As someone who was thrown into the deep end when it comes to cooking, I can say trial and error has been so helpful to me.  I moved from a major metropolitan area with plenty of restaurants to a small one-horse town with the fanciest restaurant being a McDonalds (ok, it wasn't that bad but pretty close)!  At any rate, if I wanted to eat healthy and exotic foods, then I had to learn how to cook.  That was years ago and I'm pretty accomplished now.  I have my favorite cookbooks for international cuisine, but for all around food, I gravitate to www.food.com  They have recipes that are rated by users (which come in very handy).  

 Awesome advice, thanks for the heads up!