By skyforbes So I've been living together with my girlfriend for eight years. Her parents – I call them my 'in-laws' for lack of a better word – have always been civil to me on the surface but I get the feeling they don't really approve of me. They're x-th generation Canadians and I'm from Central Europe from poor peasant stock and I get the feeling they think I'm not good enough for their daughter.
The last time we visited them (we usually sleep over for the weekend), I tried to make them a nice dinner both to reciprocate for them usually cooking for us and also so they can relax a little. My girlfriend was out with some of her college friends so it was just me and her parents.
There's few things I can make, but those that I can I strive to make really well – and pizza is a labour of love for me. Not to brag but I think I make really good Neapolitan-style pizzas. They'd expressed interest in the past so I thought I'd make them some.
I actually brought a portable wood-fired oven along with me, as well as all of the ingredients and kitchenware, firewood, etc etc. I made sure I was out of everyone's way and did most of this outside on the deck, and made absolutely no mess and cleaned up after myself.
I asked them exactly when they would like dinner, and then set about preparing everything. Making a proper pizza in a wood-fired oven is not a 5 minute thing: you have to proof the yeast, prepare the dough, let it rise, fire up the oven and spend like an hour tending the fire until it gets to temp, etc. So for literally hours they saw me preparing everything, setting the table, and in the hour leading up to dinnertime they saw me outside tending the fire. I even confirmed the time they chose with them a few times, and when I was almost ready to bake the pizzas let them know that they'd be ready in 10 minutes.
So I baked them – they actually turned out really nice – and brought them in to serve them….
…and they said "Oh, we just ate — just put them on the counter, we'll microwave them later".
And yeah, not my greatest moment but I told them not to bother, turned around and just threw them in the trash (growing up poor I absolutely despise wasting food more than anything else so this actually pained me, but I was fuming mad). I don't mean to sound like a pizza snob, but when someone spends hours baking you fresh, hot pizza and serves it to you straight from a wood-fired oven you don't leave it on the counter for hours and then 'microwave it'.
I honestly think the whole thing was just a deliberate play on their part to put me in my place. It certainly succeeded.
Anyways now my girlfriend's family is all pissed off at me for overreacting, and apparently I'm an epic asshole. Am I?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts,
cheers