"Follow the recipe"

I've been experimenting with Barefoot's recipes and through my head I hear dialogue from Pixar's movie, Ratatouille. It's the scene where Linguini and Colette are collaborating on a dish. She says, "It was his (Gusteau) job to be unexpected. It is our job to follow the recipe." I am pretty good at following the recipe... tonight I made Barefoot's sole meuniere with french green beans and it turned out well. But this mantra of "follow the recipe" is difficult to do when I am asking my mom about a Korean dish. Case in point, tonight I also made Moo Gook (radish soup) for Micah (he prefers to eat Korean). I never really tried to cook Korean, because if I wanted it I would just go home. Now that I have someone who wants Korean food, I have to learn how to make it! It contains significant amounts of calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, and vitamin B6 which not bad for a soup that's built around a humble white radish. But my mom's recipe has no measurements, no exact cooking time, and no ratios. Needless to say the soup was okay, but not great. When I called my mom later in the evening she said, "it just takes practice." Really? Riding a bike takes practice. I need a recipe to follow! Will I learn how to make a proper Moo Gook???