A shout out to Betty Crocker

When I finally became a housewife (2 years into our marriage), I decided I needed a good basic cook book. I didn't know much about cooking and needed the help. One day I was perusing the books at Costco and came across Betty Crocker, New Edition: Everything You Need to Know to Cook Today. It wasn't lying about "everything you need to know".
It's got just about every basic recipe you can think of and then some, and they're tasty! The inside cover has "Yields and Equivalents" showing conversions from cups to ounces or lbs, etc. The back cover, which is my favorite, has a list of "Emergency Substitutions". Did you know you could add 1 Tbsp lemon juice or white vinegar to 1 c milk in place of 1 c buttermilk? Either did I, until dear ole' Betty told me. She has substitutions for tons of things I never have on hand like beer, cooked Bulgur, or plain yogurt. The back cover is a jewel in itself. She shows you how to cut up a whole chicken, shows pictures of all the different cuts of beef, timetables for storing meats, explains how to buy fresh meat, how to cook it....ANYTHING you'd ever need to know. There's a metric conversion chart, even. It has 540 pages, NOT including the index (575 pages with). It's a great book, so if you want to start with the basics, or just have a handy cookbook around, this one is an excellent choice!

A shout out to the Food Nanny

Mother's Day 2009 my oldest sister gave all us girls--her three sisters and our mom--a recipe book called "The Food Nanny Rescues Dinner". It inspired me to make a weekly menu and shop for needed ingredients at the beginning of the week. With a menu and needed ingredients on hand, making dinner is SO much more enjoyable!! :D
The author, Liz Edmunds, splits the recipes by days of the week. Monday is comfort food (casseroles, etc.), Tuesday is Italian night, etc. so if you're really unimaginative she has it laid out for you!
She wants to bring back family dinner time; which is a very important time to spend as a family. Families that have dinner together generally have less "problems". A lot of recipes have a suggested conversation starter for your kids...It's just plain a good idea, but mainly her recipes are awesome! There have only been three recipes I've tried that I didn't love...and I'm hard to please! Overall I've been really happy with the book and very highly recommend it!