Released last week was another in a series of cookbooks from prolific home economist and recipe tester and inventor Muriel Miura of Honolulu.

It's called "Hawai'i's Party Food: A Complete Guide to Preparing Delicious Pupu and Planning Memorable Parties" (Mutual Publishing, closed spiral binding, $14.95).

In all her books, Miura's recipes are clear and well explained, they work, and they're often simple.

The first chapter of the 184-page "Hawai'i's Party Food" deals with party-planning, devising menus, decor and hassle-reducing ideas. Inside, ideas range from familiar Island favorites (teri meat sticks, sweet-sour pork, yakitori, lumpia and sushi) to more universal ideas, including mini quiches, crab- or egg-stuffed pate choux puffs, rolled watercress sandwiches and build-your-own canapes. There are even desserts of the easy-to-carry kind (pies, bars, cakes, quick breads) and drink ideas.

A helpful feature is a buying guide at the back that tells you can sizes, equivalents and measures for various foods, how many portions to expect from various measures of foods — information that's often hard to find.

And there's a guide to sizes of scoops (convenient for measuring portions of food when you're cooking in bulk) and a table of weights and measures.

Reach Wanda A. Adams at wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com.