[AnAmericanMother]

Could I recommend an excellent cookbook for expanding from basics into a little more adventurous cooking?

Try the "Joy of Cooking" by Rombauer and Becker. An earlier edition from a junk shop would be even better than the current one.

The authors assume that the reader knows nothing about cooking, and they have organized the book around chapters dealing with basic "how to" - how to pick a cut of meat, how to know when veggies are done, general rules for cake baking, etc. Each chapter on beef, lamb, poultry, veggies, and so forth begins with the general rules on cooking and preparation. They even tell you when it is "safest" to improvise, and there's a whole section on substitutions.

It is my dad's favorite cookbook (he still has his 1936 edition) and mine, too.

[Dianna]

Thank you, I'll try it!

Now if I can just keep my husband from peering over my shoulder the whole time :)

[sunshine state]

I second the recommendation for "Joy of Cooking". I still have the beat-up old paperback my Mom gave me when I went to college. I also have a nicer hardback edition that I recently acquired when the library discarded it in favor of the newer edition (FYI: check out your library's bookstore - you can sometimes get real deals on used and new books). "Joy of Cooking" will tell you how to do everything - from plucking a chicken to making chocolate mousse.