I often 'tweak' recipes based on our tastes and likes. For baking, I tend to follow them more closely.

As a professional chef I've learned to make a mental note of approximate measurements when I'm going ad hoc with a dish that will be shared by others. People ask for recipes frequently enough that it's a good practice.

Not all the way. I'm very picky and dislike a lot of flavors so I leave things out.

OP, I am similar to you and it drives DH nuts. He always claims that if I die unexpectedly he will starve to death. I do generally look up multie versions of a new revipe but it's generally to get the "concept" down.
I do tend to follow closer when baking except for spices... Cinnamon, etc are always eyeballed and generally at least 2x the stated amount!
It reminds me of several grandmothers and great grandmothers who left behind a bunch of recipe cards that said things like "flour+sugar+eggs, blend add other stuff 45 mins." Gee thanks Grandma!

Anonymous wrote:I rarely follow a recipe when I am cooking. I always follow it when I am baking.

This.

I may loosely follow a recipe but never to the letter. Once I know it, it's mine.

I rarely follow a recipe when I am cooking. I always follow it when I am baking.

In posting on two other threads, and from previous experience, I realized that it's hard to share recipes when you don't really use them.

I mean, I LOVE recipes and have a wonderful library of cookbooks that i enjoy nothing more than to pore over on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Ditto food blogs and websites. But when it comes to the actual cooking part, I always find myself fusing two or more similar recipes or altering this or that, even if it's the first time I've made something. This is especially problematic when friends ask for recipes, or when DH is cooking because he feels like his stuff never tastes like mine, even if he follows the recipe to a T. I've tried to explain it's because I usually only use a recipe as a guideline. The end result almost always earns positive reviews so I seem to be on the right track. Part of me feels a little guilty knowing someone spent a year perfecting the recipe that I didn't even try, but changed.

I suppose this is due to my "pinch of this, dash of that" grandmother, who coached me with a wood oven and kitchen knife long before I shouldn't yet have had access to either.

When I bake, I'm usually a little more diligent, but I'm starting to wonder if my laxness on recipes is abnormal? DH and most of my friends are "if it says one quarter teaspoon, that's what I'm adding" type of folk. I really have a hard time explaining to them how to reproduce what I've made.

So.. Any other confessed recipe bastardizers here?