The Flavor Bible

I learned of this book from a chef friend and immediately fell in love with it! It's basically a list of every ingredient you could ever imagine - proteins, veggies, fruits, starches, spices, all of it - and then it tells you what other ingredients pair well with them. When I'm feeling the urge to be creative and need some inspiration, I go to this book. Example: I was flying solo for the week when the BF was on a work trip, decided I wanted to treat myself and make a wine-poached pear, but had no clue what to serve it with. I opened up this book to pears and found peas, blue cheese, and red wine go nicely - decided to make a blue cheese risotto with some peas, a chicken thigh, a red-wine-poached pear, and a red wine glaze - it was an incredible dinner if I do say so myself.