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This summer I have found myself several times taking bits and pieces of different recipes from different cookbooks and adding them all together because I can't find a recipe for exactly what I have in mind but I can find parts here and parts there.  This past weekend I made a luscious pear rhubarb pie with a hazelnut crumb topping using recipes from 5 pie cookbooks.  Don't try searching for it in the EYB recipe library because it won't be there.  I had lots of pears to use up from my pear tree and an entire Saturday afternoon to play around with this pie that I was taking to a friend's house for dinner.  I really didn't intend to make a "Frankenstein" pie when I started looking through all my pie cookbooks for an interesting pear pie recipe. First I found a lovely pear rhubarb custard pie with cardamom in "Pie It Forward" by Gesine Bullock-Prado.  I loved the idea of the pear rhubarb combination but I didn't want to do the custard and have found her pie crust recipe too fussy with the sweetened condensed milk she calls for in her crust.  So I kept looking and found just one other pear rhubarb pie in my old "Farm Journal's Complete Pie Cookbook."  I used their proportions of fruit but Gesine's idea of pairing the fruit with cardamom.  While searching I had seen an interesting hazelnut crumb topping in "Pie: 300 Tried-and-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie" by Ken Haedrich so I used it instead of a top crust and substituted more cardamom for the cinnamon he called for.  The bottom pie crust came from "Tarts with Tops On" by Tamasin Day-Lewis.  I have had great success with her tart crust recipe and wanted to try her pie crust recipe as well.  To top it all off I pulled out "James McNair's Pie Cookbook" and followed his very complete instructions on how to make a braided pie crust edge.  I have always wanted to try that pie crust edge and this seemed like the perfect time.  It really wasn't that hard and really stepped up the appearance of my pie a notch.  The final pie was not only lovely but the flavor was fabulous! Everyone who tasted it loved it.  I will now have to write down where I got all the bits and pieces of recipes to make this a permanent recipe.  I also realized it would be impossible to leave a note about this wonderful pie in the normal way.  This was a really fun project and the most involved of the "Frankenstein" recipes I have done so far but I wouldn't hesitate to do something like this again. How many other EYB cooks combine parts of several recipes to get just the taste they want in a dish?

All the time!

I find the most usual thing for me to do is read 10 recipes for risotto or something and then put all the books away and make something inspired by all of them but not exactly any of them.

LOL - I thought you were referring to Aretha Frankenstein recipes.  Love her waffles.

LOL. May be she deserves to have her name changed to Frankenstein after her rude behavior to the Pope.

Her waffle of insane greatness is indeed very good. My go to for impromtu waffle graving. But if you plan ahead, I like Marion Cunningham's yeasted waffle.

I have to try the yeasted waffles.  I just recently replaced my 40 year old waffle maker with a new one and it certainly makes more crisp on the outside waffles and it's a pleasure to use.