Mediocre accommodations or no guests at all?

zaq

Mon, Oct 25 2021, 8:46 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

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Does a Shabbos meal with bakery challah, dark meat chicken on the bone, rice and roasted mixed vegetables with store bought rugelach for dessert sound reasonable enough?

(Im usually worried that maybe the person doesn’t like the kind of challah I have, doesn’t like dark meat chicken, only likes raw vegetables or doesn’t like how I make my roasted vegetables ….)

Your menu is fine. Mature people eat what's put in front of them even if it's not their favorite thing. (Allergies are of course a different story. I generally ask people when I invite them if they have any food allergies or aversions. If they don't tell me, damam berosham.) They don't like the kind of challah you serve? Too bad. It won't kill them to force down a kezayit. They don't like roasted veggies? They don't have to eat them. Nobody ever died from eating a meal devoid of veggies now and then.

Unless the people are literally starving, it's really not about the food. It's about the company. About not spending Shabbat alone. About having people to talk to. The food is incidental. If they're literally starving they'll eat whatever you serve. If they can afford to be so picky they don't eat anything, they didn't need the food anyway. And nowhere in the Shabbos Hostess's Handbook does it say that you have to make everything from scratch. Bakery challah and pastry is fine. You're not trying to impress potential future parents-in-law with your culinary talents.

amother

Blueberry

Mon, Oct 25 2021, 9:03 am

Your meal sounds good to me!

If you're worried about picky eaters you can ask if there's anything they don't eat when you're making all the arrangements for them to come. I remember one family I used to go to in seminary always asked if their guests preferred dark or white meat chicken so they could prepare accordingly and not have too much leftovers of the type their family didn't eat.