Kitchen tricks your spouse is unaware of!

[Shunka]

Gobo, I have to say that I am worried for you somewhat, I'm referring to the thread you posted about cooking for your DFutureW and her family. Hopefully she can learn that there are a great many things out there that taste great and that will relieve you of some anxiety. I think she will with gentle and slow coaxing from you. Back on the subject; I hid a great many different veggies and such by mincing very tiny when my daughters were growing up, that is where egg rolls came in so handy as they all loved them (one preferred veggies- the other preferred meats); hubby has never been a problem.

 

[Barb L.]

DH does not like baked chicken, so now I bake it and put it on the grill for a few minutes w/bbq sauce, or butter garlic -- he eats it now !! Whew !

 

[QSis]

HEY! What's with the initials???

What does mudbug's "HH" stand for?

What about Hungry's "XLY"?

And, Gobo, .... ah, none of my business.

Lee

 

[stargazer021]

My DH thinks that he doesn't like horseradish because he read the list of ingredients in the cocktail sauce. I told him that I thought all prepared cocktail sauces have that ingredient. Anyway he refused to eat it. The next time we had cocktail sauce (different brand) he said how much better it was. I told him that one had horseradish too- he was adamant that it didn't until he read the list of ingredients on the bottle- surprise!!!

 

[kitchenelf]

What does mudbug's "HH" stand for?

What about Hungry's "XLY"?

And, Gobo, .... ah, none of my business.

Lee

HH = Happy Husband

XLY = I haven't a clue here!!!!

DfutureW - darling future wife or dear future wife

 

[Half Baked]

DFutureW knows nothing about food and cooking.
Hehe, it's gonna be quite difficult to eat properly when we're both working.

Gobo, don't make me come over there and scold you...

 

[Barbara L]

As long as I don't try to sneak liver or lamb in on him, James will eat anything I make and love it. He is the least picky eater I have ever met. With my daughter, if I didn't think she would eat something, I just covered it in cheese.

Barbara

 

[Dove]

Paul would eat anything but carrots. Dove and i love carrots..she eats hers raw.

 

[boufa06]

With my daughter, if I didn't think she would eat something, I just covered it in cheese.

Barbara

Wonderful recipe enhancement!

 

[LadyCook61]

my hubby eats anything I make I don't tell him what I do to make the meal, he doesn't really care.

 

[YT2095]

my wife "hates" Coriander or nutmeg, and yet she has NO IDEA how many times she`s had food with it in and gone back for seconds

 

[Wart]

Wife comes from Italy , she'll eat things that I won't touch.

But ....

Last night I made pizza. I take canned stewed or diced tomatoes, strain the juice then doctor and reduce.

Wife took one bite and started making noise about my putting sugar (brown) in the sauce. Blah Blah ... she does not like sugar ... Blah Blah ....

I guess I should keep quiet the fact that the "focaccia" she likes so well also has sugar in it.

I'm sitting here thinking ... Naw, She'll figure it out. Like I heard so many times when growing up, Eat it or go hungry.

 

[AllenOK]

PeppA, my other half, claims to hate cloves, nutmeg, and coffee. I believe her about the coffee bit, as I like to tease her when I get my morning cup, and blow on it to cool it off, and she's always on the receiving end

As to the cloves, I think she's been subjected to a few to many whole cloves studded into a ham for the holidays. I like the flavor and smell, but she doesn't. According to her, nutmeg smells the same as clove, and she avoids that one as well.

She also tries to tell me that she doesn't like wine in her food. But, she loves my Chicken Tortilla soup (gets Chablis), Coq au Vin (gets Burgundy), and I've started adding splash (about 2 T) of Chablis when I'm sauteing a bunch of veggies with chicken

Once her mother moves back in with us (in a couple days), I probably WILL NOT be able to eat PeppA's spaghetti. I prefer one variety of one sauce, as it's got a little wine or sugar in it, to make it sweet, and no green bell peppers (I don't really care for bell peppers in spaghetti sauce). Unfortunately, PeppA's mother is diabetic, and starts griping and complaining anytime we try to serve a slightly sweet spaghetti sauce. I can understand about that, but why doesn't she start griping and complaining when she starts downing regular chocolate milk, regular pop, regular ice cream, etc., that's all got regular sugar in it?

