To not let my sister bring her own meat on Christmas day!

[FelizNavidadAmiga]

First off, we are a strictly vegan household for moral reasons. I invited my sister for Christmas lunch as she is recently divorced and has nowhere else to go. I usually put on a magnificent spread with roast vegetables, tagine, stuffed peppers, vine leaves, falafel, home made hummus etc. My sister has just sent me a message saying she's going to bring her own chicken to cook. AIBU to say no way! I don't want chicken cooking in my nice clean vegan oven! Plus the smell makes me feel ill 🤢 I don't want to upset her as she's very sensitive at the moment but surely she can do without chicken for 1 day.

Being able to afford try things without worrying that money will be wasted, and then the food budget will be gone?

Well, as explained above by a Lebanese vegetarian, a celebratory meal in the Middle East would definitely contain meat and fish as well as a lot of salads and vegetable dishes (and a fair amount of cheese and yoghourt, I expect). However, when you take away the bits that vegans don't eat it still leaves the salads, vegetable stews, rice and other grains, nuts, fruits, pulses and bread. I suppose what makes it a feast is the number of dishes, how much time and skill has gone into making them, the presentation and the expense or novelty of the ingredients. I often make several of the dishes the OP mentioned but not often all together because that's a lot of chopping. Some of them I would probably buy ready-made mostly but I can well imagine that home-made and freshly made is better.

Exactly!

I’m not a vegan or a vegetarian. I don’t eat much meat for sensory reasons but my family love meat and fish. My mother in law is Jewish so meals are adapted for her. My son is autistic and we adapt meals for him.

We do roast dinners most weeks and a roast dinner isn’t that special for us.

The OP’s menu sounds lovely (assuming there are breads? I love ME breads) and festive. Sprinkle some pomegranate seeds over it and it would look like a gorgeous festive feast.

My autistic son wouldn’t eat it though, so I’d feed him at home, before and after, and bring some crisps for him.

I would never expect meat in a vegan household. And would have a vegan alternative if hosting a vegan. Because it’s super easy to do a vegan option. Vegan, gluten free and allergic to peppers and I’d start to struggle

Absolutely shocking and disgusting that @BrightonFrock laughed at this.

To save @ueberlin2030 the trouble, I’ll share with you all now that I laughed at this too.

Wow, how rude. Don't accept the invite, then. I wouldn't dream of accepting a dinner invitation going to someone's house and taking my own food because what they're making isn't good enough for me. But for me accepting an invitation is about the company, not the food. I could cook my own food at home after all, it's the company that is important.

What do you mean 'too'?
You are the one person who finds any of this funny, laughing repeatedly because some people may be struggling on a low food budget.
Are you this uncaring generally?

”Too” as in “as well as your other post”. You know, the one you’re trying to shame me over?

To be fair some folk see the dinner as quite important too. I'd have no issue with her bringing some meat along and also trying some of the other offerings.

I'm not shaming you because I don't have to - you actually laughed at the concept of someone struggling to afford food. How is that remotely funny?

I’m not laughing at the concept of people struggling on a budget. I’m laughing at you trying to use this to justify people saying, “Eeew, stuffed peppers for Christmas dinner?! Gross!!” I’m laughing at the fact that you went through EVERY ONE of my posts and laughed at them, and have done the same to at least two other posters on this thread, but are now trying to portray me as some horrible bully who doesn’t care if people starve for doing the same to you. I’m laughing because you’ve been goading people relentlessly through this thread and are now playing the wounded angel.

You’re getting a taste of your own medicine and you don’t like it. By the way - that doesn’t come with a side order of pre-cooked chicken either.

If the o/p is ethically vegan as well, bringing your own meat is even more insulting.

basically saying I don’t give a fuck about your principles, my wants are more important.

you don’t go to a non smoking house and insist on bringing cigarettes to smoke indoors.

if anyone has a set of beliefs they live by, whether it’s veganism, Buddhism, not smacking children, not smoking, whatever. You should at least be polite enough to acknowledge their beliefs and not force your own wants on them.

It's true and very sad that people on a tight budget might be put off trying new foods because they can't afford to buy food they can't be absolutely confident will be eaten.

However, that is not relevant here. The question the OP asked 36 hours and nearly 1000 posts ago was whether it was reasonable for her sister to ask to cook a chicken in the OP's oven, given that the OP and her family are vegans. The answer is obviously no. (a) It's the prerogative of the OP and her family to say what foods are brought into and cooked in their house. (b) It's not practical, given that the oven and hob will be in use for other dishes. The OP is long gone, btw, and who can blame her.

So, in short, you're laughing at something I didn't actually say. Got it.

It's not relevant to the original question but it is relevant to the question which developed regarding why people don't try different cuisines.

Nope, you really cannot be trying to compare eating chicken with smoking.

I'm one of those people who can't always afford to try entirely new dishes just in case my DS doesn't like it. I love stuffed vine leaves, but I'm not going to make them for dinner at home in case he didn't like them and i can't afford to cook another meal as well. If I'm ever somewhere where I'm having them I'd let him try mine. If we were invited somewhere for Christmas dinner and they were on the menu I might ask if i could bring him an alternative, just in case. Vegan, if the household we were visiting was vegan. Mind you, he'd happily eat his own body weight in houmous!

But as Gasp says, that's irrelevant here. Presumably OPs sister has eaten at hers before and had this kind of meal.

It's relevant to a question which was asked upthread.

@FelizNavidadAmiga Tell me more about this festive vegan tagine please. It sounds amazing!
Also, in Middle Eastern vegan cookery, what do you use to replace the flavour profile/tang of yogurt or curds? Thank you!

Yes, that's true.

I don't deny it, but the UK's favourite dish these days is said to be chicken tikka masala. There can be very few households left in the UK where nobody ever eats pizza or pasta or chilli. Hummus is an everyday staple for lots of us. When I was a tot in the 1960s these would have been exotic, unknown foods. Meat and two veg was the standard main meal. Somehow the majority of the population have managed to widen their culinary horizons during that time.

Yanbu. You're inviting her to join you for a set meal, not to cook. She can accept or reject.

"Such a person" is the OP's recently divorced sister. A little bit of kindness wouldn't go amiss.

She probably got divorced over chicken.