<p>I must follow a recipe. Dh can whip up amazing things.
This on the heels of a not good dinner I just made. 
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<p>I feel ya, VaBluebird. I have it in my head that maybe the more recipes I follow - the better I will be at just improvising! Maybe one day… </p>
<p>Chemists are good cooks. The trouble with us is that we do not like to do it, because it bears too much resemblance to the stuff we do at work. :)</p>
<p>I won’t say “gifted”, but I know how to cook. I used to work in the restaurant industry, got interested in cooking, and learned the basic techniques in cooking different types of food from some really good (but totally NON-famous) chefs. Of course, I do use recipes for some things, just because repeatability is generally a good thing. And ALWAYS for baking!</p>
<p>I have to follow recipes but I can also improvise when I don’t have all the right ingredients. H rarely uses a recipes. </p>
<p>Now that I’m semi retired and work from home, I have time, time, time, and I’ve come to really enjoy cooking. I get pleasure from figuring out, at 5:15 PM, what we’ll have that night, and I can usually create something pretty good with what we have at hand. Tonight, I took frozen boneless chicken breasts, flattened them, cut them in thirds, rolled them in milk and flavored breadcrumbs, then browned them in oil and butter. Then, covered them with tomato sauce and grated parmesan cheese and baked them for 25 minutes. Voila: Chicken Parmesan. </p>
<p>I love entertaining and cooking for guests. I’m not the greatest cook in the world, but I really enjoy it.</p>
<p>I watch a lot of Ina Garten on the Food Channel.</p>
<p>I’m a decent cook. A good baker. I prefer not-too-complicated but delicious flavorful recipes. Sometimes use a recipe, sometimes not. </p>
<p>Now saying this comes on the heels of making grilled cheese and tomato basil soup for dinner. HOWEVER, it was not your AVERAGE grilled cheese…3 specialty cheeses inside some fresh baked ciabatta!</p>
<p>I will do it, but am NOT a fan of entertaining though. Cooking for my family is enough for me. :)</p>
<p>H is truly gifted. We have gone out to eat at a restaurant, we come home , he tries to replicate one part of the meal that he liked and it is darn close! Then freeze it. I do deserts sometimes, and clean the kitchen most times. I figure when I am retired I am taking over the fresh salads and fruits and fruit drinks part that he is not that into. He likes to cook the chicken, fish, pasta, veggie part of the meal. I can follow a recipe but H rarely does, and not completely.</p>
<p>Hubby and I both cook. I follow recipes, he does not. I like Ina and Giada and a few williams sonoma cookbooks - like the one pot cookbook and the soup cookbook. I just can’t think of these wonderful soup combos. I wonder about myself sometime, I’m like Pavlov’s dog - if I stand in front of the stove stirring something I drink a glass of wine. Pretty much just the click of the stove is going to have me pouring a glass.</p>
<p>I’m not a gifted cook. But my son is!</p>
<p>I grew up in the restaurant industry. I’ve been a line cook,a bartender, a grill chef and a sous chef. So I know technique and how to organize my mise en place. But what’s more important, I have an excellent palate… With the exception of most Asian cuisines,(i just have a European palate)I can taste something and figure out what it’s going to take to approximate the flavors. I still love to read recipe books like some people read novels.
btw----I am a mediocre baker at best. Too much chemistry involved. :-q </p>
<p>Some of us who majored in Chemistry also love to mess around in the kitchen (but I went medical and anesthesiology- more messing with chemicals). “Gifted” to me implies innate super talent. Experience has given me a lot of expertise- I know enough to evaluate and change recipes, where to cut corners, how to substitute, improve… So many recipes I look at and ignore because I already have a similar version in my repertoire.</p>
<p>My problem now is not having the audience to cook for. H is small and eats even less now. We freeze a lot for second, third…meals. Just cheated and made three kinds of cookies from Nestles ready made ones instead of the old days of making cookies from scratch this time of year. Will freeze them tomorrow, before they lose freshness.</p>
<p>btw- cooking and baking are two entirely different endeavors. One does not mess with baked goods recipes like one can with others.</p>
<p>I can be good, better than many around me. Not necessarily great these days, as I try to eat simply, and keep from getting too deeply into food prep. But I do love the challenge of a CSA box or various items in the fridge, and putting things together in creative ways. Sometimes I’ve thought I should have a B&B catering to special dietary needs, as I enjoy culinary challenges. </p>
<p>Baking, I use recipes, but though it can be fun, I don’t need that sort of food aside from rare occasions.</p>
<p>I rarely bake and use recipes when I do. I rarely follow non-baking receipes other than to get basic ideas or if I really want to imitate something specific. I consider myself an above-average cook and decent baker.</p>
<p>I consider myself a very good cook, adequate baker. Baking is so precise and I don’t like following recipes as much as I do just winging it. Once I make a new recipe for an entree, I usually don’t need to follow it again. I also believe that having the right tools at your disposal make a big difference. My oldest daughter is an excellent cook IMO. She has way better skills at her age than I did. I have taught her a lot , and she is also self taught …and likes to watch her favorites on Food Network.
My middle daughter is getting there…she is home for Christmas now and told me that her Thanksgiving dinner ( spent with BF’s family ) had canned cranberry sauce , to her horror 
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<p>I’m a terrible cook! Seriously. I hate it. </p>
<p>Loved the 23 credit hours of Chemistry I took in college. Hate cooking.</p>
<p>H can look in the pantry/fridge, pull stuff out and make a meal. I can stare at the pantry/fridge all day and think of nothing. Thankfully both D and S got the “cooking gene” from H.</p>
<p>I am a good cook and make nearly everything from scratch. I am an adequate baker. One summer my younger son and I spent a good deal of time trying to learn how to make mousse cake which requires a genoise batter. Of course we got it right the first time and thought, “What’s so hard about that?” and then every subsequent cake for the rest of the summer was rubbery and flat. So frustrating! We mostly make pies and I have one devil’s food cake recipe that is the go-to birthday cake. I don’t bake bread anymore since dh won’t eat it, but when the kids were small I made my own. I miss kneading bread, it was very soothing.</p>
<p>Except for baking, I don’t need to measure. I can eyeball cups, and measure teaspoons and tablespoons in my palm. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had everything already chopped and put out for us like they do on the cooking shows?</p>
<p>eyemamom, I do have everything chopped and put out for me. It’s just that I have to do it myself before I begin the actually cooking. ;)) </p>