My mother will freely admit that she did not teach me to cook. She will also add that she was unable to teach me to do anything! I like to go to restaurants and enjoy a wonderful meal, then go home and try and re-create it. I no longer set off the smoke detectors while cooking. I have to really make myself follow instructions. This sounds counter-intuitive but if I don't, then I can get off base pretty quickly and we're ordering pizza. Recently I have started allowing myself to tweak recipes but I still try to have some restraint.