Hi there...how wonderful that your 19-year old son wants to cook! I told my son that he wasn't leaving home until he could - his wife thanked me all the time. ;)

Look on Amazon for specific styles and you'll come up with lots. Here's one I will link below. It helps to read the customer reviews.

Good luck & let us know how his soups & stews turn out :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Best of the Best from Louisiana 2: Selected Recipes from Louisiana's Favorite Cookbooks

Thank you melaska, I am happy that my son and I will spend some quality time together cooking...at his request. He is so busy with college, work and friends. I will check out your link, I want him to have his oun book and learn from his momma. I cook a lot by taste so a cookbook will be a different learning tool for him to experiment with.

You are welcome :) That's a precious time you will have with your son...cherish it. I would never have dreamed I would lose mine at age 27. Take lots of pictures.

I'm a 'by taste' kind of cook but I do follow recipes at times. Have fun with your son :)

Hi! I'm hanging around here as we're getting ready to gut the kitchen but I'm usually on the Cooking forum.

I would suggest a new one from Cooks Illustrated....link below. Since your son is just starting out, Cooks Illus is good because they actually teach you about why certain ingredients are called for and why they use a particular method. Great for basic understanding.
I was going to suggest their older Soup and Stews book, then I saw this new one. Have fun!!!!

Nancy

Here is a link that might be useful: CI Soups Stews and Chili's

I love Cook's Illustrated - I think I have most of their magazines & a ton of annuals. I highly recommend Alton Brown's "I'm Just Here for the Food Version 2.0". It's a 'road map' to learn how to cook just about anything...learning the principals & how to apply to any application. I love his style. I'll link it below. He has other great books, too. Another favorite is his "Gear for the Kitchen"...what you really need as far as cooking & baking tools. "I'm Just Here for More Food" covers baking.

Here is a link that might be useful: I'm Just Here for the Food Version 2.0 by Alton Brown

my fav recipe place is allrecipes...the recipes are rated so you can tell how good they are. I have never been disappointed..here is one I tried last night in the crockpot, it was the best soup I have ever had:

Here is a link that might be useful: spicy chicken soup

One more vote for Cook's Illustrated...any title...thought there are some overlaps between books and magazine issues, IME. I agree that the disquisition before each recipe has really allowed me to learn about technique and ingredients in general. I bet I have made dozens of their recipes over the years and only remember one being ho-hum. I think the new Soups and Stews title that Wizard linked to would be perfect for him. (I may add it to my list, too...)

I also subscribe to the magazine and love to pull out the old issues for a given season. Right now all the Sept/Oct issues are close at hand for Fall cooking inspiration. It is a pain, however, to try to remember which issue contains a certain recipe I liked. That's the beauty of the large books. I also have a thought that I should photocopy favorite recipes for my notebook, or make an index of some kind for the magazines.

Thanks everyone! They all sound good so maybe I'll pick two. Today is cream of ham, potatoe and leek soup, a long walk along the canal and back for more soup. I love having more than a corner of counter space to spread out on and I love my upper spice racks and love the elimination of the two height peninsula to one. The kitchen is still small but it is much more workable and open.

Melalaska, so sorry for your loss. I went through the loss of my brother years ago when he was 25 and I know it's not something you ever recover from. This may sound creepy but if I have caused you to have sadness mentioning my son cooking with me perhapes you could make your son his favorite meal today. I like to think they know when we are thinking of them how it will make them smile :)

I like "Soup" the one from the Williams-Sonoma series. Nothing but soup and recipes are straightforward but not boring. I like the fact that the book is broken down into soups to make in different seasons as well as "The Classics", "Simple Soups", and "Dinner Party Soups".

Soup. Yum. My favourite food.

Here is a link that might be useful: Soup

jterrilynn - oh no, you didn't make me sad. I was making his favorite 3-seed bread for his dinner when I got the news so we now call it "Jordan Bread". The first 'real' food he made was Green Chili Stew & I make that quite often. I have a habit of dropping at least 1 ice cube on the floor when getting ice & he always laughed at that. So, now I think he's up there laughing at his mom & saying 'Hey, Mom!" :)

I'm so sorry for your loss as well. Tell me more about him if you can. I know my 3 daughters have had a hard time, one in particular is causing us great concern. It's hard...as you well know.

I struggle so much some days with how this world seems to be...and then something so unexpected makes me stop and appreciate that at the end of the day there is more good than bad. This thread gave me that smile for today and I thank you for that. Real people sharing real emotions and joys and sorrows and memories and encouragements and so much more....and I got to glimpse it. Thank you all.

You are right, ponderous. For me, it's like seeing the first crocus of Spring here in this snow capital of Alaska! A sign of hope & yes, Spring is coming. Spring is always coming 'somewhere'.

I must be the Magic Marker Queen. I highlight my books as I go. I write page numbers and article notes on magazine covers. They're my books/magazines and I intend to keep them so the marking is of no consequence. There's nothing more frustrating than trying to locate something I saw somewhere once.

On another note, I once bought a Chinese medicine book on line heavily discounted because of highlighting. Well, surprise, surprise! Not only was the good stuff highlighted but the margins contained notes!! This had to have been used as a text book or supplament book because it was very detailed. What a bonus! I would have paid extra! And the cookbooks that I buy with notes by the recipe! Another bounus!

Pinch_me...kinda like the heavily stained recipe cards are usually the best ones :)

I'm a Post-it tabs fan for magazines I know I will toss (NOT tossing my cooking mags, of course!) The fluffy kinds like Women's World, GH, etc.

I get those Post-it tabs & mark a page so before I toss it, if there's a tag, I'll know to take a 2nd look. 9 times out of 10, I toss it anyway...gives me a 2nd chance to consider stockpiling yet another article! :) Usually, it's for some kind of info I can always put in my 'puter.