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I can make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and cereal and milk without consulting a recipe. That is about it. I would like to get more confident with cooking without recipes...kind of just making it up as I go along.

I have the Angel Food Cake recipe from The Joy of Cooking memorized, I make it so often.

I have memorized the recipe for homemade spaghetti sauce - it's so easy and delicious, I rarely use jarred - only in case of emergency. This is a recipe my mother taught me and my sister to make when she went back to work when we were in middle and high school. We could make it when we got home and have dinner later after she and my father got home. It's quick, and it's actually from a clow-cooker cookbook from the 70's - although we've never made it in a slow cooker.

Spaghetti sauce
1 lb ground beef (I do not do this - instead I add 2 tbsp olive oil)
1 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
Cook these ingredients over medium heat until onions are translucent.
Then add:
12 oz. tomato paste
8 oz. tomato sauce
1 qt canned tomatoes (my dad cans his own, but you can buy any size between 28 and 32 oz)
1 cup beef bouillon or stock
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp parsley
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

That's it- simmer for as little as 20 minutes or as long as 2 hours. I think the slow cooker cookbook says low for 6 to 8 hours. YUM!

Chocolate Sauce Royale.

Ten-Minute Chili (adapted to take a little longer, but not much).

Marinated fresh mozzarella.

Chickpea "salad" with lemon and garlic.

And just last night I had to make chicken parmesan for the first time, so I looked up a bunch of recipes online, got the gist of them, and then forgot to bring home the printouts. I went ahead and made it anyway, and it was a hit.

Oh, and balsamic vinaigrette.

Cinnamon broiled chicken thighs. It's an Everyday Food recipe that basically consists of sprinkling a
black pepper/salt/cinnamon mixture on top of the skin and broiling for 20 minutes. I serve it with apricot-curry couscous, which I can also wing. It's my only "all in my head" dinner.

I've committed chili--any kind of chili, hummus, broccoli cheese soup, broccoli casserole, some sturdy Brussels sprouts recipes (my go-to veg this past winter), simple curry from scratch, scones and cream scones from the Joy of Cooking, creme brulee, braised lamb shanks (lamb--my favorite meat!), a handful of my mom's Filipino standrards (lumpia, adobo, arroz caldo, fried rice, pancit), the three standard ganache recipes (pourable, spreadable, truffable ;) ), couscous curry salad ... those are my most favorite big recipes, off the top of my head. And they really are all easy!

I have dozens of dishes memorized, but I'm not sure I could write down exact measurements for any of them.

There are a few recipes I know exactly: Rum Chocolate Mousse from "The Joy of Cooking", my pancake recipe, chicken-apple sausage, and perhaps a few others. Otherwise, I have to get out the cookbooks.

Maple-mustard vinaigrette, my favorite hearty pancakes, Hoppin' John... and I can stir-fry and make Japanese curry without a recipe, but that doesn't really count as "memorizing."

Mostly the basics that can be varied depending on current pantry contents.... The ratios for any vinaigrette. Hummus, roasted potatoes, meat sauce for spaghetti, etc.

I have memorized several recipes.

• A wonderfully creamy Vodka Pasta

• A yummy Parmesan Encrusted Chicken with Basil and Tomatoes.

• Pork Katsu with steamed rice and sweet and sour sauce.

Yum i'm hungry now :)

pizza dough! And vodka paralyzers.

The basics like stir fry, mac and cheese, various pasta/veg combos.

I thought I would post my spaghetti sauce recipe, too. I like the one above, but this one is simpler if you only have 15 minutes and not a lot of ingredients. Note that the measurements are approximations.

Saute a couple of cloves garlic in a tablespoon or two olive oil (don't let the garlic brown). Add a tablespoon or so tomato paste (double-strength, from a tube) and stir to mix.

Add a can of diced tomatoes, or whole tomatoes that have been whizzed in the processor. Add salt and sugar to taste. Cook for 10-20 minutes. Turn off heat and add some basil.

Oven baked brown rice, peanut chili, pudding. I think those are the only more complicated or exact recipes I have memorized. I do a lot of other more random cooking, like veggie chili and tomato sauce.

I don't cook from recipes, so much as from guidelines, but having said that, I can cook any of these without really thinking about them: chicken (or pork or even fish) piccata with pasta; stir fry (any assortment of meat/veg & rice/noodle accompaniment); sauteed meat or poultry with pan sauces; oven-roasted garlic sweet potato "fries"; caprese salad; chicken cacciatore; peanut butter cookies; "Irish" bread (family recipe, in no way resembles actual Irish soda bread)

Chili, but only because I know the basics. I change it up almost every time I make it depending on how I feel and what I have on hand. It's on of my favorite things to make.

I also have an awesome recipe for Kahlua peaches which is a great summer side dish.

the ratios for most cupcakes/cookies. lots of stir fries, any sort of basic sauce/stock

For most cooking, I don't follow a recipe anyways. For baking, I have bread and banana muffins memorised.

I don't think the secret to good cooking is memorizing recipes -- it's learning a few basic techniques, and then applying those to your ingredients at hand. If you learn the basics of egg chemistry, you can create anything from a souffle to crepes. Learn the rudiments of incorporating fat into flour and you've learned cookies, pie dough, and gravy. Put those two together with some sugar knowledge, and you know cakes.

