Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

it sounds as if the problem is as much how his pickiness presents itself Vs the actual fact of the pickiness.
you need to negotiate how he goes about tasting and reacting. instead of filling his plate hiding the uneaten, he should take a bite only, then only take more of what he will actually eat. He also must accept that if he rejects what's for dinner, he makes his own substitute.

You, OTOH, have to deal with adjusting your daily cooking to reflect some of his opinions. Cooking can be fun, but the day in day out feeding of your partner & family isn't so much about the fun for you as about the fact that people need to eat. Plus, if he rejects your food in favor or cornflakes or PBJ for days on end, you can't be hurt.

if you someday are having kids, he needs to have learned to reject in a low-key fashion so as not to 'teach' his pickiness to them. I won't go so far as to expect him to sometimes noticeable eat something he is known to dislike, to model polite behaviour. But it would be handy.

PS I was in a relationship in which we had very different food cultures. our inability to appreciate each others standards was but one of many problems. But 3 times a day one or both of of us being annoyed or mad or disappointed sure didn't help. If you cant fine some way to enjoy meals together, some compromises, then hang it up now.

Report from SE World Headquarters: Ed showed admirable restraint in this week's tasting. :)

Ed - "get right back on the diet horse"....the word diet worries me. I am under the belief that the only way you can master the weight thing is to not think in terms of diet. Diet implies restrictions and bad stuff. I don't like the word "lifestyle change", either, though. I am sure you will be back down those few pounds soon...but you may want to rethink your use of the word diet...just a thought. :-)

I'm having trouble reading this post. I can't take my eyes off the cookie.

Late to the party on this one, but here goes... about six years ago, my mom's new boyfriend came to our family Thanksgiving for the first time with his nine-year-old son. My family is fairly uptight, so this guy had everyone's eyebrows raised with his motorcycle-ridin', rock'n'rollin' ways. We're at the feast, the grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins are tolerating him, and our quietly formal Thanksgiving meal is proceeding, when all of a sudden during a lull in conversation the nine-year-old goes "Hey, Daddy, remember when I found cocaine on your dresser?" Completely out of the blue. Ensue awkward silence. The boyfriend finally musters a halfhearted, "I don't know what you're talking about, son," to which the kid responds, "Yes, you do! It was in a little baggie and you said it was Uncle Dave's." The boyfriend was speechless. The entire table cracked up, and someone changed the subject, but it was never forgotten.

That was not the last Thanksgiving we had with them, but unfortunately, nobody ever told any more drug stories.

I second the hibernation comment - all I've been wanting to do these past two weeks are sleep and eat cheese.

We're entering the hibernation season. You are programmed, with or without the help of chocolate chip cookies, cornbread stuffing and pumpkin pie, to prepare for winter by building up an extra layer of body fat for insulation during the coming months. As long as you don't overdose on high-fat, high-calorie foods devoid of any redeeming nutritional qualities, this body fat will melt off when you shiver.

Let's hope this winter is a frigid one. Go outside--get your internal combustion going and you'll be fine.

@redfish - I exercise between 2 1/2 and 4 hours a day, 3-5 days a week, and have not lost a pound since I started. Actually, I have recently decided to drastically up my calories, because I realized I was under-eating for the amount of activity I get, and thereby lowering my metabolism and inhibiting muscle development.

Anywhoo, exercise alone won't help!

I advocate smaller cookies. And letting others test first so you only eat the best of the bunch. :-)

Spit out the cookies?! WTF.

Can we be rational here? Take one small bite from each cookie. (Or actually, break off one small bite of cookie so you don't have to throw the rest away.)

Must be going around this week - I too am dieting and had a pretty lousy week. Well, onwards and upwards (or perhaps I should say downwards!)

My first wife hated eggs, bananas, mustard, my watermelon fruit salad, my top secret recipe 6 grain pancakes, didn't like breakfast in general. Of course, I'm more of a breakfast cook, but her idea of cooking is heating up canned soup (mac and cheese was a highlight of her cooking skills). In fact, when we first got together, the only thing she ate was McDonald's cheeseburgers and fries. (I did get her to eat fresh cut up strawberries.) So when we split, I vowed that I would avoid dating picky eaters.

So of course, my last (I'm planning it that way, anyhow) wife is a great cook - an amateur chef IMHO, but she's vegan (and I'm allergic to the entire legume family). We have great fun trying to create dishes that we can both eat (the entree is always veggies, the protein ends up a side dish for each of us), and she has decided that fried rice with eggs is ok (she is having trouble getting enough protein in her diet). And as a bonus, she loves my pancakes (which I modify by substituting coconut or almond milk for sour milk and/or yogurt), and never complains about my potatoes.

So, as to your problem, drag the bum into the kitchen now and again and make cooking a shared activity - fun-shared, not chore-shared. If he is a good kitchen companion (maybe not entirely his cup-o-tea, but as a special activity), then it will lessen the anti-everything you seem to interpret from him right now, and some of his ideas might end up being useful in figuring out how to feed him when you are cooking without him. If you two can't get along in the kitchen, I'd have to vote for a quick exit strategy.

Awesome. You know that is a fresh fish! My mouth is watering.