The only one I can think of is Brussels Sprouts. I made them for Thanksgiving once and was just about the only taker.

But changing the green vegetable at Thanksgiving was going to be sacrilege no matter what so...

Eggplant. No one in the family likes eggplant except me. I just never cook it. On occasion I might make an eggplant dish to take to a potluck, but to serve the fam, nope. I actually did sneak in an eggplant parmesan for dinner once, years ago. My DH, bless him, will eat whatever I make, so he ate it. But I knew he didn't like it. And the kids did taste it, as the rule goes in my house, no one has to eat anything they don't like but you do have to taste.

Olives. My husband doesn't like olives but that's easy because I can eat them all I want, just don't cook with them.

Meat. Ben, my younger son, has been a vegetarian for five years now. I do cook veg meals when he's home but not every night. I like meat. And so does the rest of the gang. So when I make meat, he cooks for himself. That's the agreement.

Liver. No one likes calf's liver. I make it on occasion for myself for lunch on a weekend when I get in the mood. I love it but again, no point in serving it to people who aren't going to eat it!

Since you mentioned Brussels sprouts, Kyle, yeah, that too. I've recently acquired quite a taste for those little cuties. I made them at Passover, and a few of the guests did partake. But my kids didn't like them. Ben even told me he tried TWO tastes in an attempt to like them. How cute is that! No go. I will cook them differently next time to see if that makes a difference. I think I need to use different spices next time.

OH! and squash. I sneak that in to mish-mosh type dishes in small amounts because I've been successful in hiding it. I love the stuff though. And once in a while I just make me a good ol' squash casserole and eat it all up my own self over a few days.

On the other hand, if there is something I don't like, I won't cook it. If the other members of my family want to eat something I won't cook, they can either make it themselves or order it when we eat out.

Lamb. I love it.

My dtr has been vegetarian since she was 12; I always made something different for her when she lived at home, still do when she visits now. Fortunately, I didn't grow up being forced to taste things or sit at the table till my plate was clean (funny story, John) and didn't raise my kids that way. We're all good eaters, some of us are great cooks.

That said, my son-in-law (who is a very good cook) and 7 yo granddaughter eat absolutely no vegetables or fruits of any kind, so when the 19 of us are together, my veggie dtr eats her veggie entree, my sil and 7 yo gd skip all the vegetables, the rest of us eat everything else in sight.

I swear one of my sons ate nothing but peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and oreos with milk for five years when he was a kid. He's a good cook now, and his kids seem to prefer vegetables to cookies!

I love anchovies, olives, garlic, smoked fish, exotic foods, but you won't get me near an eggplant, even though my dad was famous for his eggplant parmigiano, said to be the best anyone ever tasted....but not to me.

Which is another reason I never insisted my kids eat what i prepared. Overall, I think they get adequate nutrition from picking and choosing, and their tastes will develop (or not) over time. Some people aren't as food oriented as I am!

But, dining out and junk/fast food was not as prevalent in the 70s and 80s as it is now. I think it has gotten harder to feed kids now than it was in my day, what with all the competition. I think a lot of it is delicious, too.

I'll admit, I'm the picky eater in the family. I don't care for anything with beer or wine, I'm not a huge consumer of cheese and don't like any of the moldy ones, I don't care for lamb although I'll eat it, I hate and detest pizza and red sauce on white pasta. I love nearly all vegetables except okra and those big mealy lima beans. Chicken livers are something I really enjoy, and I cook them for myself and share them with Cooper (Ashley's dog). I don't want olives or sour pickles or very much hot stuff either, and nothing that has an icky texture, like jello.

So, how do I reconcile that? I'll make pasta, but it's whole wheat and Elery gets his red sauce but I'll have mine plain with a sprinkle of parmesan. I'll make lamb for him and fish for me. I make pizza regularly for my kids or Elery, but Cooper and I would rather eat scrambled eggs, so we do.

I grew up eating what was on my plate because we were poor enough there wasn't anything else, no second choices. My kids grew up knowing that they had to taste everything but didn't have to eat what they didn't like, and there was always a bowl of cold cereal or peanut butter. Now Elery is mostly here only on weekends so I eat what I like and he eats what he likes. On weekends we both compromise, I make things that he loves and I don't, or things that I love and he doesn't, like beef. He really doesn't care much for beef and I like it extremely rare. Plus, we both like to cook, so we take turns and it's funny, I tend to make things he loves and I don't, and he'll make things that I like but he doesn't care about, LOL, we take care of each other!

