Starting Out: The Essential Guide to Cooking on Your Own

This is a fantastic beginner's guide to cooking, without unnecessary "fluff". This book features clear instructions, handy tips, and suggested dishes for certain types of events (e.g., date, parents visiting, party). As an added bonus, there are some sections about simple domestic chores, like laundry, that may also be useful for someone first starting out on their own. It also contains a good variety of recipes, spanning from some classic dishes to more modern internationally influenced options.

I am not a student and consider myself a good cook, so at the first glance this book was not for me. However, I am originally from Russia and this book introduced me to all these big meat North American dishes, such as roast beef, pork chops,or ribs that is very traditional here but I have never cooked or tried before (and my mother, obviously, did not teach me how to make). I also loved the recepies for simple ethnic dishes, such as basic curry or pad thai - and you don't have to hunt for bamboo shoots or special curry mix - all the ingredients for them are available in your grocery store. I work from my home office, and even though some of the dishes are "cook all day" kind of things, like ribs or baked beans, all the recepies are still very simple, so I just assemble the ingredients at lunch in 10 minutes, pop them in the oven and by dinnertime they are ready! This is the only cookbook I bought in the last 5 years. You think "who needs cookbooks when you have the internet", but this is definitely a quality material - and not just for the beginning cooks.

This book is simply perfect for anyone trying to start cooking for themselves, especially teenagers going off to college. The author outlines basic cooking principles and terms to make sure the reader understands the recipes, which are generally basic, all-purpose sorts of foods, i.e. lasagna, beef stew, roasted vegetables and assorted soups. That's not to say that these recipes are bland or boring; in addition to basic staples, there are recipes for chocolate cream pie, Pad Thai, braised lamb shanks and puffy apple pancakes. The author also offers possible variations on the recipe, instructions on how to store leftovers, and a helpful bonus section at the end on how to do laundry. I already have pages dog-eared and refer back to this book whenever I'm confused in the kitchen. This is a must-have for anyone leaving home for college and scared about how to cook for themselves.