You know, I actually like to cook. I’d say I’m pretty good at it. I got a few staples my spouse likes to ask of me regularly, and I like to try out new methods and inspirations. My spouse’s the real explorer, always finding new recipes and different dishes to try out. And whenever we do, I can’t help but think of ways to change these new recipes up. Not to make them better, but to make them different. I get these inspirations of flavors and textures that, I would think, would make this new recipe something interesting, something different. Again, not better.

Trying out one recipe somehow reminds me of an experience with another. And wouldn’t it be great if those two could work together to make my own weird creations?

See, I don’t actually cook using recipes, not really. Foundational, sure, I get all the base ingredients and know not to break the spaghetti. But I never measure anything, never cut to size or do it exactly so it’s looking like the picture in the end. Cause it doesn’t have to. I got that from my mother. A pinch of this, a bit of that. Search your feelings, trust your tastes. It’s just how we do things. Cooking is as much an art as it a science. Unlike baking. I don’t bake, because it requires me to learn measuring units. But cooking, that’s a sweep of a brush across colorful canvas. There are these rules and concepts and traditions, and they’re all great, they make for good food and consistent success. But once you get that, once you understand what makes things great–even if just by instinct–you go from making food to cooking your own meal.

Put a pinch of yourself in every recipe you find. Try something. Be inspired to take a flavor and texture from one dish and add to another. Mix it up. Create something new. And trust the process.

This post is about homebrewing in a TTRPG.