People often will laugh and scoff at the idea that is put forth in the following set of recipes. The idea of learning your spices and going by personal feel and testing, is fast becoming a lost art. However, for years, or millennium, this is how one would cook, and it needs to be taught to the next generation as well. One should never follow a recipe exactly! The idea of that is ludicrous. People should have the courage to stand up and say, "I really love cinnamon in this, I'll pour in more than the recipe calls for." Not sprinkle, but pour.
A lot of these recipes I invented myself. Some of them I modified from other recipes, and yes, some take all day, or a few days to make, but that is also a lost art in our society! Speed isn't what cooking about. A recipe may be simple, or it may be very, very complex, but all cooking should be done with care, so that the soul of the cook is put into the cooking.
Food is not just about eating, it's about making food with your soul, arranging it, and then imbuing it with your heart as you finish it, and then enjoying it. It doesn't have to be prettily arranged on the plate to be art, it has to have that tapestry of flavor, that make it art.
People often forget that food was one of the first arts created by man. It's the one thing everyone likes but can never agree on. Therefore, I'm giving in these recipes a rough estimate of my particular taste, and then you can modify the recipe as you like.
For this reason, Culinary Art is often a slighted art.