Learning to Cook 

by Rose B.

How do I still learn today? Mostly trial and error. But not much error -- unless I use an ingredient like yellow squash, I hear very few complaints. 

I've accumulated a heap of impressions about flavors, and how they combine. I can throw together something from whatever I can find. I tend to think of recipes as for people who are still learning how to cook.

I may try out a recipe, but after two or three times, I stop looking at the recipe and make my own version. With baking, it's different; I figure out the core part of the recipe, and keep the proportions pretty much intact, but I tinker with the other parts. But when I make supper or whatever, I make it up as I go along, to use ingredients I have, or perhaps to use up something that is not going to keep much longer.