Recipes are like Irish tunes in a single line of notation. Not even bare bones, but possessing a whiff of an idea. Something to build on, rebel against and stray badly from. I just get meself up into the kitchen, vaguely recall something I once read in a book, then do my own thing. I have one golden rule, which is that no one ingredient, except for the main meaty or fishy one, should EVER be the point of the thing. I do not want every mouthful of any dish to taste mostly of basil/mint/garlic/chilli/apple/onion/thyme. I want integration of flavours, team work from the ingredients. I have few rules, but just a couple are that dried basil has no place in any kitchen, that garlic should NEVER be crushed, and that, if your dish tastes herby, you've got it wrong. Another thing or two I've learned are that the microwave rarely yields decent food and that steaming most vegetables is going to give you inferior results. I'd make an exception for chopped cabbage, but nothing else. Boil your veg in water half way up the veg, always with a pinch of salt, don't overcooked them, and you'll never look back. Sod the vitamins. You'll get plenty of those anyway if you live in the West like me. Food is enjoyment, not medicinal.