One of my favourite cooking quotes is, “Don’t ever let a recipe tell you how much garlic to put in. You measure that with your heart.”

I come from a family where recipes are impossible to follow.

Asking my mom how much of a spice to add, she shakes an imaginary spice bottle in a circle saying, “Go twice around the pot.”

My sister is cooking a recipe while on the phone helping our cousin’s wife cook the same recipe (and my sister is measuring for the first time to help): ‘Put a teaspoon (of a spice) in.’ Then once she adds the teaspoon herself, “No, that’s not enough, put another teaspoon in.”

My grandmother in her Guyanese accent, “Ya put a pinch a dis, a dash a dat” Or, “Cut-up some onion and mix it up with da same amount a garlic.”

“How much exactly?”

“Da same amount, not too much, not too little.”

As a result, I never follow a recipe:

A teaspoon of garlic? That can’t be enough!

A pinch of black pepper? Do you mean per serving?

Parsley? And no cilantro, that has to be a mistake!

Why isn’t there ginger in this recipe?

Hoisin sauce would make this rice stir fry recipe so much better.

Ground beef? I think I’ll just cut open a couple spicy Italian sausages and use use them instead.

I don’t really like to cook, but when I do, I don’t measure anything exactly as a recipe says. I don’t stick to the ‘suggested’ items list. I choose and measure items with my heart and soul.

My brother-in-law gave me some advice once, he said, “Follow a recipe exactly as suggested the first time, there’s a reason that exact recipe made it into the cookbook. Then if you don’t like it, change it up.”

Great advice… I just can’t follow it, and I blame my family! 😜