apples to apples does work great in mixed/family situations and it can scale to an infinite amount of players. just forget about playing it with a timer, that's lame. the fun usually comes from intentionally wrong answers, or the negative reactions to those who do it.
since your bf is a "gamer's gamer", for more family-oriented stuff have him try these:
ticket to ride (2-5 players)
ingenious (2-4, team play optional)
manila (3-5)
geschenkt (3-5)
ricochet robots (1-infinity)
king me! (3-5)
i'm the boss (3-5)
liar's dice (2-6)
read about them at boardgamegeek.com and buy them at thoughthammer.com
i've rated about 175 games, you can see them at
http://tinyurl.com/a5k83