My mother made a simple chicken liver pâté that my dad and I would slather on crackers - especially great when freshly made and still warm. The smell of those livers cooking with the browned onions is unforgettable. To my wife, it’s unforgettable and unforgivable. So no more chicken liver pâté.
I went the opposite with meatloaf. Hated it growing up, but my wife, who learned to cook and cook well at a young age, started making enlightened meatloaf with bright flavors early in our marriage. It’s now one of my faves, and the sliced leftovers make great sandwiches.
To answer the question, I will go with Jif Creamy Peanut Butter. My all-time, in its 50th-straight year of being my number-1-with-a-bullet comfort food, was no more, nixxed by the incomparable Inna because it made me fat.
I immediately dropped 10 pounds, so she may have had a point.
Long simmered Sunday Sauce. That tomato sauce my Italian mom made for decades, tomatoes, meatballs, sausage etc. simmered for hours.
That sauce bothers Mrs. Cheesesteak’s stomach something fierce. I did get to make it during Feral Husband Week this past summer, but it’s a rare treat.
I am of the opinion that the first ingredient in any recipe should be a giant onion. There is no such thing as too much onion.
My wife is of the opinion that onions are the most vile substance to ever come out of the earth, and should be eradicated.
I will sometimes cook up a big casserole to split up for lunches over the course of several days, and that’s where I get my onion fix. There is a silver lining here - I don’t ever have to worry about my wife or daughter getting into it. Or even asking what it is.
I’ve been married 22 years (and we were living together before that) but I don’t think there’s anything I gave up - but there are absolutely things I cook a lot less, or with more care!
We may be outliers though, in that especially in the last 10ish years, when the wife went vegetarian, and I’m still an unabashed carnivore, that we are comfortable cooking two separate meals and then eating them together.
As a reverse of the OP though, we make it a point at least once a month to cook something together we’ll both like, like a baked mac 'n cheese, bean and cheese southwestern egg rolls, a vegetable broth based beer cheese soup, or what have you.
What I am a LOT more careful with though is any strong smelling fish, especially salmon. My wife strongly disliked the smell and taste of seafood long before she gave up meat, and I enjoy it. But because the smell is strong, carries throughout the house, and lingers, I cook it rarely. Yes, I could do outside cooking, or sous vide, or other largely contained options, but it’s easier (and cheaper) to just do it a lot less.
Try all-natural PB. No sugars, no partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, just ground peanuts and salt. Much healthier. I’m the type who will eat it straight from the jar, and I can eat pretty much all I want without adverse effect on my weight.
Weis and Giant both have good store brand all-natural PB for under $3/jar, if you’re in a part of the country with either of those chains. Trader Joe’s also has it, but I’m less keen on their store brand.
Responding to the OP’s question, I used to put chopped bell peppers in a lot of things, particularly chili and scrambled eggs. Not since I got married, though - my wife really doesn’t like bell peppers.
I’m still trying to get past the fact that one goes to a restaurant for meatloaf. That never would have occurred to me. It would be like going out for bologna sandwiches or getting PB&J take-out. That’s wild.
My wife wouldn’t touch it. My two kids each ate like half a serving. The remaining loaf was all me, and after eating it for the next eight meals, I was done.
Once in awhile, I’ll get meatloaf at a restaurant: it’s not my favorite, but it has some serious nostalgia value. But I’ll never make it at home again.
Other than meatloaf, three of my favorite foods repulse my wife: broccoli, blue cheese, and olives. My kids love broccoli, so she’s gotten used to my adding it to stirfries or making it as a side dish, and she can just pick it out. Olives are super-easy for me to add to my side of the pizza, or to sprinkle over my salad. Blue cheese is now a rare treat for me, ordered at restaurants, and I have to brush my teeth before she’ll kiss me.
I love very spicy foods, but my partner does not. As a result, I’ve had to tone down a number of dishes that I would prefer to have considerable heat. Most of that can be remedied by adding something spicy at the end. I have a grinder full of ghost peppers for precisely that reason.
The other thing is octopus, which I like on occasion in sushi form. My partner has some serious ethic problems with eating octopus though, so I tend to only order it when I’m alone at a sushi bar.
I dearly love liver and onions, especially veal liver and onions, because the flavor is more delicate. But Mr. brown can’t even stand to be in the house when I cook it, so I haven’t bothered to try to make it for years. But this thread is making me crave it so I might get some veal liver at the Italian supermarket next time I go, and he can go out and have tacos for dinner that night.
He only likes a small assortment of vegies: broccoli, brussels sprouts and asparagus. And even then he only eats a couple of bites of them. If I prepare grilled eggplant in olive oil or parsleyed carrots or roasted peeled peppers, I’ll be the only one eating them.
Yeah, I was going to say, in my hometown of Springfield, IL, rare is the (local) restaurant that doesn’t have bologna sandwich on the menu. And many have PB&J on the kids’ menus.
Oatmeal or similarly textured foods. Especially tapioca, which I haven’t been allowed to have in years. She said her mother made oatmeal for breakfast everyday for her brood of kids. Our kids didn’t get to have it growing up.