 

[college_cook]

I could probably fill these forums with a list of things that might fiance thinks she doesn't like to eat. Any type of onion, she 'can't stand'... but onions go into a good deal of my sauces, stir fries, soups, scallions for stir fries or even just as garnish. She doesn't like chicken noodle soup, or so she says, but she practically drools on the floor every time I make it. She likes when I make chicken stock and reduce it to glace to make sauces out of... of course she thinks stock is simply water and bones... no vegetables included. She's very weird about anything green... but when we stopped to see my buddy at his new job as a sous chef he put together a quick walnut/arugula/goat cheese pizza (all which she doesn't like) that she loved. Also wary of fish, but at a pan-seared to medium scallop served with a grilled clementine slice, and a bit of garlic and ginger on a fried basil leaf (best scallop of my life, btw).

They think they know what they like and dislike, and I think the best we can do is simply smile behind their backs.

 

[expatgirl]

my DH hates coriander but I found a Mexican sauce ( Goya's Raita green sauce) which is nothing but coriander, garlic, etc., and he can't tell the difference though it adds great flavor to most dishes such as soups, stews, Mexican dishes, etc.

 

[AllenOK]

I have to agree with the "smile behind their backs" comment. Most people are hung up on some kind of food, either they're addicted to it, or can't stand it, and it's rarely for the reason they say it is. Heck, if they'd just open their minds up to possibilities, and don't "pre-judge" food before they taste it, they'd probably find out that a lot of the food they "can't stand" is actually rather good.

Even I have hang-ups about food, but it's kind of flip-flopped from most folk's hang-ups. If the food just isn't prepared in a manner that I feel is good, I won't touch it. This is the professional cook in me coming out. My MIL "cooks" in a way that I have a hard time understanding in my core. Basically, she eats to live, and I live to eat. My brain can recognize that she just cooks differently than I do, but my stomach refuses to accept a lot of the food she makes. Again, this is my own fault.

 

[Maverick2272]

I usually refuse to say what is in the food until after they have eaten it and rendered an opinion. I can't count the number of times DW has eaten stuff she claims not to like and loved it, or how many times my 'I hate all veggies' son has eaten veggies in his food.
Then again, none of them have food allergies, so I only risk them not liking it...

 

[expatgirl]

I think, too, that a lot of people's childhood memories come into play as to what foods they like or don't like or what prejudices they may have acquired as a result. My mother, bless her heart, just was not a good cook----her food was very bland and she felt like everything had to be practically burnt to prevent illness. Her idea of vegetables was to glop out a can of spinach, green beans, beets, etc., and force us to eat eat it. No seasoning---just warmed up and served. So we 4 kids grew up only liking canned corn and mashed potatos. When I met my husband's family my future m-i-l with her great cooking slowly made me learn to like most vegetables--she served either fresh or frozen---never will eat fresh mustard greens, however, look to much like the spinach we were forced to eat as kids. And those were horrible memories though I love fresh spinach on salads or sandwiches.

 

[Jeff G.]

My sister in law won't eat anything if she sees pepper in it. So for gravy... we use white pepper..... she never complains..

 

[radhuni]

My husband is an Assamese and they don't add sugar in any dish except sweet dishes but I always add sugar in every preparation (may be 1-2 grains), because I think that, that will neutralize the effects of the extreme hot, salty and sour and pungent tastes (which is the characteristics of many Indian dishes) without hampering the original taste.

Previously he didn't know that I add sugar but he used to tell me that the dishes, which are prepared by me are tasting better than his mother's.

After many years I disclosed the mystery to him.