I'm a reformed you, and yes, the amount of things you need is shockingly small. The problem is the value. When you're 22, making your own money in your own apartment, you look at what you can afford. 100 bucks can get me 1 knife, or it can get me a whole nonstick cookware set. Or a rice cooker, electric kettle, 6-piece knife set, cutting board, and a cast iron pan. But in the long run, just getting a nice knife will be worth it. I used to be a knife fiend, spent somewhere around 500 bucks on a series of 20-100 dollar knives, but since I settled on 4 knives (5" paring, 10" victorinox chef's knife, 6" santoku, chinese cleaver). And I've had them for 4 years now. Pots and pans? I need a dutch oven, a stainless steel frying pan, a nonstick frying pan for eggs, a pot to cook stock or noodles, and a couple small pots. That's it. So I've bought the best of each of them (except the nonstick egg pan. I replace it with a 30-ish dollar pan every 2 years).
a rice cooker, blender, food processor, immersion blender (soups, mayo, whipped cream, butter), coffee grinder, george foreman grill, and countertop toaster oven round out everything I need to cook. Buy top (or near top) of the line, and you can stock a full kitchen for 800-1500 bucks. Some people spend that on a fancy matched all-clad set. I just have their 12" frying pan with lid. And I use it almost daily. I got it on special for 90 bucks. Here it is at amazon. I've torn this pan up over the last 3 years, but it'll last me another 10, and I'm not hunting through 30 shitty pans that will never touch this one in terms of performance -- at 30 bucks each. 900 bucks vs 90.
Instead of the $110 12" fry pan he linked to, I recently bought this one. Same pan but comes with lid, $77. I did a lot of reading up and concluded it's most likely the exact same pan, but from the reviews it might be a bit lighter/thinner. Works wonderfully though. Actually now that I thought to compare the dimensions, it's the exact same pan but with a lid and is much cheaper.
MC-2 is a set, and only has an 8 inch frying pan. I was looking to get a nice big frying pan so I could use it for almost anything I throw at it. I'm thinking something along the lines of a 12, or even 13 inch frying pan. Can you suggest anything in particular? I was going to opt for either this 12inch or this 13 inch.