I've never used a recipe for chile stews, chili or any such variations. I'm going to credit my friends' parents and grandparents and all the great home cooking NM restaurants growing up, because my mom was never an intuitive cook, and my versions in no way resemble the recipes she made. Also, I AM a pretty good intuitive cook. Not like competing on a cooking show or anything, but when I want to achieve a certain result, I usually know how to go about it, be it chile/chili or something else. It's chemistry! Always was my favorite lab.

Baking, I need a base recipe, but I like to play with flavors within that.

I like cooking and baking, but neither to the ends of eating, primarily. When I'm in the mood, I'm in a flurry and it's fun, but I don't do either to plan meals or anything. Which is why I subsist off mostly salad.

Why does H&R Block's website have a "it's been a while since you visited us!" security question after the password? Don't most people only log in to do their taxes once a year?

Because people have been filing someone else's taxes to get the refunds? Maybe? Dunno.

I danced a bunch this weekend. But not as much as I feel like I should have been able to dance. I've been feeling tired and sleepy and sore all weekend and can't figure out if I'm old, if I am getting sick, or if I should blame the diet, or maybe the ice cream I ate that most def wasn't part of the diet. Or if I just have unrealistic expectations of how much I can dance in one weekend. But I don't think so.

Plei, much -ma to you! HAH -- Buffistas be needin' ALL the house-ma right now!

I don't use a recipe for chili. I use whole tomatoes, squished with my clean hands, chopped onions, a combo of hot and mild beans, and kidney beans, garlic, lots of chili powder, hot chili powder, paprika, celery salt, a touch of cinnamon, and if it's in the house, some shavings of bitter baking chocolate.

I use a recipe for chili, in the sense of guidelines. I mean, I know it's 3 cans of beans, 2 cans of tomatoes, fake meat, and spices. Does that count as a recipe? I can't un-learn those amounts just so I can say, "Oh, I don't use a recipe!" I don't use a literal, written-down list of ingredients with measurements, if that's the definition.

...now I'm puzzling this over in my wee brain: where's the line between "guidelines" and a "recipe"?

t /overthinking it since 1971

Goddammit. Blood sugar before dinner was 59. Took five gluclose tablets, full meal, 2 gramham crackers and a bowl of shredded wheat. Only 62. Not going to eat more. Know from experience that sometimes my blood sugar just takes time to recover and it probably already will shoot up to 172 or 182 from what I have eaten. I worked out about five minutes longer than I usually do and had the same diet. I was unusually hungry after lunch and I guess I ignored it while I was writing. But goddamn. I already take four blood or five blood sugar readings a day. Do I have to start doing what some Type I diabetics do, and take a reading every two hours?

where's the line between "guidelines" and a "recipe"?

You've got a Pirate Code for chili.

I use whole tomatoes, squished with my clean hands,

The best part of making chili.

don't actually enjoy the process of cooking all that much

I definitely do. I get this, though. I don't enjoy the process of cleaning. Or grading. Or, perhaps less obviously, doing crafty things.

where's the line between "guidelines" and a "recipe"?

You've got a Pirate Code for chili.

I feel pretty good about that. Yarrrr.

I would say I "use a recipe" if I look at a piece of paper (regardless of how closely I actually follow it...) .

Good luck, Strix and Plei! It does seem like we should be able to swap stuff more within this community...