Life and Pasta (with thanks to Mom)

My mother has a large set of cookbooks, but the only time I ever saw her use them was when she was baking. For the cooking she did on a day to day basis for us, she very rarely referred to a printed recipe. My mother likes to experiment when she cooks, and we often joked that if you liked a dish make sure to savor it, because you may never get that taste again. That's not to say my mother is a bad cook, quite the opposite in fact.
When you are baking, recipes are necessary because there is a specific desired outcome. If you want your cake to raise and not fall, you will need to use the correct ingredients. But cooking is different. Cooking is to taste. Al dente, we say when cooking pasta which means: to the tooth or to the degree that tastes right. That is the way my mother cooked. Some days she would make things spicy, other days sweet, still others might be saltier. It all depended on her mood or her taste that day.
Of course it might also depend on what ingredients were on hand. Summers were my favorite because we would have the freshest vegetables from our garden. Cucumber salads, zucchini on pasta, warm green beans, and so much more.
Her experimental cooking did not just apply to dinner. Lunches were made up of odds and ends of leftovers thrown together in a pan and heated, then topped with melted cheese. You'd be amazed at how wonderful leftover potatoes can taste when mixed with leftover veggies and topped with melted Monterey Jack cheese.
My mother's technique carried over to my brother and me both. We are never afraid to try new dishes, whether in a restuarant or our own kitchens. I have experimented with all kinds of dishes, it makes cooking easy. Sonya benefits from my experiments too. That isn't to say that she eats all my failed attempts, because really there are none. But it is nice to have someone who will taste your dish and let you know if it is worth a second lick or not.
The trick with experimental cooking is to keep in mind that not having a specific outcome means the dish can rarely fail. If you want to know what an omelet with oregano tastes like instead of parsley, throw it in and surprise yourself - you've just added a new dish to your repertoire. Because that is what life is like. If you want to try something you cannot be afraid, you just have to make it al dente.