Dear Mama Mary -
I'm finally moving out and my mother is letting me take cookware from my grandmother's old stuff. Mama Mary, what do I need besides pots and pans?
A Newly Emancipated Daughter

Dear Daughter -
Congratulations on both the giant step towards being a responsible adult, but also on your cookware score!
Here's my list of the bare bones of a well-equipped kitchen: a small, medium, and large saucepan, a stockpot or Dutch oven (or both), a small and a really oven-safe large frying pan, a slotted and a regular large spoon, a wooden spoon, spatulas for turning and for scraping, a set of tongs, a paring knife, a carving knife, a bread knife, a vegetable peeler, a vegetable brush, a basting brush, measuring cups and spoons and large Pyrex measuring cup. These tools are all you need to cook. For baking, also include a sifter, cookie sheets, muffin tins, 13x9 and 11x7 pans. It sounds like a lot, but it will all fit into 1 standard utility drawer and 1 cabinet.