I have a confession to make. I hardly ever exactly follow a written recipe. Instead, I use them as a guide and think, “How can I make it better?” It drives my husband crazy. He will love something I did and tell me to write it down. He knows the next time he asks for it; I will have no idea how to make it because I made it up as I went along!
It’s not that I don’t trust recipes. Recipes on websites and in cookbooks have been tested and re-tested to make sure they turn out and taste great. The recipes at eatbetteramerica.com are no exception. I just have particular tastes, like certain ingredients and enjoy adding my own flavor.
The other thing that shocks my husband is that I make new recipes, without following directions or ingredients, for guests or to take to a potluck. He thinks this is gutsy because I have no idea if a dish I tinker with is going to taste fabulous or flop.
Am I the only one who does this? Have you ever had to order pizza for company because your recipe inventions turned out horribly? Luckily this has not happened to me … yet. But if you are also a recipe tinkerer, leave me a comment and let me know what your experience is.
Have you tried variations of the recipes here at eatbetteramerica.com? Leave me a comment and tell me what you did differently and if it turned out well, or if your version flopped.
Here’s an example of how I would make a dish on the site my own. The recipe for Healthified Mediterranean-Style Chicken and Pasta looks fabulous as is, but I love artichokes with feta and Greek olives. I would simply open a can of sliced artichokes and add it to the recipe.
If you have a recipe but want to give it your own individual spin, you don’t have to change it drastically. Look at it and think about how you can make it fit your tastes. Once you learn to do this well, you’ll search for more and more recipes to play with. And, you’ll discover how fun it is to invent in the kitchen.
