The way in which you first use a recipe isn't always the way you end up with.

You might, for instance, start with an exact replication of the recipe as given in the source. Or you might start with one or two kinds of changes and then decide you want to change back or make even more changes. Some changes might be major, others just little tweaks.

Examples:

smaller or bigger

healthier

easier

faster

both easier and faster

cheaper

tastier (i.e. to your personal taste)

When you sum up all the changes you've made, you may find that you have a whole new recipe. You didn't set out to invent a new dish, you just drifted there.

Judy Rodgers: The Zuni Cafe Cookbook

Sally Schneider: The Improvisational Cook

I remember serving my friend Mopsie a superb potato salad that I had evolved from my grandmother's recipe.

Grandma's potato salad was an orthodox German affair:

white-fleshed boiling potatoes boiled, then peeled and semi-mashed

chopped raw yellow onion, celery and curly parsley

crisp-cooked bacon and bacon grease

cider vinegar

salt

black pepper

Through many iterations, I had developed an Italianate version:

very small white-fleshed boiling potatoes simmered, unpeeled, and left whole

chopped and browned garlic, frying peppers, and flat-leaf parsley

dried oregano

seeded black Kalamata olives

cooked fennel sausage and olive oil

red wine vinegar

salt

black pepper

(I also continued to make my grandma's version, as I do to this day. The Italianate recipe has dropped out of my repertoire for some reason, but now that I'm thinking about it I intend to revive it this week.)

Several years later, Mopsie served me a potato salad:

medium-sized gold-fleshed all-purpose potatoes unpeeled and cut into eighths, simmered in a mixture of broth and white wine

slivers of raw red onion

strips of roasted red bell peppers and cooked spinach

quartered big green olives

sour cream lightened with a little heavy cream

lemon juice and lemon zest

salt

paprika and black pepper

When I exclaimed over its scrumptiousness, Mopsie did a double-take. "But it's your recipe," she said. "I've been making it for years."

(Come to think of it, I haven't made Mopsie's version in years, either. I'll have to fit it into the next couple of weeks as well.)