Foods You Don’t Eat
I forgot to mention that with my potato soup recipe, I threw a couple of parsnips in there. My husband came back from the market once, a bit confused and he had parsnips. I think he grabbed them thinking they were turnips. Which we do eat. Or maybe some other vegetable that we do not. They’ve been taking up room in the crisper ever since.

Since I’m trying to clear the fridge and cupboards of the odds and ends, and since I saw a recipe with mashed potatoes and parsnips, I figured I could add the parsnips to the potato soup. Some cooks call this creative. I usually think of it as lame.

My Mom hates parsnips. If you drove within 20 miles of the vegetable factory on the day they were dicing parsnips my Mom would gag if she was in the car. I once went to a family meal that my Mom wasn’t even attending and the cook informed me very carefully that there were parsnips in the roasted vegetables in case there was a problem.

As a result I’ve eaten very few parsnips in my life and although I am personally ambivalent, I don’t really eat them because she wouldn’t. I put them in this soup and I think they knocked it down from a solid A- to a B. They have a sharpness that’s just not necessary.

Another food I used to not eat because of my sister is mangos. She’s violently allergic. I hope she’s not reading this because her eyes are probably swelling up just by seeing the word. But then I learned that mangos are like the food of the gods. So I eat them at home where she can’t be harmed. Giant carbon footprint be damned.

My Dad hates tuna and I hate tuna, too. It’s nasty. My husband likes it and if he makes it, he has to eat it outside. Or in his car.

I can’t think of anything my husband hates. Most tomato heavy dishes disagree with him, as do melons which is a major bummer. He also isn’t fond of lentils or chard so whenever I know he’s going to be out of town, that’s the menu.

I hate swiss cheese. I think it smells like throw-up. I also don’t like most pork products because the fat disagrees with me.