Fortuntately, there are very few things in this world that I WON'T eat (well, no jello, ever) so I keep trying, thinking I'll learn to like it. I don't, but I get used to it, except things that are too spicy. I just can't eat them, so I'll go back to the eggs and Elery gets seconds.

My girls will eat nearly anything too, although Ashley gravitates towards the mashed potato/creamed corn kind of food. Bruvver will also eat anything, and does, but the Princess is more like me, so when she's here we'll have macaroni and cheese with pizza and absolutely no vegetables at all, but I'm a Grandma so I get to do that.

Annie

It's just DH and I now and like lowspark said, "he'll eat anything". And provide wonderful feedback. Some things we only eat once.

For the most part, there aren't any love/hate things.
There are some things I eat that he doesn't (peanut butter & pickle sandwiches for one). He eats pretty hot hot sauce. I don't.

But for the main meal, I just make things we both like.

When the four kids were home, different story.
They pretty much had to eat what I cooked. At least a "No, thank you bite".

They went through stages (sometimes only a matter of days) as their tastebuds developed.

They had to take a spoonful each time to try it.

We made several meals that were "build your own" to avoid the conflicts as well. Things like burritos, pizza, chef salads, etc. If they were in "anti-tomato" stage, they didn't add any!

They were required to finish what they took (they dipped up their own meals) or go to bed. They quickly learned to take a little, then have seconds if they were still hungry, rather than load up and not be able to finish...well, except one...she still has trouble with that at 23!

Deanna

Rare beef, raw oysters, "gourmet" food such as polenta (everybody I know would consider it such anyway), most anything from other areas of the country.
Southern and main stream Americana prevail here.

No exotic cheeses such as Gorgonzola!
Suishi is just ok as long as nothing is raw.
Then there's the whole "health food" category which is equally suspicious.

In my house, it's vegetables. Any vegetables! My favorite is eggplant but of course I cannot get them to look at it even with a gun at their head! LOL

Al

Salmon! I love love love it. DH doesn't, eldest kiddo doesn't, but youngest will share a bit off my fillet. The guys would rather eat hot dogs. So when they want to eat something I find yukky, like afore mentioned tube-steaks, or frozen pizza, or pork'n beans, I sear a slab of salmon, seasoned with garlic, S&P, and rosemary. Heaven.....

Fish Sticks!!! Love'em! Everyone else .....HATE"EM!!! LOL!!!

In case you haven't see them, these are the Thousand Year eggs. I love them, family retches.

Here is a link that might be useful: Explanation here

Roquefort - Love, love, love the stuff. No one else will even look at it.

Artichokes - Not the canned or pickled ones. Most people think they are weird.

Eggs done in white sauce and served on toast - Again, friends think this is weird.

Rabbit - I don't cook it any more since we have pet rabbits in the house but if the opportunity arises away from home, I love to have it.

Lobster - It is great that the rest of the family doesn't like it since I get the whole things when hubby cooks it.

We're lucky w/ 9-yo DS. He likes snails, sashimi, haggis, escargot, smelly cheeses and other "acquired" tastes. Mostly, to try something new, we play a game and say that he "can't" have them because they're "adult food" and he'll only like them when he gets older. And then we tell him it's too expensive to feed him the "good stuff" but we're happy to get him a McDonald's burger instead (which he hates). Basically we're giggling the whole time until he begs us to let him try it. Mostly he likes it, but if he doesn't, he says, "it's not to my taste" and we tend to then discuss how tastes change over time, and he's not required to eat it.

The only thing I can think of that he still doesn't really like is raw oysters. And items like brussels sprouts and tomatoes, he now eats, but didn't at first. And we talk about how tastes change.

Some things, like haggis, I was very squeamish about, but when he tried it and liked it alot, I was willing to try as well. Now about those thousand-year-old eggs... I'm guessing DS will try them way before I will!

But from day one, we never ordered off the kids menu for him, but instead chose from appetizers. Since they're often the most creative parts of menus, he got a wide variety of foods early on.

