After 12 years of marriage, I know my husband Kyle inside and out — including his sneaky ways of dodging dish duty. His latest trick? Leaving just one bite of food in every dish so he could claim it wasn’t “finished” — and therefore not dirty. One spoon of stew. Two peas in a pan. Half a nugget. Always “saving it for later,” though he never did. And every time I complained, he just grinned and shrugged: “It’s not empty!”

Tired of arguing, I decided to fight pettiness with pettiness — and a whole lot of creativity. I started collecting his sad little scraps in a container labeled Kyle’s Gourmet Remnants. After a week, I had a fridge full of the weirdest “tasting menu” imaginable.