Sometimes I Follow Directions

My favorite go-to cookbooks are my Betty Crocker New Cookbook, and mom's New and Revised Betty Crocker and The Fannie Farmer Cookbook by Marion Cunningham. A lot of my first recipes and customizations came from mom's books. The Betty Crocker New Cookbook is great as a baseline for experimenting with, say, a new meat cut or unfamiliar veggie.

I definitely recommend any of the Betty Crocker series, as they are written to help beginner cooks. The books are separated into categories of cooking, like meats, veggies, side dishes, as well as dessert categories. There's a small section dedicated to basic terminology used in recipes, as well as some how-to.

Don't know how to measure dry vs. wet? Can't figure out how to convert cups to tablespoons? What the hell is the difference between stirring and whipping? It's all in there, with an index in the back for quick referencing. Husband is very recipe dependent with no technical kitchen learning (born and raised in a patriarchal home) and he can figure out a recipe in this book.

Fannie Farmer is more ideal for once you have some experience and feel more comfortable with the more technical language in recipes. It's a great book for comfort food as well as scratch cooking (all you Paleo people).