We also talk alot about processed "food" and nutrition and real food vs junk food. He helps me do the food shopping at specialty markets and helps cook and works in the veggie garden. And we travel and eat only local foods when we do so. I think that's all part of it, learning about food and culture and how that's different from just filling your body with calories.

I'm rambling, but one of my biggest pet peeves is how so many people assume kids will only eat chicken nuggets and mac & cheese, when the reality can be so much different if you take the time to lead them step by step. It's a very different method from my parents' "you'll eat what's on your plate, no matter what".

I am blessed in a husband who will eat anything I put in front of him cheerfully and with every evidence of enjoyment. I've identified a few dishes that he isn't wild about during the course of our marriage, but nothing he flatly refuses to eat. I guess if an angel came down from heaven to tell him he could never have kim chee again he wouldn't complain, but since that's a side dish anyway, he needn't bother with it.

I am pretty much the same way...I'll eat just about any food, as long as it is well prepared of good quality ingredients. I wouldn't cross the road to eat a tuna casserole, Chinese bitter melon or pickled herring, but I would eat them if I went to someone's house and that's what they were serving.

Before I met my husband, I did date the occasional fussy eater. One guy had a list of things he simply would not eat. It was just so irritating to cook for them!

My husband never knows what sort of food he's going to have put in front of him. I incorporate a number of different ethnic cuisines in our day to day menus and bless him, he brags about my cooking to everyone.

So far in this thread, nobody has mentioned anything I don't like and eat...except for the haggis, which I have never had an opportunity to try. Can't get thousand year eggs around here, but I used to eat them, especially yummy with jook, which is a sort of rice gruel or porridge for those who don't know.

When I am cooking for guests, I cook what I like but usually have enough variety in the menu that if there is something that someone dislikes, they can just skip it and eat more of something else.

DD and I were discussing this same topic last week. She's in the U.S. Army and right now, there are a lot of soldiers sick with colds and other illnesses in her Company. She attributes it to the lack of fruits and vegetables in their diet. The Army supplies plenty of both but their childhood eating habits confine them to potatoes as their main non-protein food group so some get less vitamins than others.

I lucked out in having a husband and children who had adventurous tastes and would pretty much eat whatever I served. I really do think it's the luck of the draw whether children are picky eaters or not, although I've read that those who are breastfed are more amenable to eating a variety of foods.

In our household, there was only one meal choice but if someone didn't like part of it, they didn't have to eat it and could fill up on the parts they did like.

Everyone liked chicken livers and hearts but I was the only one who liked calves' liver so I'd make it when I was home alone or order it in a restaurant. Ditto for raw oysters for DH.

I think okra is great, and I know it's good for you, but Claudia hates it. She'll try a taste of the various recipes I try on her, and even said, "that's pretty good," on one memorable occasion--but she still sudders at the word. I just make it for myself when it's fresh from the garden. Almost all our friends hate and mock it too. As the song says, "I'm just a lonely boy, lonely and blue."
However, I delight in many shared enthusiams. Robert

ruthanna, you just hit one of the few foods I'm never going to eat again, ever. Raw oysters, I just can't get past the texture.

I don't know about the breast fed thing, though, because The Princess was breast fed and she would eat anything in the world until she was two, even gefilte fish, then became extremely picky. Now she's becoming more adventurous again. Bruvver was always a bottle baby and started eating cereal at about 3 months, and he's always been ravenous and eaten everything in sight.

I've also told that breast fed babies grow up healthier but Amanda was breast fed and she has asthma, allergies, diverticulitis, constant sore throats and tonsillitis, all kinds of problems. Ashley got the bottle and she's almost never sick, not allergic to anything and has managed to get through her entire internship in a big hospital without catching anything. She did bring H1N1 home to me and I got it, though...

So, I'm also of the opinion that it's the luck of the draw. I know parents who have more than one child, they eat the same meals, get the same information and some will eat anything and the others will not.

Annie

Not many people will eat my curry or chili... both contain lots of peppers and even more so when the garden is producing fresh ones. Tounge does not go over well with many. I got more then a few horrified comments at work when I took black and kidney bean soup... mild tasting but a frightening gray color. Most people will sample my rabbit. Had a herd for some years and just getting back to where I want to raise a few again. Venison will send some people running for cover. Even diehard hunters seem horrified that I prefer young deer... how can I eat a roadkill fawn. Yeah... I eat roadkill if it is fresh. Lots of fine venison in this area killed every day. I'll eat suckers, carp, and bullhead.... all just mild freshwater fish. I've seen people frightened by my frogleg dinner. What is a squirrel but a rat that lives on a birdfeeder?... yummy with saurkraut.

