Understanding the kitchen

Guido:
"Things (about cooking) I wish I had known years ago. I wrote this up for my younger brother and sister so they wouldn't have to learn it on their own like I did. Neither of them cook much right now. Y'all probably know all of this stuff, but it might be useful.----
Things I wish I had known years ago. My cooking abilities have improved dramatically in the last year or so. There are certain things that have been a major influence on my improvement and other things that have just made my cooking life a lot better. I wish someone had pointed these things out to me years ago. Maybe I wouldn't have eaten so much crap if I had known about them.

1. Good Eats - Holy s***! Good Eats, I know I'm not alone saying that Alton Brown kicks ass. If you don't already know this, Good Eats is a cooking show on the food network hosted by Alton Brown. It's kind of a mix between Mr. Wizard, Bill Nye, MacGyver, and Julia Child. Wow, what a combo. What's important about this show is: A. He teaches you about why you need to do certain things and B. It's not boring.
2. Cooks Illustrated - A cooking magazine that doesn't suck. I've always hated cooking magazines (along with cooking shows) because they are always showing beautiful photos of dishes and long-ass recipes that assume you already know everything about cooking and require odd ingredients that not everyone can find (or cares to look for). Cook's Illustrated is great because they test many different recipes for the same dish and tell you exactly how to make it, and they tell you what you can substitute if you can't find every ingredient.
3. Cast Iron Skillets - I used to think that Calphalon cast-aluminum pans were the best but I recently got a Lodge Cast-Iron Skillet and I'm totally blown away. It really is much better than what I was using. It's extremely heavy and takes a long time to heat up, but once it's hot it stays hot. I can add cold water to the mixture and it continues to stay hot. And it's non-stick. It's not that crappy non-stick coating that eventually starts sticking, it's that extremely thin layer of oil that you've baked onto it when you season it. Oh yeah, that brings up care and maintenance. You have to take better care of this than your $100 copper skillet. You have to keep it seasoned, you can't use soap to clean it, and you have to keep it dry so it doesn't rust. But I guess since it's only $15 from Amazon you don't really have to worry if you screw up.
4. World Spice Merchants - I used to pay for $5 for each spice or herb at the supermarket, and they were usually small and old, and many times I couldn't find what I needed. At World Spice Merchants I get fresh spices and herbs for 5 to 10 times cheaper and I can find whatever I need. I've even bought some tins to keep them in.
5. Honing steels - It took me a long to realize that my knives were getting dull. I never realized that I could keep them very sharp with a small piece of metal. Probe Thermometers mean I stop cooking exactly when I'm supposed to."

Credits to Guido Bartolucci for contributing this piece. Another useful resource is the following book. What Einstein Told his Cook. http://www.amazon.com/What-Einstein-Told-His-Cook/dp/0393011836/