General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I am a vegetarian. You've known me as a vegetarian for 20 years. Please do not invite me [View all]hunter
(38,316 posts)... when the supposed "adults" would go to war over things like this, no really, actual war, thrown dishes and kitchen implements, screaming and yelling, people leaving in anger, the whole works. This was after the last of my great grandma's had passed on, their harsh frontier discipline lost. In that family tradition a guest ate whatever was served, or went hungry. In my great grandma's kitchens it was often something very recently killed -- chickens, fish, small mammals, sometimes big mammals.
I remember one Thanksgiving where we had rabbit, no turkey. That didn't go over well with me and my siblings who thought of rabbits as pets, not dinner.
My wife is vegetarian. One of our kid's fiance is vegetarian. I'll eat most anything, even if it's only to be polite. I don't eat much meat for environmental reasons. "Factory farm" meat and "factory fishing" are bad for the environment.
If someone is proud of the turkey they cooked for Thanksgiving, or the venison sausage they made from some deer they shot, I'll eat that. Likewise an entirely vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner is going to please me too.
Don't cook meat for your non-vegetarian guests. It's your house, it's your traditions. Celebrate them. You only have to go so far in accommodating guests. Don't serve pork to Jewish or Muslim guests, don't serve peanuts or shrimp to someone who is allergic to them, don't serve a big glass of milk to someone who is lactose intolerant, don't demand a recovering alcoholic sample your latest home brew.
It's pretty easy. Life's too short to keep score.