Risotto is my go-to recipe when I am feeling medium lazy. Too lazy to make something new, but not that lazy that I will eat a PB&J while standing in the kitchen in my PJ's watching re-runs of Girls.
Because his family is a true-to-the-bone pancake family, I really wanted him to share with me the secrets to making a good pancake, thin and delicate, perfectly browned on the outside, soft on the inside. He gave me a recipe, one that he has memorized. A set of very specific instructions, the right temp, the right amount of time for frying. I followed it to a tee, and sure enough, the pancakes came out the way I had always dreamed they would.