A Guide to Freeform Cooking

I am not good at following directions. A shoutout to all my teachers and coaches who put up with me over the years as my eyes glazed and my mind wandered when they were giving instructions. That is part of the reason why this is not a baking blog and why I run away from baking (which requires precise measurements and attention to detail). Most of the recipes I wrote down on this page were created through inspiration from other pages, and sometimes just from whatever I had in the fridge. If you like rules, then I hope I made them easy to follow. But I also hope you will take liberty and adjust these as you see fit.

What does that mean? If a soup calls for spinach, like my Italian Wedding soup, feel free to use another leafy green that you have on hand—like arugula. Generally the goal is to match the consistency, so you’d want to think twice before swapping kale in for spinach, for example. Or if you prefer a certain cut of fish for Fish Chowder, then you do you.

I’m also not great with measurements. A lot of my recipes have an “adjust to taste” model. Part of the reason is that I over-salt, over-spice, and over-season my foods. Sorry not sorry. I rarely measure out fresh herbs so I hope you’ll adjust those as you see fit as well.

Lastly, vegetable prep takes work. Sometimes I enjoy the labor behind prepping everything. When I have the time, I like to turn on a little music, pour a lotta wine, and let the methodical process of slicing and dicing soothe me. Other times, I want an easy meal to whip up on a weeknight in 30 minutes or less. For the recipes on this page, I have splurged on the fresher ingredients because I want to make a good showing. That’s why I’ll get fresh ears of corn and fresh produce. But I also encourage you to get canned or frozen goods or pre-chopped vegetables if you hate prep work or want to save time. I’m a big sucker for Trader Joe’s Mirepoix, which is a great starter pack for almost any soup.