mix dry ingredients. Rub in butter with your fingers until the mixture is nubby. Stir milk into yolks; stir into flour mix. Stir in any options that catch your fancy.

Using a large spoon, scoop up batter and, with the assistance of your index finger, turn each of seven to eight rough, fat clumps onto a greased baking sheet. Bake in a preheated 425 F oven 15 minutes or until peaks are browned. Serve warm with jam.

Lemon Crab Casserole

4 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup hot, light cream

1 tablespoon mustard

Juice of two lemons

Salt and pepper to taste

2 cups crab meat, picked over

4 or 5 scallions, sliced

Buttered soft bread crumbs (Cut crusts from bread of your choice: two, three or four slices. Spread lavishly with softened butter on one side, tear into rough, crumbly pieces.)

1/4 cup or more freshly chopped cilantro

Make the roux, stir in the hot cream until you have a thickened sauce. Remove from heat, stir in mustard, lemon juice, salt and pepper, crab meat and scallions. Turn into a buttered caserole or baking pan, top with crumbs, bake in a preheated 350 F oven 20 minutes.

Scatter cilantro over top — cover the casserole with it — and serve to your public.

Editor’s Note: “Happiness is a Kitchen in Maine” is available at BookMarc’s, World Over Imports, The Grasshopper Shop and Borders Books, Music & Cafe.