Have just had hysterical weeping on the phone from SIL about my use of a creme brulee as a weapon of mass self-esteem destruction. I'm at a bit of a loss as to how we got from point A - dinner at ours last night, to point B - sobbing and snotty phonecall.
We were having our fairly regular dinner together - it's informal so I a really easy, low key meal.
Full menu was: The fishcakes I made yesterday but we didn't eat, cabbage with pine nuts and bacon (because DH is actually 5 and makes a feeble fuss about eating his veg which she knows and mocks him about), some random other veg I had that would have gone limp other wise, homemade chips - just a few as had some spuds that were going to walk out if I didn't hunt them down and even I can't eat 2 kinds of mash in one sitting. I'm not out for a Michelin star evidently, no fondant potatoes with a fresh sea foam served on hand carved clam shells here.
And...the demon creme brulee!!!! I don't get it. I was given a blow torch and have been itching to melt stuff with it, DH presented some gas at the weekend and we have had blow torched everything for dinner for days (because I too am actually 5 years old).
But she has accused me of making a meal I know she can't 'top' in order to make her look bad in front of BIL and everyone (what everyone? your brother and his wife?) because I wanted to make a fool out of her. If it wasn't bad enough to give them fishcakes fishcakes I had to make a creme brulee in case it wasn't obvious enough I was sticking the knife in and trying to make a point. She refused to spell it out for me or elaborate on what point I was making because I knew - I don't know.
AIBU to just let her get it out of her system and avoid until she gets over it? I keep getting told I know what I've done but have no clue. Things are fine between them (as far as I am ever aware of their inner machinations) and I didn't say anything weirder than usual or comment on the food at all apart from saying, verbatim, 'DH has confiscated the torch, I just set fire to the tea towel!' - I'm at a loss and DH has no clue. In all seriousness I don't want her to feel like that or that I'm doing things to undermine her, I thought we were mates and I trust her not to deliberately hurt my feelings, I am sad that she thought I would deliberately set out to make her feel bad. Any light that could be shed would help as most of me is feeling she's being a bit odd and I've missed something.