In no particular order:
At Home in Provence, by Patricia Wells, the maven of French cooking. But this isn't that rich, creamy, over-the-top food that I think of when I think of French cooking. It's simple, fresh, farm-house French cooking - food the way it was meant to be if you happen to be lucky enough to live in Provence. It's where I get recipes like the Fettuccine with Roquefort, Lemon Zest and Rosemary, that takes all of 15 minutes to put together.
The Improvisational Cook, by Sally Schneider. Josh picked up this beautiful cookbook (which really is more of an inspirational suggestion book for cooking) for me when he was last out in LA. It's full of delicious ideas and pretty pictures - as much as you could ask for in a cookbook.
The Complete Mediterranean, part of The Beautiful Cookbook series. All the Tuscan, Greek, Moroccan, Turkish, Lebanese, etc... recipes you could ask for. I often find that I need to adjust the recipes a bit to give them more flavor (I think they've been watered down a bit for American taste), but it's a great instructional for basic Mediterranean cooking.
And then of course there's anything by Mark Bittman (How to Cook Everything, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, The Best Recipes in the World) and James Peterson (Splendid Soups, Fish & Shellfish) and a variety of ethnic cookbooks.
With these, and of course scoping online, I'm a happy cook. (Click on the pictures for links.)
