Illness has plagued the Muddy Kitchen Floor this week. No one here has been ill, unless you count A’s pulled muscle in her back. Rather, the plans of dinner parties & entertaining have had to be cancelled.

On Wednesday, I had planned to make chicken schnitzel with my now wordpress famous stir fry coleslaw, with a desert of tiramisu and pineapple upside cake. The night before, we received a phone call. Due to circumstance and workloads, they were unable to make it. No problems, the chicken was turned into an old favourite, involving Philadelphia and my favourite Oscar Meyer bacon. The remaining chicken, wrapped and placed in the freezer.

Sometimes, when you plan to cook and the plans get cancelled, the urge to create and provide others with food is still there. We have a friend who is currently going through treatment, we knew she was feeling under the weather after a recent bout of treatment, so a cake was made, with a delicious white chocolate filling and topping, with fresh raspberries inside and topping the cake.

Tonight we were due to entertain another group of friends, with another chicken dish, but this morning, another phone call resulted in the evening being cancelled, and another fridge full of chicken needing cooking. There was also the problem of a large pot of mascarpone that needed using, and some avocados that needed mushing. So tonight, instead of cooking for 8 I’m cooking for 3, possibly 4. I think, to use the remaining chicken it will have to be a Thai green curry.

A consolation with all the cancelled plans this week is I can experiment. The dinners I had planned have become my tried and tested safe dishes. Dishes I know will taste & look good, and be easy entertaining dishes. With all the ingredients I had to create this dishes, I can now adapt them, they something new, and feed my family new creations.

It just goes to show, now matter how planned you can be, sometimes life has other plans, and yo can’t fight against them, you just need to go with the flow.

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