Do you cook with a recipe or from memory?!

Do you cook with a recipe or from memory?

i am a recipe person i am puerto rican and can't even make rice and beans without looking at a recipe. It is a generic recipe then i add to it and make it my own but i am so stict about measuring liquids and stuff like that. Spices i go to my taste. I can't do like my gradmother "that looks like enough water for the rice'
So how do you cook from the book or the heart or a combination

If I'm cooking dinner at home, 95% of the time it's from memory. Other times, if I'm trying to make something specific, like my Italian grandmother's spaghetti sauce, I need the recipe because I want it to taste exactly like hers.

If it's anything baking wise, they don't call baking recipes "formulas" for nothing. I find that I MUST have a recipe sitting in front of me. Baking is far more precise than regular cooking. If you're a little bit off on your baking powder, suddenly your bread tastes like metal. I've gone so far as to buy an actual baker's counter-weight scale.

At school, I follow the recipes because we learn by copying our chefs. I have also made these recipes at home from memory, adding in my own little tweaks to make it my own.

But always, ALWAYS with your heart. Passion for what you're doing is by far the best ingredient. It sounds silly, but on my off days... my food never tastes as good.