I already shared my "tuna barcarole" monstrosity and my sort of sweet & sour chicken livers w/bacon. Here's another of my crazy early recipes.

Refried pinto beans with ground cumin, coriander and of all things--turmeric. It was the dominant flavor (oy)! I put practically more jack cheese in it than beans, and served at first with brown rice and later with hand-made corn tortillas, a thin tomato sauce made of contadina plain tomato sauce and canned green chilies, and cole slaw with pineapple tidbits, raisins, and celery seed. And I thought it was an awesome dinner at the time. It certainly was filling in my hungry 20s.

One of the more "normal" meals I made in my early days was baked chicken quarters with sides of kasha varnishkas (buckwheat groats cooked with bowtie noodles, mushrooms and onions--I followed the recipe on the box of Wolff's buckwheat groats) and frozen winter squash--later replaced by fixing butternut squash from scratch. What can I say--I read I should eat more whole grains and less processed food--and I loved this, especially the chicken fat in the buckwheat groats. Another "normal" meal was pan-fried burgers with mashed potatoes and brussels sprouts. Except that I didn;t peel the potatoes so they were full of tasty/annoying goodness, and very gluey coz I cooked them in a pressure cooker.

I didn't grow up eating any of this stuff. I've just used cooking as an outlet for creativity--and (more than) a touch of craziness.