I often find that the more effort I make to get things exactly right in cooking, the less tasty the result. If I make a sponge cake in a hurry and don't measure the ingredients, it's usually excellent. But if I have to make one for the church fete, and I take ages doing it properly, it's never as good. My mother was maddening, she was always slinging any old thing in a pot and it was always delicious. But she never could tell me her 'recipe' as she made it up as she went along. She often dropped a few prunes in with meat for example. Very nice!