Perhaps because I am always trying to learn new technique and its unique result, I do use books, and articles from the San Francisco Chronicle (the best food section in the country hands down), but what I cook is not something I've tried before. I cook "alone" when I do something that is a staple home meal with which I don't have to stay to the original recipe. My own feeling is too many cooks tamper with ingredients before they know a recipe in its presented format. I am sometimes shocked by some cooks who say they've done it with an ingredient or technique than the recipe without knowing how it should be first. I like the idea of learning the "classic" version of a dish, and I think that's because I learned to cook straight from Julia Child's MASTERING THE ART OF FRENCH COOKING. I had many sets of her 2 volume set, usually from wear, loan, or needing them when I don't have them at hand. I moved to the Bay area in 1969 to go to graduate school but I couldn't even boil water. I spent weekends and other days cooking through Vol I. Ten years later, I had my own restaurant. I never stopped referring to those volumes when stuck with a problem. Today I rely on JOY OF COOKING, Deborah Madison's VEGETARIAN COOKING FOR EVERYONE and her many other books, Marcella Hazan's various Italian cookbooks, and the newly re-released LA BONNE CUISINE DE MADAME SAINT-ANGE, the French version of JOY OF COOKING.