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[robot_roll_call]

I am a college student out on his own who is tired of eating nothing but pizza rolls burritos, and turkey sandwiches. Even just one night a week, I would like to prepare something interesting and different. So my question is, do any of you know of any good cookbooks for beginners? I am not looking for anything super fancy, just a good solid cookbook.

[Golfhaus]

Left to my own devices, I would probably end up resorting to eating Burger King five days a week and Little Caesar's the other two. I have, however, had the pleasure of a stable, loving relationship for the past nine months with an excellent cook. She suggests (and owns) a book called "Teens Cook," written by the daughters of a woman who writes "real" cookbooks for a living, for people like us, so that we would have something to eat other than... Burger King and Little Caesar's. I've flipped through it a bit, and it's easy enough for me to understand - if I could use it, I'm sure you could as well. The hardest part seems to be getting over the name of it. Just, I dunno... tell the lady at Barnes and Noble it's for your little sister or something.

She also suggests the Betty Crocker cookbook and the cookbook(s) in the "For Dummies" series. Ultimately, her real suggestion is to go to the local bookstore, and hit the cookbook section. Look through some of them. If you come across a term like "blanching," and the cookbook explains what blanching IS, instead of just assuming that you learned it from your days in culinary school, it's probably a winner.

Starting next week, I go to work real early and come home around lunchtime, so I might have to use some of these suggestions myself when it comes time to eat. So I'll be watching with interest as well.

[robot_roll_call]

Noted. Thanks for the excellent advice. I purchased a copy of Teens Cook on Amazon. Thank god for the internet, where I can purchase things I would be ashamed to take to a counter in a bookstore.

Just out of curiosity, is the Achewood cookbook any good? Anything decent in there?

[AugustWest]

Everyone (who cooks) should own a copy of The Joy of Cooking.

[side_show]

Golfhaus mentioned his SO's suggestion of Betty Crocker, and I have to push for Betty Crocker's Cooking Basics - which is great - it's a clear no fail cook book with lots of simple instructions for most meal basics, plus lots of interesting variations.  We have the ringed-binder style version, so you can take out just the pages you're working with, which is nice.  My SO follows the book's instructions step-by-step when cooking for me, and I'm a pro in the kitchen, but I still use it as reference for cooking times, traditional ingredients, etc.  -It's a good book to have around.  

Also, you may have already figured out that the internet is a great resource for cooking - I use it all the time.  If you like something you oft. order in a restaurant, just seach it's name plus "recipe" (plus "easy" if you like), and you'll likely get so many hits that you wont know what to do with yourself.  Then you can look through the pages you find and choose the one that's most approchable for you and print it off.

Most recent recipe downloaded?  Salmon Wellington.  Oh yeah baby.  We're having it tomorrow for dinner!

[wombat]

Everyone (who cooks) should own a copy of The Joy of Cooking.

The old one, which is still available, not that "all new" revised version.

[andalucia]

Everyone (who cooks) should own a copy of The Joy of Cooking.

The old one, which is still available, not that "all new" revised version.

Man, you mean the one that gives instructions on how to prepare squirrel and stuff?  Aieee.

I use this a lot, and I'm also a big Madhur Jaffrey fan.  But mostly I just get a bunch of foods and attempt to improvisationally combine them into one food with appropriate flavourings.

[V-Adore]

The Achewood cookbook is all right. It's about half actual recipes and half characters ranting about the recipes, but tha's okay; several of the recipes are real winners, and it's tilted towards people who don't know the first thing about cooking. I personally am exceptionally fond of the Flavor Burgers and was able to cook them no problem.

[AugustWest]

Everyone (who cooks) should own a copy of The Joy of Cooking.

The old one, which is still available, not that "all new" revised version.

I like both.  I actually found a copy of the first edition from the '30s or whatever at a used book sale.  It's very dated, but cool.

[AlohaDawg]

My favorite cookbook is kind of daunting but an amazing tome that tells you about everything you need to know.

Culinary Institure of America

I think this is the basic textbook for the CIA schools in NYC and Napa Valley but I'm not sure. It is awesome though.

[Lister]

If you're a fan of the Alton Brown, his cookbook I'm Just Here For The Food might be a good option for you.  It's light on recipes, but heavy on technique and instructions... so he explains, for example, how to braise anything but only gives one example of a recipe that includes braising.

It may work better for me because I'm very anti-recipe in my cooking stylezz.  Though I have his second book I'm Just Here For More Food, I don't really bake so I can't vouch for it.  I just like to read his stuff.

[Turbo Ninja]

I have the CIA cookbook and the Achewood cookbook.  

My problem with the CIA book is that it's mostly designed for large-scale application (10-12+ servings).  Sure, you'll learn all about why you shouldn't cook tomatoes in cast iron or how to make a souffle, but I think the Achewood cookbook is way more practical, particularly if you don't know a bunch of fancy cooking terms and/or techniques.  It doesn't have a huge number of recipes, though, so I keep an eye open for recipe cards that always seem to be available at my grocer's meat, produce or giraffe section.  They're easy and you can pick and choose based on what you're buying.  Take a look around for that kind of thing.

Or you can print out recipes from foodnetwork.com, with the added bonus of not having to care about getting flour or egg or oil on a nice cookbook.

[AlohaDawg]

I've never had a problem scaling things down in the CIA book - sure, you don't NEED a gallon of hollandaise or 20 lbs of bread dough, but they'd sure impress the guests.

Also, if you like Mexican food, Rick Bayless has some good cookbooks which I am fond of.

I have to admit I generally stay away from the cards at the butcher counter and the little cookbooks at the checkstands because they are almost always a marketing ploy for a product or a company and in most cases I don't use pre-prepared seasoning mixes or box mixes or canned soup or things like that when I cook.

The exception would be the mashed potato flakes as a breading on giraffe, although I've found Panko to be a pretty good non-overly-processed and more-like-real-food alternative.