I suspect that something similar has been suggested before, but I felt inspired, so here is my idea.
Summary
"Recipe Cards" would be player made and designed upgrades that would give the Glitch the uses it the ability to make the Recipe on the card. This would allow for custom, player-made content as well as high-level content for long-time players.
Skills needed:
At a very high level (I dunno, lvl 50, lvl 60, something like that), a Glitch is able to learn a new Alph/Lem-aligned skill: Imagineering. This skill will allow that Glitch to write and design "Recipe Cards".
At a lower level, say lvl 30 or 40, a Glich could learn the Spriggin/Tii aligned-skill Card Making, which allows that Glitch to manufacturer blank Cards out of several blank sheets of paper. Maybe 10 sheets of paper= 1 card. These cards could be then used by players with Imagineering to write Recipe Cards, or maybe also to make holiday cards or other things.
Mechanic
A high-level Glitch designs a Recipe for a new type of beverage or food (or other stuff, if the mechanic were expanded) item. Say the following:
Apple Cider (using Cocktail Shaker)
5 Apples
2 Allspice
1 Tiny Bubble
An algorithm would determine, based on the base values of the ingredients, what the energy/mood/price values of this drink would be. This high-level Glitch would then use a Quill, a Card, and small amount of IMG (based, again, on the value of the ingredients) to produce a single Recipe Card.
The Recipe Card would be trade-able and sell-able, just like the Get-out-of-Hell-free or Reshuffle cards. However, the result of using the card (which would also cost a little bit of IMG) would be that a Glitch would then gain the Recipe for Apple Cider for their Cocktail Shaker. Any Glitch could purchase this Recipe Card and gain the Recipe. However, once it is used, the Card disappears, so the high-level Glitch will have to make more, and could sell them for whatever they want.
Some sort of locking mechanic might also need to be in place to make is so that, once a recipe combination has been created, it is tied to a particular account. This I don't know how exactly it would work, but would avoid the inevitable copy-catting and "stealing" of Glitchen's designs.
Edit as suggested in the discussion:
Item Images:
Item images for the resulting food and drink items could be generated from a generic template with different, customizable colors.
For drinks, a cup like the one for Lemon Juice or Orange Juice or the icon for Cloud 11 Smoothie and Too Berry Shake and create a series of different colored versions that could be assigned to a recipe.
For food, maybe different colored take-out boxes like a Chinese take-out box or a bento box.
Or, better yet, a transparent icons with a colored slider so you can pick the perfect RBG combination.
Anyway, just a thought. Talk amongst yourselves. :)
--Grem