The 'Whatever' Approach Is What I Do Best

Most foods in our house suffered an identity crisis. After reading up on applesauce's baking benefits, Mom made brownies that were oil-less, always with a hint of Mott's. Because of my dad's feelings about creamy dressings, our "Caesar" salads were dressed balsamically instead of with the iconic Parmesan kind. He considered any mayonnaise or mayolike substance to be inedible; for a long time I just assumed Caesar meant a salad with croutons. Nothing ever tasted or looked bad -- it just wasn't normal.

My mom's favorite unconventional kitchen moment involved her first attempt at latkes. An Irish Catholic girl through and through, she boldly volunteered to produce the Jewish potato pancakes for her soon-to-be in-laws' Hanukkah dinner. She consolidated five recipe concepts from Los Angeles Times newspaper clippings saved during the time she and my father had dated.

Sprinkled with paprika and lemon juice, the end result combined the flavors and techniques she preferred. The spuds were grated by hand, not in a food processor. The resulting crisp disks, golden brown and flat, were perfectly misshapen: her style and, conveniently, per latke tradition. "Your grandpa said they were the best he's ever tasted," she has been reminding me ever since.

Following recipes to the letter was basically taboo, and I'm convinced that an inherited culinary spontaneity affected my liberal arts degree. Creative writing and esoteric theology courses defined my schedule. In the kitchen, without any pressure to stick to ingredients or steps, I deconstruct and reinvent dishes until they hardly resemble their prototypes.

Here are three of my favorite improvised meals, given the stash of items I usually have on hand:

* Cobb salads hit the spot, but in my opinion they have always needed a facelift. Or maybe I've just never had all the right ingredients. Ditching the pile-of-chopped-leafy-greens look, my recent version resembled a tortoise trapped inside an avocado shell. Shrimp replaced the usual chicken or turkey breast, and there wasn't a hard-cooked egg in sight. Hardly a Cobb, or even a salad at this point, should it still be considered one? Sure. It's mine.

* Chicken Marsala, an Italian-American dish with red wine sauce and mushrooms, probably doesn't garner buzz among my kind because, really, how many single cooks keep a bottle of Marsala on hand? Merlot can do the honors instead. My instant Marsala makeover, minus the Marsala, has an added portobello mushroom. Its saucer-size cap makes a nice single portion, replacing generic, pre-sliced mushrooms.

* Because sausage is a bigger deal to me than bacon, and cabbage is just plain delicious, marrying the two made perfect sense. I doctored the combo with a mustard vinaigrette and grilled peppers. The flavor approximates that of a hot bratwurst at a baseball game, but bun-less; what would I call that? Delicious.

Not all of my recipe impulses have been genius, to be sure. But at the end of the day, I always have my backup plan: omelet-ification.

Erin Zimmer is a new-media analyst and frequent food blogger for SeriousEats.com. Do you have Cooking for One questions? Send an e-mail to food@washpost.com.