Good & Easy Cook Book for Beginners...

there is a web site called a Year of Slow Cooking, it might make help ease you into the cooking thing...

Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbooks. It has pics and descriptions of different vegetables, meats, etc as well as pots, pans, etc. And, recipes are illustrated with different steps. All easy recipes. Love this book.

You have a ton of great ideas for cookbooks... if you can cook 10-12 dishes, you can cook every night! Good luck - cooking is so much fun!

www.foodtv.com

The have video tutorials on EVERYTHING, including video recipes

I don't have a cookbook but I have a few blogs that I love! I just made french toast this morning (because I didn't feel like eating cold cereal AGAIN) and I had the day off and it was delicious! :)

:) http://www.ourbestbites.com/
http://mykitchencafe.blogspot.com/
http://www.pickpalate.com/
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/

They are moms too and have a variety of yummy things that moms like us can make! Good luck! :) - A.

I have 2 favs
the red and white Betty Crocker cook book. I's been around forever and it has pictures

How to cook everything yellow cover

I think the betty Crocker is more basic, but everything is a step up!

Try and look up the 3 ingredient cook book. Its so much fun when you start off. After a while, you may tweek up the recipies into your own masterpiece. I have the julia child cookbook, but its a little advanced but I took my time. I'm not a big fan of 30 min meals with rachael ray cause it just looks messy. I think my first cookbook was the famous one from home and gardens-the one with the plaid backround. Its very descriptive and explains a whole lot about utensils and the way to cut and herbs. Awesome!! I have giada de larentis italian cookbooks which are pretty awesome too. Good luck and if you burn anything, just add pepper. Ha ha ha. Or cut it off. Lol.

Hi M.,

Try the Kraft food website. They have a ton of easy recipes and explain everything step by step. There is even a tab on the website that will create a shopping list of what you need for each recipe. The site is divided up into sections on skills and time (I love the 10 minute beginner's meals).

Happy Cooking!

You can't beat the Betty Crocker Cookbook. I found that it is very helpful, easy to use, and has all of the basics. I am looking at the cover now and it even says "Everything You Need to Know to Cook Today."

Good luck!

What about crockpot cooking? :-)

"How to Cook Everything" and "How to Boil Water." Also, crock pot cooking is SO easy. Just throw it in!

Hi M.,

I also am a beginner and I like the book Cooking for Dummies, it explains what cooking words mean, what pans work best for what and what knives you might want to buy.

Good luck as long as you can read, you can follow a recipe and you'll become a great cook.

Hi, M.. Check out www.bettycrocker.com. It has a how-to section, recipes (including 30 minute meals and 5 ingredients or less meals), kid friendly menus, and videos. Also printable coupons.... Great resource. I also like kraftfoods.com.
Good luck!

You can get a lot of easy recipies from Kraft.com and once you sign up, you can even get books mailed to your house (free) with recipies in it. Most of the recipies are very simple and are quick as well, most of your dinners will be done within half an our to 45 min. Some are not as great as others, and kind of bland, but for the most part are pretty good :) Good Luck!

Hey M.,
There are several good cookbooks out there, but probably one of the best that explains basic cooking terms is The Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook.
However, one of the best things I ever did was record cooking shows such as Rachel Ray 30 minute meals, because for me watching what she did made the written instructions so much clearer. Some of the shows even have videos that you can click on to watch the cooking portion of the show on your computer. In my experience, I could add a skill at a time to by cooking repertoire and still be able to prepare a decent meal.
Finally, even though I did this, mistakes were still made and some of the meals just did not taste as good as I had hoped. So, you may have to prepare a dish a few times to get good at it, and also to decrease the amount of time you spend in the kitchen. With the Rachel Ray meals, even though all of them are 30 minutes, because I am so detail oriented, they can take me an hour. One thing that I did that made the experience a little less daunting was to double the recipe so I could reheat the meal the next night. That means that I am only cooking 4 out of 7 meals a week.
Hope this helps.

Check out the Biggest Loser cookbooks. Makes things very simple with step by step directions.

