I agree with you, cookebook, about some things - their natural, perfectly cooked, enhanced with only salt and pepper and maybe some garlic cannot be improved on. Other things, I like to experiment with. For example, right now we are trying many different fishes; normally, we have always gone with salmon, halibut, and tuna. Now we have tried tilapia, Whiting, swordfish, mahi mahi, etc. It is fun. My mashed potatoes, I want mashed potatoes with butter, milk, salt and pepper - no other enhancements. For sauces, I am always on the looking for and trying recipes that sound good. Just depends on what I am cooking, I guess. If having biscuits and gravy (a rare occurrence anymore), I want plain baked biscuits and plain regular gravy made with a roux, salt, pepper, and milk, perhaps with a side of sausage or bacon. I don't want sausage gravy or sawmill gravy. Interesting thread. I look forward to reading other answers.

I tend to improvise a lot, and I do this even when I start out with a traditional Japanese recipe. I like traditional Ethiopian recipes and generally do not change those, and I generally keep traditional Italian, Greek, and French recipes as they are, as well as traditional Middle Eastern.

I do not cook steak or hamburger, and so I cannot comment on those, but I do spice up pimento cheese when I make that, and I add my own Habanero sauce to it. I also add Habanero sauce to mayonnaise before using it on sandwiches.

I noticed in Houston that the food in the Thai restaurants was quite a bit hotter than in the Thai restaurants here. I used to go to one called Thai Chili Restaurant, but I understand that it has closed. Still there are quite a few other Thai restaurants in Houston, which I think is a good thing.

I frequently omit salt when cooking, the way other people omit chilies. I find that vegetables taste sweeter and fresher without salt, but then I have an aversion to salt, even though I occasionally like some salty foods. As a rule, I'm very sensitive to salt, especially when it shows up in sweets.

No idea what I am....but know for sure I'm not unusual.

Most of my cooking is of things I have cooked forever and I rarely change them up. However, I am always trying new recipes, but they are always within our "range" of likes.

I rarely cook with ingredients that aren't familiar to me. So while I try new recipes all the time , they rarely contain ingredients " unusual " or unfamiliar to me.

I like most things with the basic herbs, spices and additions that are traditional to the cuisine I am cooking....I don't do any type of fusion.

There are some things that I want unfussed with. I don't even want a steak seasoned before cooking. Just a little finishing salt. There are old favorites which I want to taste "right"--like I've figured out that the spaghetti sauce I learned to make as a kid requires some beef with some fat, so it can have a majority of leaner meat/poultry, and it has to have at least one green bell pepper. I usually add carrots, zucchini, chili pepper and whatever needs using up to the garlic and onions, but it has to have a green pepper to taste right.

OTOH, I'm all for new recipes, new versions, anything interesting. If I'm in the mood for a traditional hamburger, I want it traditional, but sometimes a new concoction can be delicious. I often make disparate leftovers into lasagna or a casserole. It's usually different, but good enough to give me the problem that somebody is going to ask me to repeat it.

My general cooking style is to think of what I want the final product to be and reason my way backwards to figure out how to get there. Other times, I just cook, adding this and that as things progress. I do get bored making the same thing over and over again.

What I am is moody. Sometimes for me, simple is good. Other times, I like to throw caution to the wind. I do try to take notes when adapting something so if it is an abysmal failure or surprising success, I have that information for future recall. A lot of my cooking is also situational and I have to adapt accordingly to what is in the house, what is in the budget, my time constraints, etc.

Regular

For most things I'm usually up for new variations. On the rare occasions I eat a burger I want it "different". I'm wracking my brain thinking of something that I would resist trying a variation of and not thinking of anything - although there must be something.

This conversation reminds me of people around here who argue about the proper/perfect way to make Utica greens. There are so many variations on this dish and I'm always up for trying someone's interpretation. Many other people always compare what they are eating to what they think of as the perfect Utica greens and complain if it doesn't match. I only complain if it tastes awful.

I'm traditional with old standbys like steak and burgers. Once in a blue moon, I'll eat a cheeseburger or top with smashed avocado but most of the time I want my burger with just S&P, mustard, onion and dill pickle. No Swiss cheese, bacon or mushrooms on my burgers, ever.

