As a Child, I Refused These

Cottage cheese. I never liked it as a kid, I don't like it now, and I can't imagine that I ever will. A lot of people treat it like it's a perfectly normal thing to eat. I don't get it at all. You can put it in the lasagna but that's about it for me. So gross.

Cooked spinach. I once read a Garfield cartoon that summed up how I feel about spinach. He's sitting at a table with a bowl of spinach. He says, "Spinach - it looks bad. . . it smells bad. . . it tastes bad." And then he dumps it out with a splat and adds, "It even sounds bad." That pretty much sums up how I feel about it. It's like eating wet toilet paper. Raw spinach is tolerable, however. I'll give you that much.

Tomatoes. I did not like tomatoes in any form as a child - unless it was tomato sauce. Not stewed, not chopped, not fresh, not in a salad, not on a sandwich, not on a house, not with a mouse, now you let me be! My heart was softened around the age of 18 and I decided to try them with an open heart and an open mind. And I became converted. Now a salad or a taco isn't the same without a tomato. I did, however, marry a woman who gives me her tomatoes because she doesn't like them.

Green chiles. As a kid, I was always on the lookout for some suspicious dot of green slime in the food. What the heck is this? I'm over it now, although I have to coach my own kids through their green issues.

Mushrooms. Maybe the worst thing that nature has ever devised. Raw, cooked, whole, sliced, chopped - I don't care. No thank you.

Cauliflower. My parents never fed us broccoli, but they do love to do the cooked cauliflower with cheese sauce. My senses just couldn't handle anything about it - the smell, the sight, the taste, the texture. I'm okay with it raw with a little ranch dressing, however.

Eggs. My parents will tell you that I stopped eating eggs after I questioned how they could tell which eggs had chicks in them and which didn't. And maybe that's true. But I can remember having a plate of egg concoction before me at the age of about four and thinking, "you know what - this is kind of disgusting." And I didn't eat eggs for probably 12 years. I've come around a little bit over the years, but I still balk at any type of hard-boiled egg and pretty much just take them scrambled.

Fish. We never really had fish growing up (other than visits to Skipper's), so that's good for me. I went on a mission to Washington, where salmon is kind of big, and I tolerated it while I was there. I still tend to steer clear of seafood whenever possible. I can do fish and chips at a restaurant, but even then I barely make it to the finish line. It's just a little too fishy.

Ranch Dressing. For some reason, I always steered clear of this "white" dressing - not sure why. Maybe I encountered some blue cheese by mistake? As a kid, I always stuck to the orange-ish dressings - thousand island, french, etc. I think I was nearly an adult by the time I discovered the wonders of ranch dressing, and I haven't turned back since.

Stuffing. This is one thing that never went on my Thanksgiving plate and still doesn't. I don't get it. Soggy bread crumbs with onions and junk? Pass.