Do I Have to Follow a Recipe when Cooking?

I don't do recipes.

It's true.   I don't.   I hate recipes when doing any kind of cooking other than baking. (Baking is special.  It's like chemistry and if certain ingredients aren't combined in the right allotment, bread doesn't rise, cookies turn hard, etc.)

I cook by smell with a gigantic dash of trial and error added in.

Sometimes this means I mess up.   Sometimes it means I have to eat some really nasty concoctions.  You've already read of me doing the first because of my trial and error with the green smoothies.   But its how I know how to cook.   For me, recipes bungle things up more often than not.

If you want to get what you cook perfect every single time?   Yes, you have to follow the recipe.  It will turn out the same every time if you do and thats what some people want.

Me?  I want it to turn out in a way that smells and, therefore, tastes 100% perfect each time.  And since our sense of smell and taste changes from day to day dependent on a myriad of factors (health, season, what we've ate or drank, even if a woman is on her menses) that means winging it more often than not.

So.... no.   You don't -have- to follow a recipe.   Not for green smoothies or for cooking supper either.  Just be aware of what you're putting in the pot.... and follow your nose.