I grew up in a town where every meal is centered around a meaty main dish. Every birthday involved a steak, every summer involved ribs, and every holiday involved turkey or ham. You can imagine the adjustments that I had to make when I started dating a vegetarian. It has challenged me in the kitchen, trying to convert all of my favorite dishes into vegetarian-friendly meals. But it also made me a little healthier, eating much more fish than red meat.

Which brings me to my first grievance. They call themselves vegetarians… but they eat fish. Because they don’t want to say “I’m pescatarian”? And restaurants do it too, having the tiny ‘v’ next to menu items that are “vegetarian” yet include cod or salmon. As my mom would say, you have to pick your battles. And I will not die on this hill today. maybe tomorrow.

I’ll move on and talk about the mess I made of my Friendsgiving, because if I started a blog called “messes with megs”, then I should probably mention a mess.

Like most people, I have a favorite holiday – Thanksgiving. Honestly, my love for it centers around food, and how extravagant these meals can be. I love cooking and hosting – it’s my magnum opus. As a result, I start planning my Friendsgiving in early October. I take great care to make sure the food, drinks, and vibes are curated well for the diverse friend group I’ve invited. After putting together the guest list for this year, I realized I have four – FOUR- vegetarians attending this year. While I could say “well they can eat the sides, just can’t have the main dish (turkey)”, four people is way too many to brush off when creating the menu. And thus, I am now googling things like vegducken, lentil loaf, tofurkey, cauliflower steaks, and mushroom wellington. Those dang vegetarians. They’ve brought me to my knees. But I will persevere. I will make an entire turkey and all of the side dishes, and also a vegetarian main dish. Because they’re my people, I love them, and they deserve it.