Besides the fact that we look like twins, you'd never guess we were related

On Sunday night my brother was supposed to come over for dinner. At 5pm I called him to confirm he was still coming, and he said he'd be over but that I shouldn't expect him for dinner. When he said this I was relieved because he is a VERY picky eater. Here is a partial list of things he does not like...remember, these are only some of the things he won't eat: anything with tomatoes (except ketchup), salad greens, nuts, carrots, celery, peppers, most fruit, blue cheese, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, pesto, most hard cheeses, most pasta. He basically subsists on a diet of meat, poultry, potatoes, broccoli, shellfish and granola bars. Besides broccoli, I eat pretty little of the things on his "likes to eat" list (I like everything but the shellfish, but we just don't eat carnivorously very often) so it's sort of difficult to plan a dinner that both of us will enjoy.

I've not been in a good cooking or eating mood lately. Nothing's been appealing to me. So when Javert suggested fancy grilled cheese sandwiches, I was happy and excited. Finally, something I actually WANTED to eat and therefore cook. And I didn't have to worry that my brother wouldn't like it, because he wasn't coming to dinner! These sandwiches consist of blue cheese, honey, chopped walnuts and thin apple slices on sourdough bread. We cook them in the frying pan just like regular grilled cheese and they are delicious. I decided to make a side dish of roasted sweet potatoes and mushrooms.

Now, maybe you didn't notice, but my ingredient list for dinner overlaps almost entirely with things-my-brother-does-not-like. That was okay, because he told me that he was not going to eat with us. Until he called as we were walking to the supermarket and said "Actually I will be eating dinner with you." Those of you who know my brother know that this is totally typical behaviour from him. He had invited himself over in the first place, then declined dinner, and then requested it 20 minutes before actually arriving on my doorstep. I asked him "Ooooh. Do you like blue cheese?" He said "Don't worry, I'll eat whatever you have." Thinking he was being honest and that maybe he'd become more open-minded about food, I did not change my plans. We bought the appropriate ingredients and went home and made dinner.

Suffice it to say that my brother did not like dinner. He ate a slice of plain bread and two Oreos that a friend had for some reason left in my kitchen. I offered to make him a sandwich without blue cheese (out of all his dislikes, this one is the most understandable. Probably more people dislike blue cheese than like it. These people are crazy and one of them is probably near you RIGHT NOW.) He said no, make me a normal sandwich, and I did and of course he hated it and proceeded to disect it and then eat only the crust. He said he would have liked it if it hadn't had the blue cheese. He didn't touch the sweet potato dish, but I didn't really expect him to.

I feel kind of bad about this, because I should have known he would probably end up eating at our place, but frankly I was surprised that he actually showed up. Last time he said he was coming over he went to Baltimore instead and didn't tell me!