Miss Manners: i have no recipe to give

[minoanmiss]

DEAR MISS MANNERS: Cooking is one of my passions, and I love to share my food with others. And while I love positive feedback, I am sometimes taken aback by the automatic request for a recipe as soon as someone compliments something I've made.

Unfortunately, I do not use recipes. I am an intuitive cook, who many times throws things together. I have explained several times to these people that I do not use recipes, but continue to get asked.

I am not a curmudgeon, and not trying to keep my creations' ingredients secret; I just don't have the time, energy or memory to remember everything that went into a dish. What would be a good response to the constant, "This is delicious. Recipe, please!"?

GENTLE READER: "I made it up and don't have one. But I'm flattered that you liked it so much. You'll just have to come over again and I'll try to re-create it."

Comments

[full_metal_ox]

And then there’s the local seasonal agricultural cycle—-which I’m having to relearn, having moved into a vastly different climate from the city where I’d spent 90+% of my life. Michigan-based Meijer’s annual autumn Bulk Apple special(1) ain’t happening on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Conversely, I have now had an opportunity to learn that dragonfruit, in season and grown locally, actually warrants the hype.

(1)Ohio Meijer’s stores have been known to advertise the apples as sourced from “That Place Up North”; apple season overlaps with football season, which is Serious Business in the Great Lakes area.