That is my favorite way to cook and that is what I do. Most meals that I put on the table are prepared with a style of cooking rather than any recipie.

I got rid of every one of my cookbooks except for one that I keep because it has a lot of personal history around it.

After a lifetime of cooking, I dont need anyone's instructions to put together a meal.

last evening's meal cleared out a lot of little bits and pieces from the fridge.

Sometimes it's like a home version of Chopped. IOW, what can you make with what's on hand? Yesterday I made a 1 pan roasted dinner with chicken thighs, onions, mushrooms, and chunks of half ripe tomatoes, seasoned with Old Bay and lime juice. Mushrooms and tomatoes needed to be used up, and so did the chicken.

But I also try to keep my kitchen stocked with ingredients for favorite dishes. I do use recipes too. Most of my regulars are my own creations and the recipes I use are always springboards. I rarely follow a recipe to the letter.

I cook more simply now and don't dig into recipes much anymore. I don't bake, and I tend not to combine too many ingredients when I manage to cook. I can be happy with roast chicken pieces, a baked sweet potato and a steamed or sautéed green vegetable. Sheet pan suppers are easy for me, too. DH is the one who collects and follows recipes now and will put a lot of effort into them. He makes some great meals - but he can't ad lib. He's only been at it for a few years...

seagrass

I really only use a recipe when I bake. And even then, sometimes not :-) Otherwise I do ad lib, combining ingredients I have on hand according to my tastes. Like carolb, I tend to keep a variety of ingredients on hand that I know I will use to create a bunch of different meals.

Because it is just me, I am not doing all that much cooking anyway. Too much bother, too many leftovers, a declining appetite. I will maybe cook a real dinner meal once or twice a week at most and just graze the rest of the time. I am becoming very creative in my sandwich making :-) And that is 100% ad libbing!

A lot of my ad libbing involves tortillas or masa, and this is a good way to use up leftovers and have something hot to eat.

I make Mexican style quesadillas with fresh masa (or dried masa plus water) and deep fry them in a wok, like the ones I've had in Mexico City (photo in Colonial Condesa, across the street from where I used to stay with friends):

The ones in this photo have huitlacoche and Oaxaca cheese, which is my favorite combination, but it's difficult to find fresh huitlacoche here - I've only seen it in jars.

I frequently use leftover broccoli or any other vegetable when I make these at home, but I also like them with mushrooms. Sometimes I add leftover chicken. Anyway, these are always improvised, based on what I happen to have on hand.

This is the way I cook 90% of the time. Baking is the one of few times I use a recipe. It makes it hard when someone wants a recipe.

Some of yoou might recall that I'm slowly making the recipes from my Grandmother's Little Black Book, which usually lists only ingredients and no directions. I guess it's good that I'm the one doing the experiments. 😄

Kate

all the time

especially with lasagna ... there is always a mystery layer, depending upon what is on hand: plain yogurt, cottage cheese, ricotta, usually a green like spinach, but not always. To give it more zing, i combine ground beef with Italian sausage.

soups, what is on hand; usually chicken stock, carrots and potatoes, and whatever else.

chili, the same; more beans on occasion, other times more meat.

Speaking of lasagna, a friend of mine asked me to write down how I make lasagna so that she could give the recipe to her son, whose father is from France. The son wanted to impress the father (who owns a restaurant in Cabo San Lucas), and the father was definitely impressed.

I wasn't even sure as I wrote down the recipe if the proportions were correct, as I never measure filling ingredients when I'm making lasagna, but I definitely do measure the ingredients that I use to make the lasagna noodles. Lately, I've been rolling out pasta dough with a rolling pin when I make lasagna, and I make noodles the size and shape of my Corningware pan, so that I have one noodle per layer. I never boil the noodles before layering them in, but I do spray them with water.

Do tell, Lars - I would love to have a recipe for DIY no boil lasagna noodles! Do you dry them a bit or put them right in? And do you make a basic egg pasta?

Yum, Lars, that lasagna sounds good.

Plllog, your "strata" sounds good too, I like lots and lots of vegetable in things, as evidenced by my ever changing vegetable "soup".

When I make something the first time, I try to follow the recipe. Then I change whatever I think needs to be changed to make it suit me. Dad used to say that my Grandmother could "make a good meal out of nothing", and so I'm used to using what is available and don't hesitate to make my own changes or variations. Some things really don't require a recipe, like chili or vegetable soup, and so I just start and see what it turns into. And then, of course, if it turns out well, I try to remember what I did!

Annie

That's what cooks do. Although tonight I will follow a recipe for quantities...ottolenghi's spinach pancakes with lime butter. Yum. Last night was a chicken curry...no need for a recipe.

Thanks so much!

Saving this😊

IF I bake, I follow a recipe.

Usually for something new I'll follow a recipe fairly closely, but after the first time I'll usually wing it.

Sometimes, I will work on creating a recipes for several days. Most are successful, and some not so much. Have done this all the many years I have cooked. Will never forget when I learned I had to write what I did down. I made up a cake recipe many, many years ago. That cake was so very good, my family (who were never really big on sweets) ate that whole big cake in one night - we all just kept going back for one small piece. But, I couldn't remember what I put in it besides, sugar, flour, eggs, baking powder, and cocoa when I wanted to make it again. To this day, my son and daughter will ask me if I ever remembered what I put in that wonderful cake. That is when I learned I could not trust my memory and had to write things down as I went along. And I never have remember how I made that cake.

I improvised some stracciatella soup for lunch today because I had spinach and mushrooms that I wanted to use. I used about five cups of broth/stock (chicken plus mushroom), three eggs, and at least a full cup of Parmesan cheese, which I noticed later is a lot more than other recipes call for. Nevertheless, I liked it. I also had sautéed onion and garlic in it plus 3 oz of mini bow-tie pasta. I added black pepper to the onion and garlic and sautéed some of the mushrooms with that and then deglazed with some wine before adding the stock. I ended up putting about eight mushrooms in it, four of which I did not sauté and cut into dice instead. I also added a tablespoon of cornstarch at the end to thicken it.

Because I added so much Parmesan to the eggs, they did not make the typical "shreds" that one associates with stracciatella (hence its name), but that did not bother me. I also really liked the addition of mushroom, which I frequently have with spinach.

I didn't follow a recipe because I had made this before a few times and remembered more or less how I had made it, although it was definitely different (and better) this time.

ETA: I have a somewhat photographic memory for recipes, even if I do not write them down, and I can frequently remember an entire recipe from TV after having seen it only once.