Recipe or Feel?

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I just finished having a conversation with a male friend of mine and during the conversation we started talking about cooking. He was mentioning some of the different reasons that each of the sexes cook. Among the reasons he thought was that many times a women will cook because she is the main chef of the family and it is just something she does almost every day whereas many times a man is not the main chef of the household and does it for different reasons. I thought it was a good point that he made and I have to say that I agree with him. But as the conversation went on he was mentioning that he thought probably everyone could cook if they would read a recipe and understand it before they begin cooking the meal and of course there is also an element of a "feel" for cooking. At that point I mentioned to him that I could not cook with a recipe because every time that I do I mess up the meal entirely! While it is true that I may glance through books once in a while to get an idea of something new to cook, you will never see me put the recipe on the kitchen sink and begin following it! How about you? When you cook do you use a recipe as a general rule or are you like me and just go in the kitchen and start putting things together that you feel should go together and turn out a meal?