Hie thee to a supermarket, kitchen store supplier, WalMart, Target, or any other place that sells kitchenware and get thyself a Pan of Roasting!
Seriously, a good roasting pan cannot be overvalued. I prefer the Pyrex brand, but any of them will do the trick.
If you can afford it, get yourself a good baking dish too – say, an 8x11. These are great for making really simple, but good, pasta dishes, casseroles, rice-and-whatever meals, and so on.
A ten or twelve inch skillet (cast iron preferred; if not, get one that can go in the oven, at least), a pot that’ll hold at least 2 quarts (with lid), a good spatula – it must be thin and flexible, yet wide enough to hold most of an egg on the surface. A whisk, for mixing things and beating eggs.
Sauces and spices: Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, and your hot sauce of choice (not salsa); salt, pepper (get a pepper grinder if possible, otherwise, buy coarse ground pepper), cumin, and that italian spices blend (oregano, thyme, rosemary) from Costco should cover basic seasoning needs. Most stuff only needs salt and pepper, so you can build up your spice collection slowly as you discover what you like.
A good knife is essential. I use a 9-inch chef’s knife (smooth edge only, please) for just about everything; it works for slicing meat, chopping veggies, crushing garlic, and cutting melons. Plus other things. Stop by a hardware store and pick up a knife sharpener – not a sharpening stone! – while you’re at it and you won’t have to learn how to sharpen it yourself, which is a specialized task that you won’t get right from the start.
A meat thermometer. I have one that has markings for beef, chicken, and pork, showing the ‘safe’ temperature for each (as well as rare, med, and well done for beef). They’re cheap and they help you figure out when the middle of big hunks of meat are done (you’ll get a feel for thinner cuts, if you don’t have it already).
Basic food supplies that should always be on hand: a bag of flour, a bag of rice, pasta noodles of varying types, frozen peas, frozen corn, cream of mushroom soup in cans, olive oil, vegetable oil, and some cans of condensed/evaporated milk. With that and some fresh ingredients you can make just about any type of sauce, a batter for frying, thicken drippings for gravy, and so on.
Also, you can pick up some cans of chicken stock and beef stock cheaply, though I prefer to make my own in a big pot.