The Bible

I am a huge fan of The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook. It has all the basic recipes you could want, plus a few more adventurous items. It also has nutrition information and the amount of time needed to prepare a dish, which comes in very handy. Yes, it can be a bit dated. Some of the recipes were very popular in the 1970s. And temperature requirements for cooking meats and poultry have come down significantly in recent years.

The best part of this cookbook, however, is right in the title. Every recipe has a glossy color photo in the photo index. You know right away what it's supposed to look like before you even start. There are illustrations for nearly every step of a recipe. I'm not calling it idiot-proof, because anything can be messed up, but this is as close as you're going to get. Even if you don't like the way a recipe was written, you can still use it as the starting point for what you really wanted to make.

And, as promised, an updated photo of the pantry.