With steak, S&P, garlic, Worcestershire or Montreal Steak Seasoning or Cavendar's. Sometimes, I like diced jalapenos with steak.

I like jalapenos in hamburger steak.

I'm a little bit from Column A and a little bit from Column B :-)

Like Colleen, I'm both. If I eat steak I want it rare and I don't think it needs sauces or cheese or whatever. Good beef doesn't need any help. Mashed potatoes need butter, milk/cream, salt and that's all, no sour cream or cheese or whatever. I've made the same bread recipes since I was a little girl, and don't fiddle around with Grandma's old recipes because everyone knows how they are "supposed" to taste and I don't dare change them.

On the other hand I like to try new recipes and if there's a food on the menu I haven't tried, I can guarantee that's what I'll order. I follow Renee's "7 year rule", if I don't like something I have to taste it at least every 7 years, in case I change my mind. I don't want to miss out on something delicious!

I guess I just like food? Traditional/plain/comfort food? Of course I'll have some. Something new, different, unique? I'll have some of that too.

There are parameters. I don't want it too spicy, because my acid reflux will try to kill me. Textures are a problem with me, so no jello or I'll gag and that's unattractive. I don't like wine, no matter how many times I've tried to. I tell the grandkids not to "yuck my yum", and that they'll miss out on a lot of delicious foods if they don't try new things and in the same breath tell them that taste is subjective, not objective.

Yes, I'm a conundrum, no doubt about it. I try it all!

Annie

Eating has to do with living, and staying healthy.

So I listen to what my body tells me what to eat. I don't listen to recipes.

dcarch

sauce were used to hide low quality ingredients and old food in old days.

True. And nowadays sauce is used to hide the extreme blandness high quality foods. :)

I love trying new recipes. My mom never stuck to tried and true and I guess I get that from her. The same as I got my love of gardening from my dad. Moving from the midwest to southern Louisiana opened culinary doors for me. And fortunately, I have a husband who's willing to try just about anything. Makes cooking fun!

Depends. I don't mess with quality steak (pre season with pepper, a hint of salt, possibly a little garlic powder). But Chuck steak can be an open canvas.

Hamburgers - I vary them up. Cooking, I never buy pre formed patties, but add whatever seasonings I am in the mood for to ground meat from local sources. Not too heavy, though. At home I top with whatever melting cheese is handy, and add Dijon mustard. No buns. Maybe lettuce wrap. Out, I may well order other stuff in addition - bacon, thin pickles, mushrooms, avocado.

Asian food, Greek and Moroccan food I make reasonably as authentic as possible, tho I usually cut down on any sugars.

There are a lot of foods I make without adding salt. I never add it to omelettes or scrambled eggs, though I do use on boiled or poached. I never add it to chicken, unless I'm doing some prep with the salt containing soy sauce (low sodium still has salt...)

I like both traditional and Ethnic flavors but I don't like fusion. I also want some things simple such as steak and seafood, no fancy sauces on them.

In terms of eating, I eat everything except cauliflower and brussels sprouts. As a cook, I'm traditional, uncomplicated, make the same stuff the same way over and over. I will try a new recipe several times a year and will occasionally modify a traditional recipe, but you'll never hear me call myself a chef.

I guess I'm brave. I don't have any compunctions using a flavor from here to enhance a dish from there, or to put together unlike things that I think will taste good together. For lunch today I combined white bean and greens ravioli in arrabiata sauce with pinto bean chili con carne and ementhaller. It was really good. If I were making it on purpose, I'd add more garlic and chili powder, and probably just make the chili more tomato-y rather than combining the chili and sauce, but I'd do this as a baked dish with no qualms.

I like to try things differently. Chocolate in my chili. Chili powder in my brownies etc. Recipes, i have always felt, are a suggestion where to start. Now there are some holy grail foods you do not mess with like my gramma's molasses cookie recipe cause you just don't mess with perfection.

I love food! I love the classics, I adore all recipes by Julia Child, I've never had a bad recipe from the NYTimes. The old Jr League cookbooks from the 60's and 70's had wonderful recipes. I always evaluate the source of the recipe.