(Oops! Sorry, this turned into a novel.)
Welcome to a great homebrewing sight! Quite a lot of good info already posted on the first recipe and kits. You are obviously starting this hobby out with a good head on your shoulders.. researching and reading ahead of time will help in the longrun. Here's a small look at some equipment you might not know about. Believe me, there is a whole new world out there when it comes to gear. If youre handy in the workshop, much of it you can make with stuff readily available and it won't break the bank.
I've attached some links for gear. Not so much as to say you should buy this stuff but just to give you an idea what is out there. Big dollars can be spent on brewing stuff but if you're half handy with a drill and a few basic tools you can make a lot of the gear, or modify equipment to make nice brew gear.
I'd recommend not going with a turkey fryer kit as your heat source and brewing vessel. They are great and decently priced, for around 70 dollars you can buy a burner with stand and 28-30 quart aluminum pot. This will be just fine if you stick with 5 gallon batches. Here' a link to them on Amazon.. price has gone up 50 bucks since I bought one 3 years ago.. maybe because of the holidays. I definitely would not pay this price for one now.
http://www.amazon.com/Bayou-Classic-3066A-30-Quart-Outdoor/dp/B0000BXHL0
Next is an SQ-14 propane burner and stand from Amazon. I got a couple of these things, one for the hot water tank and another for the boil kettle. My boil kettle is a 15.5 gallon beer keg converted to a kettle, with 1/2 inch ball valve and a sight glass I bought from brewhardware.com.
The stand is built like a Sherman tank and easily supports the weight of the boil kettle full (15G) of water, or somewhere around 150 pounds. It's a 55,000 BTU burner. Small by some standards of homebrewers burners but I've found it does the job just fine on even 11 gallon batches, which means I'm starting with around 13-14 gallons of liquid. It is not the only option out there so do some searching and reading up before you commit.
http://www.casa.com/p/bayou-classic...083191&utm_content=pla&adtype=pla&cagpspn=pla
Brew pots can get pretty expensive. Blichman makes some really nice ones, they also cost a ton of money. If money is not a show stopper go with them. If I had and extra grand to blow on some brew stuff I'd buy 3 of them, they are very nice. But it would probably cost more than a grand as I'd get at least a 15 gallon boill kettle and two ten gallon pots, one for the mash and another for the hot water (HLT)
http://www.store.homebrew4less.com/prodinfo.asp?number=BE10GAL&variation=&gclid=CMq-3P6R9rMCFcN_QgodvVEAZQ
If you want stainless steel, it is pretty, you could check out Amazon again. They sell good stainless steel pots and won't break the bank. A ten gallon pot will easily handle 7 gallon batches. If you decide to go brew in a bag someday (all grain) it is big enough for a 5 gallon batch. Here's an example
11G - $68. Many reviews on this pot from homebrewers who had mostly good things to say about it.
http://www.amazon.com/Bayou-Classic-1044-44-Quart-Stainless-Steel/dp/B000VXHKMC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1354257476&sr=8-1&keywords=44+qt+stainless+steel+pot
You'll need a way to cool the nearly boiling hot wort. An ice bath will work but is not optimal. A copper immersion wort chiller is a good thing to have but depending on ground water temp can be pretty wasteful of water.
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_SPM3261035602P?sid=IDx20110310x00001i&srccode=cii_184425893&cpncode=32-199996966-2 It will cool your wort to about 20 degrees above ground water temp in maybe 20 minutes and then take forever to get anywhere near the ground water temperature. I've found they use quite a lot of water though but most homebrewers have clever ways of using the waste water, watering the yard, use some for laundry, use the very hot water that comes out in the beginning for cleaning brewing equipment. You can buy the copper and make one or just buy one. They also make them in stainless steel. The disadvantage of stainless is it doesn't transfer heat as quickly as the copper. The advantage is they don't corrode. I had a 50' 1/2" diameter stainless immersion chiller once but sold it. I regret that now. What I should have done was convert it into a counter flow chiller.
What I've done during summers when ground water temp is pretty warm is just cool the wort down to around 100F and then let it sit, covered, in the boil kettle until the next day. Then rack it to the fermenter, aerate the wort and pitch yeast.
Also, there is a another train of thought and method out there, I've used it and it worked okay. Just cover the pot at the end of the boil and let it cool to pitching temperature overnight or however long it takes. There are arguments against this method but if I understand correctly guys in Australia have been doing this for years. I do think they transfer the hot wort to a plastic container first. They squeeze out the air in the container after wort is added and I think the latent heat pasteurizes the wort.
As far as counter flow chillers CFCs here's a quick youtube video of one a guy made with a garden hose, some copper tubing and fittings. I made one, they're pretty neat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LEPKaikHhU
I've bored you enough. Didn't mean for this to be so long.
Cheers and happy brewing!
Dan