Like cooking for myself because I so often don't care for the way others make food.

Annie... Cooper might belong to Ashley but it sounds like you are Cooper's human....?

: )
lyra

Lyra, I'm Cooper's human for now, Ashley's gotten a part time waitressing job at a local restaurant/bar so her schedule is:

Up at 5:30 am, shower and be at the hospital in Grand Rapids by 7:30. Work until 4:30, hit the expressway and drive the hour and a half back home so she can change her clothes and be at work at the restaurant by 6 pm. She works until they close at 11pm or midnight, drops into bed and starts again at 5:30 am.

Fortunately, the internship is over on July 3, so she'll only have one job until she takes her boards, LOL. Good thing she's young and strong, because she was supposed to work weekends only and they have her scheduled 5 or 6 days a week, every week, and she keeps picking up shifts.

So, Cooper is pretty much "my" dog because Ashley is kind of like a figment of everyone's imagination right now. I have the rabbit, Molly, too, go figure...

Annie

Annie my mom had two kids like yours. I would and do eat almost anything, and my brother is one of the pickiest people on the planet I think. But he and I have very different constitutions, and so actually do my parents, so it is the luck of the gene draw sometimes. My brother has allergies very bad, and also I think sensitivities to all kinds of foods, vinegar, tomatoes and soy in particular. He eats extremely plain food, always has. He eats salad with salt and pepper on it. My dad has his basic five food groups that he will eat--meat, potatoes, bread, fat and sugar. Luckily the two male non-foodies in the family will happily eat the same things over and over and over again. So mom made regular food for her and I, and my brother ate hotdogs, cottage cheese, applesauce, milk, frozen fish sticks and french fries for dinner almost every night. I was the salad chef and I had to make four different salads. But mom kept carrot, celery and green pepper sticks around for my brother to eat. He still does that, eats the same stuff over and over, often eats very little of a meal and then fixes his own stuff later in the evening, he's a night owl. About 11 PM when we were growing up, he'd fry up and egg, bacon and some toast.

My dad does the same thing, eats on his own, except he eats boxes and boxes of cookies and chips, not anything remotely healthy. Not a good lifestyle and he has the heart disease to show for it, although he was always skinny up until he got old, and he's pushing 80 so I guess he has managed to get away with it for a good long while. The hardest thing is avoiding all the junk dad brings home, I know that was and is a challenge for my mom, since dad can eat it all and seemingly suffer no ill effects but mom has adult onset diabetes.

When they used to come and visit me, I tried a lot of things, at first trying to serve healthy version of stuff they liked. No dice on that, my brother wanted plainer food, and my dad went out to the grocery store and stocked up on cookies, chips and candy, and kept suggesting we go out to eat. Then I tried eating like them to keep the peace and I felt ill after a week. Now, they no longer visit me, I go to see them and bring along a cooler and take my own shopping trips to stock up on foods. I take my dad along with me and make him buy me all the out of season and gourment and organic goodies I can no longer afford. Also, nowdays there are a lot of lines of good quality frozen foods that my mom keeps on hand for me. She still has to throw some meat on a plate with bread and potatoes for dad, and then make vegetables, soups and salads for herself.

That's one reason I enjoy CF so much, no one in my family likes home cooked foods. Even my brother, who eats relatively healthy since he doesn't eat junk foods and sweets, and drinks only water and milk and fruit juice, doesn't like anything that is not plain, plain, plain. He eats grilled meats with nothing on them, and steamed vegetables or raw ones with just salt on them, and whole grain bread or plain rice. It's healthy but is not really "cooking" by any stretch of the imagination. He's as skinny as a rail.

I live alone so cooking is my great pleasure although sometimes I feel bad when I make something really good and have no one to share it with. If I make a lot, even the best food becomes revenge after a while. I once dated a guy about six months longer than I should have just because he was a good eater! But after living with dad and brother, I can accomodate just about any eating style.

Strangest thing: I LOVE Pecan Pie, but I was the only taker until I gained a second SIL who also is fond of this pie.