Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Since pasta and beans are so cheap try combining them. In a tablespoon of olive oil slightly cook about 3 cloves of garlic. Add one or two cans of pinto beans and chopped up broccoli and serve over a pound of short pasta (penne or rigatoni). As always puts some parmesean cheese on top. $4 total

Cook about 4 cloves of garlic and 2 or 3 whole pepperoncini (probably about 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes) in a half cup of olive oil, serve over pasta. $3 total

1 Onion cooked in half a stick of butter, add a can or 2 of tuna and serve over pasta. $5 total

3 cans of tomatoes (15 ounces each) cooked with either garlic or onions (not both), basil, salt, pepper, a dash of red wine vinegar and a tablespoon of sugar. $4 total

Throw some Edam or Gouda cheese in with pasta and nothing else. $5 total

Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything is the dirtiest (aka most used) cookbook in my kitchen, I always find inspiration in Tom Valenti's Soups, Stews, and One-Pot Meals.

Cooked to Perfection by Anne Willan

The Silver Palate Cookbook. Pavlova, anyone?

My favorite cookbook is the 1950's edition of the Betty Crocker Cookbook. It has wonderful recipes for baking, especially cakes. Although there is a "revised, modern" Betty Crocker Cookbook, the 1950's edition was reissued unrevised some years ago. It's worth getting if you like real American home-style baking.

Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Cooking - This was a life saver... I lived in an obese family and these books taught me to enjoy food that was good for me as well as cook them. The book itself helped me identify and minimize my processed fats, grains,& sweeteners

Alice Water's - The Art of Simple Food

the homemade one my mom gave me of her recipes.

As a girl I read and reread Joy of Cooking but I also loved to read the more fantastical Bull Cookbook. (Bull Cook and Authentic Historical Recipes and Practices) by George Leonard Herter and Berthe E. Herter. In addition to world history and culinary pratter, the book includes recipes on everything from fried snapping turtle and scandinavian fish tongues to dressing a game bird, making jerky and dandelion wine.

The Gourmet Cookbook by Ruth Reichl

With over 1000 recipes, as well as educational pages, it has all of the information you need!

Pie by Ken Haedrich. Just the title alone. Also, probably the only cookbook where the photos made me say "wow, i want to make that" and not "wow, i would never want to spend all of the time to make it look that pretty."

Delia Smith Complete how to cook.
Growing up in Ireland my mother always had a flour stained, grease spattered edition in the kitchen as she cooked her latest concoctions.

I used it and practised the recipes throughout my youth, everything from how to boil an egg to how to roast a goose.

When I got my first apartment my mother gave me a brand new copy, I'm hoping one day it'll be as dog eared and impressive looking as my mother's tome to culinary experimentation.