If I use a recipe, it's most likely on a weekend, when I have time to gather the proper ingredients and devote some time to getting it right. During the week, I make dinners that I know how to prepare by heart because it saves time and frustration.

However, I pride myself on rarely (if ever) making a sandwich for dinner. That's just lazy.

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What do you mean by "yes or no"?? Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. Sometimes I use a recipe for one part of the dinner and not for another. Sometimes I start with a recipe, replace half the components, and switch the cooking method. Sometimes I follow it to the letter. Argh.

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Yeah, I'm with Harlan on this one. Often I look at several recipes and do my own thing. Generally recipes are guidelines for me. But then I went to culinary school and thus have some basic skills and knowledge that allow me to use ingredients in a way that others might not know. On the other hand, my mother-in-law doesn't cook ANYTHING without a recipe ... well, excluding very basic items ... and she follows it to the letter whether the information is correct or not.

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I'm a common sense cook...recipes are mostly for people that can't cook without one.

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You really need a "sometimes" option there.

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You need a "sometimes" option in your poll.

I agree with Harlan. Most often when I use a recipe it's for the list of ingredients, but not the technique, though there are exceptions to that.

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Sometimes I'll take a recipe and improvise based on what flavors I want or which ingredients are on hand.

Allrecipes.com is great for this type of thing.

Who needs a recipe for Meatloaf or Chili ;)

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I'm with Harlan and Stef, I will often glance at a couple recipes if I want to make something I've never made before to get ideas for composition and seasonings. But unless I'm baking I usually just add and replace to make the recipe what I want it to be. Without a lot of time to prepare I keep about a dozen simple dinner recipes in rotation so I don't have to spend too much time prepping and will add new dishes every now and then.

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I only use recipes for baking: me+ flour+ sugar + heat= not a pretty thing without direction in spite of decades of "practice"--just no talent.

But geez, nuthin' like a hot grill cheese and tomato soup for dinner on a cold winter night...or a fresh tomato & mayo sandwich with fruit upon a midsummer eve. Not lazy; just preference. A well applied sandwich is as much an art as anything else ;)

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What? Do I count it as yes if it is a recipe I made up myself? Really the first time making it I didn't, and now I just kinda wing it. No then.

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Count me in with the Pro-Harlan club. I'm a decent enough cook that I rarely use recipes, but when trying something new or that requires a very precise process I'll use one. After reviewing the other comments, it seems like many of the readers are pretty good cooks who have learned what works and what doesn't and put that experience to good use without having to follow a detailed recipe all the time.

I read cookbooks to get ideas about new flavor combinations, new approaches etc. But for day-to-day cooking, I have my standby's and enough basic skills to improvise successfully (usually) with what's on hand.

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I also agree with Harlan. I consider myself a pretty good, intuitive cook. But sometimes I come up blank with an idea for dinner - or I don't want to cook the same thing I made last week and week before. So I'll hit online or my cookbooks for an idea, which I'll then run with. On the weekends or on days that I feel up to it, I might actually work through several new recipes letter for letter, before deciding whether to add them to my list of standby items or not.

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We only have basic ingredients lying around the house for the most part. When we see a recipe that we fancy, we do a variation on it based on our tastes and favorite spices.

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Put me in the sometimes/maybe/yes-no camp.

More often than not I start with a recipe for inspiration, and then jump ahead from there.

We're not sandwich for dinner people, and we're not omelet people either. We try to keep it mixed up and interesting.

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I confess, I have no confidence in my cooking skill (Hence why I read multiple cooking blogs, hoping something will rub off) so the first few times I make something, I do follow the recipe to the letter. But once I am comfortable with it, I will use the recipe as a 'refresher' to make sure I am remembering a tablespoon of spice X when it's supposed to be a teaspoon.

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Fliptrx said...

I'm a common sense cook...recipes are mostly for people that can't cook without one.

Wow! That was a rather sweeping generalization... and an insulting one as well. I can't think of anyone I know who cooks on a regular basis and doesn't occasionally use a recipe - and not because they lack "common sense". I read somewhere that most cooks can create about 40 standard dishes from memory. If that statement is true, then that means all the other information must come from somewhere - and you know what? I am betting they use recipes.

I use recipes for two reasons - the first is for reference. I have been making the same chocolate chip cookie recipe for 20 years, but I still pull the ingredient list out to make sure I do not forget the proportions of the ingredients. They are not something I make everyday, and as I get older, I find it helps to look at the recipe to refresh my memory.

The second is as a learning tool. Some types of cooking are not "common sense". Some are complex chemical reactions that require a specific set of ingredients combined in a specific way. Other recipes use ingredients in new and interesting ways or come from a culture that I have previously never had any hands-on experience with. In those instances, I have no shame in saying that I will get out a cookbook and look up the recipe.I like being good at what I do and never feared looking like I lacked "common sense" for admitting that I don't "know it all".

so my question for you, Fliptrx: Do you just cook the same dishes over and over? Or are you a self deluded fibber or a "know it all"?

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Yep, I'm jumping on the Harlan train. You can't learn new things if you don't try recipes at least every once in a while. Even if you don't follow it to the letter, sometimes a new recipe is a great inspiration. I get tired of eating the same things all the time.

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