Whether you cook only once in a while or are proficient in the kitchen, you should continue to sharpen your cooking and baking skills.

Knowing which types of basic ingredients (what we like to call the building blocks) to keep on hand so you can create a wide array of dishes, and knowing how to buy and store those ingredients, is the first step.

Always reading through a recipe, prepping everything before you begin cooking—practicing mise en place—and learning to rely on visual cues over specified cooking times is another.

The latter is even more important in baking than other types of cooking: If a recipe says to cook a pie for an hour, but after that time the crust is not yet “golden brown” and the filling is not yet “bubbling,” keep cooking until they are. Same for cakes that should be “springy to the touch” and custards that should still “jiggle in the center.” We’ve pulled together these and other “good things for the kitchen” to help you gain confidence as you go about the daily task of putting meals on the table. There is also a chart to help you master different cooking techniques. Read through them, and then I suggest you put them to practice: Braise some chicken legs and poach some pears.

In addition to being a great advocate for sharpening one’s cooking and baking skills, I’m also a big proponent of composting all the vegetable scraps or peels (or even spent coffee grinds) from the kitchen. I don’t want any food to go to waste. So composting tools are included, too. It’s an integral part of food preparation, and a practice that will do you, your garden, and the planet good.