Welcome to the community! Glad you found a suitable place for what you wanted, this place is great for random things like this :D

I hear you on the way you prepare food! My wife and I often do the same thing with cooking; figure out what weird combination tastes good and just go with it! It’s made the food we eat very interesting because it’s all over the place haha. Some dishes are great while others are terrible lol. I found the line you said if it doesn’t make you throw up, it’s good! That’s quite right haha.

Some people have the personality of always following the rules and it’s engrained into them on many levels, so I wouldn’t worry about your friend and their insistence on following directions. They can’t understand how someone does things by feel or other the way you do and likely won’t be able to so don’t let yourself get upset over that silly mindset of theirs. Keep doing what you enjoy with food!