Meals with the in-laws are always an interesting experience. Note that when I say interesting, what I really mean is exasperating. The food’s great and conversations generally not too shabby, but I always get this background feeling that Dave’s parents out to compete with me.
It’s like they secretly believe I’ve stolen Dave away from them (never mind that he’s a 36 year-old tax attorney) and have this long-term plot to prove to him my shortcomings in the kitchen department.It’s super weird that (a) they seem to team up on this, and (b) they only do it at mealtimes. I guess it’s because they’re both excellent cooks, so it’s an area in which they can pool their talents and make double the impact.
This time, it all kicked off over the entree when Dave brought up some new concept he’d heard about regarding weight loss for men. Meal plans became the hot topic of conversation, and this quickly spiralled into an argument and Dave’s mother throwing me a pointed sidelong glance while tut-tutting about Dave not eating enough. This is far from the case (as Dave would be happy to admit), but even if it was, that’s surely his responsibility, not mine.
Dave tends to be kind of oblivious to all this, which is fair seeing as it’s pretty subtle and primarily directed at me. I was just hoping he would bring up the fact that we’d discussed using a weight loss meal delivery service for a couple of weeks while the floor in the kitchen gets done. We’ll both be really busy during that period, and if we don’t plan an easy solution, we’ll just end up eating out every night for two weeks. But I was willing to bet that this notion wouldn’t go down too well at the dinner table. More to the point, I’d get the blame for it, despite the fact that (as mentioned) we’re grown-ups and each responsible for our own diets.
He didn’t mention it, so I dodged a bullet there. And the hibiscus syrup cake for dessert was really good.