If I think it's delicious, it must be. Right?

I realized today that one of the reasons I don't like to cook very often is that I'm always nervous and self-conscious about how others will like my food. I mean, I'll pretty much eat anything, but it turns out lots of other people aren't the same way. I suppose if I'm trying something new for the first time or just making it up as I go I have a pretty good attitude about the whole thing, as some potluck people can attest to when I show up and say "Here ya go, not sure how this will be but I'm cool with it if you are." Instead, the times I'm most nervous are when I'm making something that I love, which probably means making something my mom makes and I've grown up with.

Once in college I made my mom's delicious pizza (with homemade crust and everything!) and put all the usual toppings on it, but the two friends I had over for dinner began picking toppings off their sections of the pie before I even got it in the oven. "Whoah whoah whoah," I said shaking my head in disbelief. "What are you doing? When you eat Andi's pizza, you eat Andi's pizza!"

They say one of the steps of child development is being able to empathize with others and take their thoughts and feelings into account. At least I think that's what "they" say, but I'm no psychologist. Anyway, I think I must not have fully developed in that area when it comes to other people not liking some of the foods I love.

"You don't like Indian? Is that even possible? It's my favorite!"

or

"You don't like sweet potatoes? Are you even American?"

or today's example,

"You don't like my mom's tuna salad? But it has avocado and tomato and egg and sprouts and you eat it in a pita! How can you not like that? It's the best tuna salad there is!"

Sadly, today Grandpa did not enjoy the tuna salad sandwiches I made the way that he should have. Some people, it turns out, just don't know what's good.