Q: I am one of those "can't boil water" people who never really cooks. I want to learn, but I'm not sure where to start. I'm finally moving into my own place this summer and I don't have any tools of my own. What do I need and what are some easy recipes that I can start learning with?

I cook a lot. These past couple of weeks, for instance, I've been cooking through all the un-photographed recipes in Bakeless Sweets and shooting them for the book's website. The amount of dishes generated by these 75 recipes has been mountainous. So this clutter of dishes expresses how my kitchen looks, most of the time (and actually, this isn't too bad, in comparison! I will under no circumstances, however, show you my stovetop right now.). And yet I have an open kitchen, with the mess on display for everyone to see. (See my whole kitchen renovation reveal here.)

So can you guess what the most important element of my open kitchen is? 

Well, not really. But even if that wasn't the original design intention, it pretty much does just that. Have you ever seen a home bar that was quite so cool? It's a bar! No, it's a sculpture! No, it's a work of art! Gah. It's awesome. We rest our case.

All week long we've been helping ourselves to the liquor cabinet. It's Cocktail Week, after all, and we'd be remiss if we didn't try out some of these 3-ingredient cocktails or one of these party-friendly pitcher drinks. (All in a day's work, friends! Thank goodness we have a hangover cure.) But now we're taking a step back to revisit the basics. Tell us: if you were building a home bar from scratch, which bottles would you choose?

In our house we keep the liquor in a tall wood cabinet I found for a song at a thrift store in Manhattan. It stands against the wall near our dining table, which is between the kitchen and the living room. (I like the proximity to both places.) It works for us now, but we're moving soon, so I'm curious to see how other people store their spirits. Do they keep them out in the open on a bar cart? Grouped together on the countertop? Set up side by side on a shelf? Here are 10 examples culled from our Kitchen Tours for a little inspiration.

The under-the-sink area can be pretty dreadful. It's cramped and hard to keep tidy — which is also why it's the perfect spot to install a pull-out drawer.

There's nothing like that moment when you taste an Asian dish you made at home and pump your fist in the air because it tastes just like take-out! It's not hard to get that authentic flavor; all it takes are the right ingredients. Fully stocking an Asian pantry can seem intimidating, but with just 15 basic ingredients, you can make a wide variety of recipes from China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, and beyond.

Q: I love looking at the pictures of super-organized pantries you post occasionally. But it seems like so many of them use up all the available space. If these cooks want to add a new staple ingredient, where do they put them? 

10 of Our Favorite Ingredients for Italian Cooking

Cooking is always easier and more fun when you have the right ingredients on hand. These 15 guides cover stocking your pantry, fridge and freezer so that you always have what you need to cook great Italian food, quick and healthy weeknight dinners, delicious soups, flavorful vegan meals, and much more.

Here's a question: if you had a friend come to you and say that she's setting up her kitchen on a budget, but she's put aside a little money to buy one really terrific thing for her kitchen, what would you tell her to invest in? We're not talking about appliances, like refrigerators, stoves, or anything that requires serious manpower or a renovation. We're talking about something accessible and portable, the one product or tool that could make a serious difference for either her cooking, her kitchen's functionality, her peace of mind, or all of the above! What would you recommend? More