When you cook, do you use recipes? If so, do you follow them precisely, or improvise? Do you throw ingredients together that you know will work? Do you make the same dishes frequently and know how to make them by heart?
I enjoy cooking from recipes. I like trying new ones all the time, so we rarely have the same thing twice. I sometimes improvise a little on recipes, but not drastically.
There are a few dishes that I can just throw together without a recipe, but in general I'm always on the lookout for good, dairy-free, relatively easy recipes. :)
I do both. I'm a pretty good cook but I like to use a recipe. I do know which ingredients I like together so I do substitute when I know it will taste good. I follow baking recipes exactly ( mostly) because that I can't improvise.
I hate onions so I am very creative with replacing them in recipies.
I'll add that even things imake all the time, if I have a recipe, I'll go find it. I now have the worst memory ever and I constantly forget key ingredients or steps (like precook the noodles or something like that, lmao)
I also think I have a real skill at reading a recipe and knowing if it will be good or not. I constantly read recipes to mike and he says it sounds awful and it's great.
I usually make a something the first time by recipe and alter it after that. Once I know how to make something I do not really measure as much. I tend to eyeball things after I have made it once.
I love to cook, but never have everything I need in order to do so and the time is a huge factor for me.
It is my goal though this year to get some new healthy recipes into rotation. That is what i find the biggest issue is most stuff that sounds yummy is not all that healthy.
I usually make a something the first time by recipe and alter it after that. Once I know how to make something I do not really measure as much. I tend to eyeball things after I have made it once.
I love to cook, but never have everything I need in order to do so and the time is a huge factor for me.
It is my goal though this year to get some new healthy recipes into rotation. That is what i find the biggest issue is most stuff that sounds yummy is not all that healthy.
This is me too!
ETA: Alison, I love trying new recipes too! I'm always looking for new stuff to try.
-- Edited by Juanita on Thursday 17th of September 2009 08:35:22 AM
I cook by recipes much of the time. There are certain dishes I have created that I never use a recipe for, and then there are times when I wing it. Most of the things I do in the crock pot are just me throwing things together. I try to write things down if they turn out particularly well. This sounds so snotty, though I don't mean it to, but I am an excellent cook. I love cooking and the science behind it, etc. So I love working with recipes-reading about how things work and why, and that has given me a base to being able to do things in the kitchen on my own, kwim? Plus I got a base of knowledge and know how from my dad growing up-but now I have surpassed him in the kitchen. They LOVE when I cook for them, lmao.
Also, it defintely depends on the type of cooking I am doing. Baking, especially certain things, require exact amounts, so I use recipes fo sho. Some things I don't make a often, I always dig out the recipes for, etc.
I love to cook!!! It is just so hard because we eat at like 6 or so, so the girls are very anxious for my attention during that time of the day, and it is challenging to cook then. Some things I can involve them in, but some things are just not kid friendly.
I look forward to having more time to cook eventually. I have a feeling that is a long way off, lol.
