Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Don't we all rely on others to share their recipes at some point, whether it's Julia Child giving out hers in her book or someone posting a recipe on their blog? We all give and take inspiration and learn techniques from one another. Like caley mentions above, people take a shared recipe and somehow make it their own, for better or worse, but that's the fun part!

My mom taught me to read a recipe from start to finish before you begin. My dad taught me to improvise.

I will absolutely not eat beets, oatmeal, raisins (or any other dried fruit for that matter) and chunks of cooked carrots (when I use carrots in soups, I grate them or cut into tiny matchsticks, then they don't bother me, but I simply cannot bite into a chunk of a cooked carrot). I will not eat most cooked fish (other than Chilean sea bass, but only prepared in a certain way). Oops. it was supposed to be "the one food" I won't eat...[hanging head in shame]

Cheese in a can. As I was leaving the grocery store last week there were whole boxes of it staring at me as I walked out the door, on special. Surely someone who couldn't resist a bargain is now eating it, and that makes me sad.

the word yes, carrot cake is DEFINITELY not weird. Sounds downright delicious to me!

In response to Mags, it's one thing if I've never had anything like the salad you're offering, but maybe I'm just really full or enjoying my own plate enough to where I don't want to take on the additional calories. Believe me, if I turn away a bite, it's not that I'm picky! :)

In fact, picky eaters drive me crazy. If someone has an allergy or one or two things they won't eat, okay... but if you have a laundry list... then you've got deeper issues and/or you're uncultured.

My grandmother is in her 90s and she's the pickiest person in the universe. She always has been, but now it's gotten a lot worse. I think it's b/c she never traveled and was exposed to different foods by her parents. To her, fresh produce is rabbit food, canned goods taste stale. If the label says Nov 2009, it's not fresh and she wants us to return it or make a call to Del Monte. It's complete insanity. She hasn't been to a grocery store in years and she doesn't understand some brands no longer exist. If I bring her the liter of Pepsi she requested and they've redesigned the label, then it's not the Pepsi she wants and all hell breaks loose.

Despite this experience with grandma who is now very much like a difficult child, I still don't get parents who only feed their kids junk b/c it's easier. This is when you have the upper hand and I think that's getting things off to a rocky start. Maybe when I have my own, I'll have to stick my foot in my mouth here, but my plan is to just puree whatever foods the adults are eating, exotic or not. I have friends who were fed this way as children--and were never catered to--and they're the most adventurous eaters I know.

I think introducing kids to different foods from different cultures as early as possible is an extension of shaping them into adults who are open-minded and accepting in all areas of their lives.

Also, folks who eat their meat well-done. My Mom won't eat ANY kind of meat unless it's- literally- black and charcoal-ized on the outside, and every drop of juice has long been cooked out of it.

When I am asked for a recipe I generally give them all the ingredients and rough proportions but since I really don't measure it very precisely it comes out some of this or that or whatever was on hand. I try to give them a technique - if there was something special. I also encourage them to experiment and maybe change or emphasize what they like in a dish.
If it's a pastry item I'll just refer them to the cookbook / author and tell them if I modified it in some way (changing the extract or the fruit ... whatever - but that is usually minor). The fun part is in the experimenting.