Remember the old Miller place off Georgia? Hinge snapped and the whole hatch fell on my foot.

What brand of command strips did you use, and did you prep the wall first with rubbing alcohol? That step matters way more than people admit, and a lot of "command strips failed me" stories skip it. Also curious whether your pots hang on a rail or individual hooks, since a swinging rail puts way more stress on the strip than a static hook.

Kenji Lopez-Alt did a whole writeup years ago where he tested cream vs no cream and found the cream version holds up way better when you're cooking for a crowd. Something about the starch in the pasta water doing the work either way, but cream just gives you more room for error. Sounds like your brother in law knew what he was doing and just wanted to mess with you first. What did he say when you admitted it was good?