All Flavors Bow Before Me!

When it comes to written recipes, I have a lot of approaches. If it's something I've never done, or I'm trying to replicate something I've had and loved, I'll stick to the recipe verbatim.

If it's a recipe I'm familiar with, have had before, or I don't have the necessary ingredients, then my creative switch turns on. One of the useful skills my mom passed down was how to do conversions and substitutions in the kitchen. It also helps I have a pretty keen imagination and sense for complimenting flavors. I kind of love tweaking recipes; it makes me feel kind of powerful, like Loki.
"I manipulate your flavors! Kneel, you unworthy dish!!"

Husband loves when I modify recipes to be more spicy, whether with flavors or heat. Once I find something we like, I rewrite the recipe on a fresh card so I can replicate that in the future. Right now I have a couple spiral notebooks with scribbles from each time I attempt a recipe. It's a little tedious, trying to pay attention to my proportions, but the payoff is so very worth it.

Meatloaf is one of a handful of recipes that I never measure for, and always comes out different. Husband calls it Russian Roulette dinner. We have yet to make a bad loaf, but some come out distinctly better than others. Another recipe that obviously is never the same twice is Mom's Leftover Casserole since it's usually a direct result of Russian Roulette Meatloaf.

I have to say, This Fuckin' Kitchen requires a small degree of skills and technical knowledge with all this free styling going on. If I wasn't good at it, Husband wouldn't be nearly as healthy as he is!!