We don't need no stinking recipes.

[skilletlicker]

I'm not big on recipes. In fact, whenever I think seriously about them, this comes to mind.
We don't need no stinking recipes!
But a couple nights ago I accidentally came up with this quick and easy "sorta like" Chili and thought it was worth writing down.

• 3/4 lb ground chuck
• Half an onion diced
• Poblano pepper diced
• 1 zucchini diced
• 1 Tbsp chili powder
• 2 tsp (freshly toasted and ground?) cumin
• 2 cloves sliced garlic

Cook together until meat is brown and vegetables are softened, maybe even browned a little.
Add about:

• 2 cups of pinto beans and bean juice
• 1 10 oz can enchilada sauce

Simmer 'til thickened
Remove from heat and add cilantro and asiago or parmesan cheese.

Served over brown rice and shoulda fed three, but I ate it all.

 

[dragnlaw]

Served over brown rice and shoulda fed three, but I ate it all.

My kinda guy! exactly what I do!

 

[Roll_Bones]

I rarely look to a recipe unless I am completely unfamiliar with the dish.
I do google cooking ideas just for ideas.

 

[dragnlaw]

Well, I truly have to say I need a recipe. Not that I always follow it. I usually follow one the very first time and then I will start to tweak. I need the ideas and a sort of quantity guidance.

My biggest lesson has been when I started googling the same recipe from 5 or 8 different sources and comparing them all on one sheet. I will list every single ingredient from each recipe in the first column. Then I make a column for each different recipe, going down the list I enter quantities and/or if not even used. It is very interesting and I go over the list and circle the ones that suit me and my tastes!

Fascinating how different recipes always say "this is how it's really done" or "this is always an ingredient, if it's not in there, it's not authentic"

 

[CraigC]

Some recipes are like Buffett songs, you just know them by heart.

 

[skilletlicker]

Recipes are like sign posts when I'm lost in Margaritaville. I'll use them to pick a general direction to head but not to choose a destination. Even if I wanted to, it is highly unlikely that I have all the ingredients and I never use recipes to write shopping lists. Admire folks who do; just isn't how I'm built.

"If kerosene works, why not gasoline?" That's a line in the chorus of a song playing as I write this and sort of sums up my thought process in the kitchen.

Googling "Recipe: potato" gets you over 70 million hits, many of which are plagiarized, ill-advised, or flat out wrong. Copy and paste are the most frequently used online writing tools. When I look close, seems there's really only a few dozen ideas about cooking a potato.

 

[Andy M.]

I have no issue with cooking free-style or following a recipe.

Sometimes I throw something together with what's on hand or get an idea from something I've seen here or elsewhere online, etc.

However, if I do experiment, I write down the recipe. If we love the recipe, I had better be able to accurately recreate it.

If, on the other hand, I want to cook a classic recipe, I follow the recipe as accurately as I can. The recipe is a classic for a reason.

 

[blissful]

I don't like having to follow recipes but I've messed things up often enough to follow a successful recipe, especially for DH. My meatloaf is a good example, to mess it up, I put in too much onion, too much filler, not enough filler, the wrong filler, too much ketchup, worrying about flavor when all he wants is a solid piece of meat that can be sliced later without falling apart with a glaze of tomato sauce on the top. With the help of DC here, we got it figured out and now I'm not going to mess with success.

Vegetable dip, I just use what I think will be right, so some dill weed, some garlic, some salt, some onion powder and about half sour cream and half mayo. I don't measure it.

 

[skilletlicker]

...
However, if I do experiment, I write down the recipe. If we love the recipe, I had better be able to accurately recreate it.

If, on the other hand, I want to cook a classic recipe, I follow the recipe as accurately as I can. The recipe is a classic for a reason.

I don't like having to follow recipes but I've messed things up often enough to follow a successful recipe, especially for DH

I am occasionally tempted to learn to cook classic recipes and incrementally improve my own. Feels like a weak ambition that will never be fulfilled though. A benefit and a drawback of cooking for one is there are no customers to satisfy. Can't prove this because I don't keep track, but strongly suspect, excluding things like boiled eggs with only one two ingredients, I never cook anything exactly the same way twice.

 

[blissful]

A benefit and a drawback of cooking for one is there are no customers to satisfy.

That's it right there. You gotta have customers that whine and complain.
Personally, only cooking for myself, there are no recipes. And I, have no one to complain or whine to when I've messed things up, except myself.

Much of the premade food available in the grocery store is dumbed down to bland and appealing to the masses. The masses are starving and not particular. Not only that, spices and herbs add an extra expense. When you are the manager of a deli, you cut costs and maximize volume and selling before that inevitable expiration date. (son is a grocery store deli manager)

 

[Andy M.]

I am occasionally tempted to learn to cook classic recipes and incrementally improve my own. Feels like a weak ambition that will never be fulfilled though. A benefit and a drawback of cooking for one is there are no customers to satisfy. Can't prove this because I don't keep track, but strongly suspect, excluding things like boiled eggs with only one two ingredients, I never cook anything exactly the same way twice.

When I was an old bachelor cook for a number of years, I was just learning to cook so recipes were important to my learning. I spent countless hours in front of a TV frantically writing down recipes as Martin Yan, Justin Wilson, Emeril, Julia and Jacques cooked for the cameras. When I got a VCR, life became a lot easier.

 

[larry_stewart]

When I was an old bachelor cook for a number of years, I was just learning to cook so recipes were important to my learning. I spent countless hours in front of a TV frantically writing down recipes as Martin Yan, Justin Wilson, Emeril, Julia and Jacques cooked for the cameras. When I got a VCR, life became a lot easier.

When i was in college , id often have the cooking shows on while I was studying. Nice to have as background noise, yet not something that would distract me too much as I was studying ( mostly julia, jacques, martin yan , jeff smith and whoever else was popular at the time. if you look at my text books and notebooks from that time period, you can still see all the notes and recipes I wrote down in the margins, back cover of my books. Its actually kinda funny to look back at them and see which recipe or piece of advise I found more important to focus on than my studies at the time

 

[Addie]

Having to help my mother, I was the one standing at the stove doing the adding, stirring, and anything else my mother told me to do. So now when I make a dish that I had to help her with, I still hear her voice walking me through the whole meal. She made the same recipes she learned growing up. Standard stick to your ribs, New England fare. Today, those dishes are the ones my kids ask me to make for them, still. Having married an Italian, my daughter learned to cook the dishes he grew up with. So when she has a hankering for some childhood favorite, I keep the phone right at my side until she is serving it at the table. Boston Baked Beans and Corn Chowder are her two favorites. I keep hoping she will write both recipes down, but that is just wishful thinking.

Being married to a chef, was of no help to me. He was used to cooking for a large amount of people. Pirate learned to cook from his father and working on the line in restaurants. Spike learned from his father and myself.

I had a copy of the very first Joy Of Cooking and read it from front to back more than once. Learned a lot of cooking tips and tricks from that book.