Whether you’re a working parent (married or not), or a newly married couple, or about to have your first child or if it’s simply time to move out of your parent’s home and live on your own, cooking will be a part of your daily routine. Regardless of culinary experience, people of all levels quickly learn that without the proper tools and ingredients, even the best of cooks can falter. And knowing how to use and care for ingredients and equipment properly is just as important as knowing what to buy (including which brands are deemed “the best”) and where to find them. In the list that follows, I’m hoping to help both, the novice cook to set up a bare kitchen and also to expose the more seasoned cook to the tools and ingredients needed to delve into unfamiliar culinary territory. So, whenever an unfamiliar implement is requested in any of my recipes (or in the recipes of others), please refer to the following equipment section before making a purchase. (Actually, if getting married, I suggest printing these pages out to help you when making selections for your bridal registry.)