answer:These cookbooks are my two favorite beginner cookbooks: 1. How to Boil Water It not only has recipes, it tells you how to buy and store produce, explains meat cuts, and gives kitchen techniques like how to chop. 2. Betty Crocker—that big red binder I like it for the same reasons. It gives a lot of good information on how to know when something is done, where the cuts of meat come from, comparison charts, substitutions, and other really important information. For what you are looking for, How to Boil Water is probably the best match of my two. Give it a flip through at the library or bookstore.