Joy of Cooking is my go to when it comes to wanting basic info. and a basic but traditional recipe.

When I'm cooking at my childhood home I always find myself using the The Silver Palate cookbooks my mother has ... just good recipes and also good info. re: roasting etc.

Finally, Cookwise is really fun for the chemist/Alton Brown type people ... for example it has a basic choc. chip recipe and then tweaks for crispy, chewy, and cakey (explaining how ingredients ... e.g. white versus brown sugar versus corn syrup) affect the final product.

Nigella Express is Nigella Lawson's new cookbook, and it's great. I've made several recipes from it, and they all came out really good. Granted, Nigella doesn't do much low-cal or healthy food, but it sure is tasty.

the Bread Bible

Fresh bread is one of the tastiest things in the world.

"The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen" - everything comes out really well, the recipes are very "down-home" tasting, but delicious. This is where about half of my dinner staples come from.

"A Fistful of Lentils" - a Jewish Syrian cookbook. I've only made half a dozen things out of it, but it includes my favorite recipe for my favorite food (mujadarah - lentils and rice with onions) and a lot of interesting ideas for the holidays which have changed the way I cook for Jewish holidays.

"Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World" is making me fat, but is so good. First book I've used where the baking recipes are fool-proof.

I have about thirty other cookbooks which I almost never use. I also get a lot of recipes from epicurious.com.

Definitely Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything".