My magic ingredient in the kitchen is originality.  I am incapable of following a recipe without adding at least one new ingredient.  To my sister’s stroganoff shepherd’s pie, I added chopped and sauteed green pepper. To cookies and cakes, I add nuts.  To my favorite spaghetti sauce recipe, I added a dollop of red wine and chopped green olives.  It’s as though following a recipe exactly is a challenge to my creativity. It would be fun to post a recipe and ask every viewer to vary it a bit and tell me the results.  Perhaps I’ll do this!

Actually, even more fun.  I’m going to start a cumulative recipe.  I’ll start with one ingredient and ask each successive commenter to add instructions about what to do with that ingredient and then to add one more ingredient.  By the end, we should have one delicious recipe.  Are you game?  You’ll have to read my post and each comment to see what stage we are in.  Be a sport.  Participate!

My ingredient is 4 medium-sized white potatoes. The first commenter should tell me what to do to prepare them and to add one more ingredient.  The second commenter should tell how to prepare that second ingredient and add an ingredient of his/her own.  At some point along the way, cooking instructions should be added. Let’s see where this leads!  Be sure to look at comments before you add your ingredient for this will be one recipe…not a number of them.  Bon appetit!

DAILY PROMPT: Ingredients–What’s the one item in your kitchen you can’t possibly cook without? A spice, your grandma’s measuring cup, instant ramen — what’s your magic ingredient, and why?