The above quiches, decidedly rustic, but I think acceptable, will be served this evening.  Somehow, though, they serve for me as a sort of parable or metaphor or something!

It's no secret that I like to have things well organised, in plenty of time, and that I can get more than a tad ratty if my plans don't work out.

I knew the week ahead was going to be decidedly bonkers, but I had it all worked out, transport booked, cat-sitting sorted, blah blah.

I also knew I had (have) guests coming for tea, and had decided to make a quiche for that purpose.  Cue disasters!  The first attempt at the case went in the oven for blind-baking and came out shrunken and flat.  No problem, I had more pastry, a second attmept was possible - deeper, thicker.... and it too came out less than ideal.  Meanwhile, I had prepped all the ingredients for the filling, so was pretty much committed.  In a moment of "nothing ventured, nothing gained" I filled the cases and baked them - and they don't look too bad.  I made a couple of mini quiches from leftover pastry, and filled them with the cheesy custard mix... they actually tasted pretty good.

In the background I was busy multi-tasking on other things (after all 20 minutes, twice, for blind-baking and 40 minutes for a quiche to cook is plenty of time to use usefully) and watching the plans for the week ahead unravel before my eyes due to factors I could not control.  If only I hadn't been so organised and booked the travel, it would have been quicker to adjust my plans (and probably cheaper, I still have to work out the most cost effective way to change them)... but it'll be alright.  Just like the quiches, the revised plans will be rough around the edges, not as I had imagined them, but they'll work just fine.

Sometimes my perfectionist, organised, even bossy nature gets in the way of imperfect, slightly chaotic, more laid back and perfectly acceptable options.  Whether I'll ever fully learn from that, I don't know.  But for now, I have "servicable" quiches, a house to tidy and clean and guests to enjoy preparing for.  Everything else can wait.