Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Can't beat a good ratatouille--there's something magical about the way the vegetables transform into something so much greater than their sum.

Simplicity is perfection. Breast, pan-seared, with matchstick potatoes fried in the rendered fat.

But I'd have lots of fun figuring out new favorite ways to eat it with this stash!

It wasn't actually my first cookbook -- I don't think highly of that book, and don't want to criticize it here. But the cookbook I learned to cook from was Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. A real education, that.

To make more interesting lunches.

Don't have a specific tip in mind, but his Hainanese chicken rice has become one of the meals I cook most often. Super easy and absolutely delicious. I'd love to have the book!

If you don't count oil, garlic is probably my most-used ingredient. (If oils do count, then I'd guess peanut oil.) Herbs are what I can never seem to use in time: parsley and cilantro, in particular, have to be bought in such large bundles that I never finish them! (For some reason, I don't usually think of freezing them before it's too late.) I guess it's a pretty good thing that they're so inexpensive.

Oh man, I crave this book! I need to explore out more (hence my need for the book!), but I'd say the best thing I make on a somewhat regular basis is duck breast, cooked in its own fat. So delicious!

Maybe a good potato salad.

Your breakfast sounds pretty good, although for me one of the pleasures of eating eggs with pancakes is the sweetness the eggs acquire from the syrup.

While I'd like to include a western omelet in my breakfast, I don't think it would work well with the others, so I'm going to have to choose a fresh-baked croissant, French yogurt with berries, fresh pineapple, freshly squeezed orange juice, and good, black coffee.