Cookbooks are really just eye-candy for those of us who love food and cooking. Of course I too own a mountain of them (they're fun!) but I could know everything I need to from just four: Larousse "Gastronomique", Jacques Pepin's "La Technique" and "La Methode", and Michael Ruhlman's "Elements of Cooking".

My friend's 86-year-old mother cooks constantly, every day, and totally enjoys it. But when she makes anything, even just pancakes, she pulls out an old recipe card and clips it above the stove. To me that's just sad -- it means that in 65 years of cooking, she hasn't really learned anything.

There is a veggie side of shredded zucchini and carrots cooked with balsamic vinegar and lemon juice that is my default vegetable when I am short on time or creativity. It's really good and definitely committed to memory.

And I'm a little embarrassed to say that I've made the "Gâteau au chocolat fondant de Nathalie" cake from Orangette so many times in the last month that I now have it memorized! http://orangette.blogspot.com/2004/08/and-then-cake-came-forth.html

Any recipe I've made in the last week is memorized but they are lost after that which doesn't matter as I tend not to repeat stuff more than 1X per year. (Being single I have lots of leftovers so its not appealing to remake stuff, its usually in the freezer for a while)

chocolate chip cookies, banana bread, and pesto.

Echoing the "Things I can cook with my brain turned most of the way off" of previous commentors: Risotto, absorption pasta, various stews and one-pot type meals. I had no-knead bread down pat last year but I'm out of practice so I'd have to refresh.

I don't have any recipes memorized, but I have kind of a repertoire of "things I make". Bean based hearty soups and chilis, rice based soups, slow cooked meats, grilled or roasted veggies and meats, couscous and rice a bunch of ways, baked or broiled fish, meals that involve tortillas and copious amounts of chile powder, and eggy dishes.

Shepherd's Pie, orange chicken, risotto, and dinner rolls. My memory isn't so hot!

This is one of my favorites, found in a book on vegetarianism by John Robbins, and somewhat modified over the years. Not a vegan anymore, but I love this easy recipe...

tahini spread/salad dressing.

1/4 cup Braggs Amino Acids*
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup canola oil
1/3 cup tahini

This is the base. Jazz it up with hot sauce, garlic, onion, black pepper, cayenne, etc. to your taste. (I like a little grated red onion and some hot sauce.) Mix in a blender until smooth and keep in tightly closed container.

Used as is, thick, it's great spread on toast, or thin it out with up to a 1/4 water for salad dressing.

I'm told this lasts a week in the fridge, but it's never made it that long in my house. A warning: if you take a large green salad and a jar of this salad dressing to a potluck...expect to get mobbed for the recipe.

*Braggs is unfermented soy sauce and is easiest to find at a health food store in the aisle with cooking oils and vinegars.

Committed to Memory: Pasta and Clam Sauce, Pasta and Shrimp & Mushroom Sauce, Roast Chicken w/ Lemon and thyme stuffing (and sides), the Chicken sauce portion of Chicken and Biscuts.
I always need a recipe for baking, even if I don't always follow it to the letter - if I don't use the recipe, I'm apt to leave out something important like baking powder.

Oh, and no-bake cookies, which I just learned how to make a few weeks ago from my sister:
Pretzles and or chow mein noodles and/or rice krispies
Peanuts
Peanut Butter
White Chocolate Chips

Melt chocolate chips (microwave works), stir in a spoonful of peanut butter, dump in everything else and stir to coat everything w/ chocolate mixture. Put globs of the mixture on baking sheet lined with parchment paper and refridgerate until they have solidified - atleast 15 min.
No measurements for this, so you can make 3 cookies or 30. I love it b/c it's an easy way to fulfil my cravings for sweets without pigging out tooo much.
I think a variation of this was used to make those easter "birds-nest" cookies - filled w/ chocoalte eggs - when I was in Kindergarten.

Grilled Chicken Salad

I was briefly a cook at a restaurant. I worked the salad station and the only dish I remember exactly how to make was the Grilled Chicken Salad.

Ingredients
grilled chicken breasts (cut into bite sized pieces)
red onion
scallions
artichoke hearts
grainy mustard
salt and pepper to taste
aioli
egg yolks
garlic
lemon juice
salt and pepper
olive oil

We served it with toast points (baguettes sliced and brushed with melted butter and then toasted in the oven) and fresh fruit (grapes, apples, oranges, etc...).

ingredients listed after aioli are what we used to make the aioli.

vegetables in red curry (yum!)

Chinese longevity peach buns (with red bean paste inside). I'm not chinese, but I had these at a local restaurant and loved them. Now I make them every weekend and re-steam them for breakfast Monday-Thursday. They are easy and really cheap. And Yummy!

I also make great salsa, pasta sauce, guacamole, and tons of creative veggie recipes. Mostly I just pull out a bunch of yummy ingredients and wing it, I'm not really one for recipes.

cooking is so much easier to just eye it. Baking is the hard part! I only have my grandma's poundcake down in that department:

greased round tube cake pan

don't preheat oven!

cream together:
2 sticks of butter softened (promise sticks work great too)
3 cups sugar
6 eggs

gradually add 3 cups all purpose flour (sifted or not)
1 cup whole milk or heavy cream
splashes of vanilla, lemon, rum, coconut and almond extracts (or any combination of those 5)

You can also lightly flour a cup of chopped nuts and fold in or sprinkle on top. It's a really versatile recipe. Black walnuts are a treat.

Bake in a 325 oven for 1hr 15 min or until skewer comes out clean.