Dang this book is good as heck for new cooks like me. This book has everything from beginner recipes like salad to complicated French desserts. The recipes are basic, but almost every recipe has suggestions to spice up the original. You could spend weeks re-making the same dish with all of Bittman's ideas.

Super clutch for me is the quick, easy recipe section for when I'm feeling lazy (often). The 100 Essential recipes is for when I'm feeling ambitious and want to add to my repertoire. Another feature I love is that in the index, you can search by recipe. I had a ton of chard from my community garden and found a ton of different recipes with chard.

P.S. The banana bread recipe with wheat flour has been an amazing find