I’ve always enjoyed trying different recipes. I was always afraid to venture off and change anything about them, because I was afraid it wouldn’t come out right. Somewhere along the line, I became a little adventurous, because I began to think about how if I would just change this or that in a recipe, it would taste better. To me, at least. And that’s when I remembered watching a cooking show many years ago which featured the late Cajun cook, Justin Wilson. He would say that you add certain ingredients ‘to taste”. As he generously added hot sauce to his dishes, he made the comment: “Whose taste? Myyyyy taste!”

So, there you have it. When you are adding things that YOU like to a recipe, you can’t go wrong! OK, well, there are certain things you have to be careful about. Baking a cake, for instance. You do need to be careful with the whole flour, baking powder, eggs, thing, etc, because you do want it to bake properly and still be a cake in the end. If you are going to substitute an ingredient, make sure you research how much of something equals to the item you want to substitute. But feel free to add raisins, nuts, chocolate – whatever your heart desires – and make it your own! When it come to main dishes – spice it up or tone it down. Hey, you could even enter recipe contests! After all, it is your own, original idea, isn’t it? Wait – why didn’t I think of that? Well, see you later. I’ve got some recipe contests to enter!