Good Housekeeping is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year, and in October, Hearst will release an expanded edition of The Good Housekeeping Cookbook. PW talked with food director Susan Westmoreland about what’s new in the updated edition, and who’s reading Good Housekeeping today.

PW: Thanks for the praline brownies you sent over to the PW offices. They were excellent.

SW: I’ve made those maybe 50 times at home for everything bridal showers to southern feasts. They’re a personal favorite.

PW: So they’ve been in the cookbook before—but what’s new since the last revision, in 2006?

SW: We put in a chapter with easy weeknight cooking recipes. Also, grilling has become a chapter unto itself, because people are grilling year-round. The other thing we did—which was in an edition in 2001—was put in a canning chapter. We took it out [in 2006], but with the economy and all the interest in produce and fresh produce, it’s a huge trend.

PW: Who is the Good Housekeeping reader?

SW: We tend to hold onto readers for decades. We have young readers who are having their first child, and then we have their grandmothers. It’s a really interesting audience. We’re pitching the 30-somethings who are raising a family, and then women in their 40s are our core readers. It’s a really active group of women. Over two-thirds of them work. They look to us for guidance and solutions.

PW: Are they accomplished cooks?

SW: They’re pretty comfortable in the kitchen, but we also know that we are on our third generation of people who grew up not being taught how to cook. So we’re trying to accommodate them. Our core readers are comfortable in the kitchen and love to bake, but our recipes are written in a way that gives you a visual cue and the time. We give you guideposts along the way. This whole movement to have girlfriend-y recipes that say, “Take a chicken breast and sauté it”—that’s not my mission at all. We don’t have to say “stand facing the stove,” but I really want to help people.

PW: How have things changed since Good Housekeeping’s early days?

SW: I’ve been reading old issues, and so much knowledge is assumed. It will say, “Bake in a hot oven” or “Bake until done.” I think there was some understanding that you were going to have your help do this. It’s like, okay, we don’t have that luxury these days.

This story originally appeared in Cooking the Books, PW's e-newsletter for cookbooks.