Basic Equipment

To participate in any activity, you need the right equipment. For cooking, you need some basic things. My pick is at least one wood and one plastic cutting board, a good knife, and a heavy frying pan. With these things, you can cook a lot.

Why two cutting boards? Well, unless you are fastidious about decontaminating your wood cutting board, every time you use it for chicken or other meats that may contain some microorganism terrorists, you really want to use the plastic one for that. I have one that I use only for chicken and turkey. And, it gets cleaned with soap, a bleach solution, then put into the dishwasher for another good cleaning. Getting sick from uncooked or undercooked chicken is something you don't even want to read about, no less experience first hand!

The next workhorse of the kitchen, since you have a cutting board, is a good 10" chef knife. My favorite brand these days is Misen. Fantastically sharp blades from Japanese steel, free lifetime sharpening (just pay shipping) and a great feel and balance. They are actually reasonable priced, and worth every penny. Spend the money for quality, and you will never be disappointed. Buy a $10 knife from Walmart, and you will buy it over and over again, most likely after cutting yourself on the dull blade! Spend the money on quality, not ER bills!

One last piece of gear, an heavy 10" frying pan. I love my cast iron, but if you don't want to pay  for and care for cast iron, get a heavy bottomed stainless steel or carbon steel one. This will be your go-to pan, so don't get a non-stick coated one. You can't really heat them up for a good sear without damaging the coating, and you can't whisk gravy in them either. They have their place, but not for this.

That's it for now, and welcome to good eating!