Check out "How to Cook Without a Book" - it explains simple equations of cooking, like 1 part to 2 part liquid, things that you can learn, modify and experiment with through the years. Also look at "How to Cook Everything" which explains how to cook everything. Good luck, and remember to have fun in the kitchen!

watching "FOOD NETWORK" has greatly improved my so-so cooking skills. It is interesting & fun to watch especially the competitions & now I am a great cook!

If your husband is the better cook, let him do it! I think everyone should work to their strengths in a marriage, but that's just me.

In the mean time, the Betty Crocker cookbook has great recipies and great explanation about tools, meats, tricks of the trade. I think I'm the 3rd generation of my family to get said cookbook for a wedding present. I took cooking in high school, but this is what really got me some decent dinners.

But, I think the best way to learn a kitchen is to ask a friend, one who is comfortable in the kitchen, to show you the ropes with nice, simple basic meals. After 19 years married, I have 5 or 6, simple, 30 minute start to table dinners that I rotate through. On weekends, if I'm feeling adventureous, I'll pull out good ol' Betty Crocker and try something new. Nothing fancy, just good plain fare.

Good luck!

You've received some great advice so far and I can only echo what others have said. My only advice is if you want to use a cookbook vs. a show or the internet, I recommend starting with the Betty Crocker Cookbook or the Better Homes and Garden Cookbook before going on to the Joy of Cooking. I do a lot of cooking and really enjoy, and have found the Betty Crocker and Better Homes to be a lot more simplistic and easier to use for the beginner cook that the Joy of Cooking. Joy of Cooking is good to use after you have some of the basics down and want to spread your wings a little, so to speak.

In fact, this Christmas, I took a card off of a local giving tree for a 16 year old girl who wanted a cookbook and I couldn't decide which cookbook to give her, so I gave her both Betty Crocker AND the Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book.

I do hope you enjoy your cooking endeavors!

My first cookbook was a good old fashioned Betty Crocker cookbook that I may have pilfered from my mother (jj). They are probably still publishing it and it is a really easy cookbook to start out with and definitely not at all overwhelming like some cookbooks can be when you are a novice.

You can also go onto www.foodtv.com (the Food Network) and watch some of their videos to familiarize yourself with the whole process of cooking or just start watching the Food Network channel itself to get some inspiration and knowledge.

I'd try some cooking shows. sometimes its easier to watch than read through instructions.

I too have a husband who's much better at cooking than I am. My salvation is the book "How to Cook Everything" by Mark Bittman, which somebody else recommended. It includes information on just about every food you'd want to prepare, and teaches the foundations -- for example, with vegetables, the best ways to prepare them and *also* how to choose and store them. It gives basic recipes that don't require a lot of other ingredients, so that you can go to the market and pick up, say, a vegetable you've never cooked before (maybe never heard of) and know that you'll be able to take it home and prepare it, deliciously, with what's in your pantry.

With this book I'm getting adept at the basics, and now I can successfully experiment. Our copy sits open on a stand in our kitchen, covered in grease and stains from our daily use of it.

Hi M.,

My favorite cook book is Fannie Farmer. It give a lot more information then just recepies including the beginnings of how to. The other great thing is that while there might be some slightly more complicated things there are some very basic ideas and you can find all the ingredients at your local market.

The 1st cookbook I got was a Betty Crocker cookbook that also had some of that same stuff. My is now 25 years old so I can't vouch for the current version.

Happy cooking,
G.

"Where's mom now that I need her" wonderful cook book that explains all the terms and they are all simple recipes that you can add on later.

It's a very old favorite, but the Joy of Cooking is a favorite. Mark Bittman is an incredible cookbook author too for basic, delicious recipes. -www.weelicious.com

saving dinner and savingdinner.com

the only cookbook I've ever really loved (and used again and again) is the Better Homes & Gardens new cookbook (it's red and white). SOOOOOO helpful - lots of tips like what you were asking about, the recipes are easy to follow, and everything is delicious. Good luck!