Kitchen Goddess

I'm undecided whether the Kitchen Goddess is supporting me to cook more or supporting me to cook less.

I have been planning all week what to do for the Gourmet Group when they come for dinner this Saturday. The theme is Japanese Izakaya. This is similar to tapas. Small dishes and a lot of them. I don't think we've done Japanese before. This is saying something since we've been doing this for over 20 years and we've covered a lot of ground. The best theme, which of course was ours, that I thought was exceptionally creative given the situation, but that has received countless taunts over the years, was: Not Using Any Indoor Heat Producing Equipment. It was in the middle of a hot steamy summer. We barbequed everything, including dessert. We thought it was very imaginative. Out of the box thinking. Certainly not any worse than others' previous themes: Eating in the Dark, Cavemen, Titanic, American (canned mini wieners)!

They ridicule us...still.

Anyway, for Izakaya night I plan to make Mango Ice Cream. I order an ice cream maker online just a couple of days ago. I figure if it doesn't come in time I'll be justified to buy dessert. Unfortunately it arrives yesterday...yay.

I plan out what ingredients we'll need to buy. I figure out if the menu is even doable by one person in a day. Saturday will be busy but I resign myself to the event.

Then yesterday I receive an email from one of our members. His wife is in hospital and needs to have her gallbladder out. They won't be able to make it to Izakaya night. Darn. We can't possibly go ahead without them. We cancel. (We're sad for our friend but) We Rejoice. If we play our cards right we might be able to put off our hosting duties for another two years! Then I think about my responsibility to all my legions of loyal readers (I know there's at least 4 now). Drats. This blog is cramping my style. Drats drats drats. I wallow in my ambivalence for as long as possible. Even the Hubby tells me not to plan anything. But my conscience takes over. I send the other two couples an email asking them if they still want to come for dinner. Hopefully I've waited long enough so that they've already made other plans. No such luck. They would all LOVE to come. Oh yay.

Then one of the members tells me that his wife is detoxing. No alcohol, no red meat, no potatoes, no grains, no alcohol, no sugar. WHAT!? Are you kidding me?! SURELY they shouldn't be coming for dinner! But oh no. They're real troopers. He'll eat anything. She'll make do with vegs and fruits. My happiness knows no bounds.

Kitchen Goddess: friend or foe?