My sim had just started to cook when her boyfriend knocked at the door, I invited him in and he immediately went to her and started romantic conversation/actions, so she put the meal stuff down on the kitchen counter to interact with him. I then queued her up with "resume cooking" by clicking on the meal stuff, but she couldn't do it, just kept indicating that something was in the way; I tried moving it to another counter, to the table, even to the floor, but she still claimed something was in the way. Eventually I told her to clean it up, and this she was able to do. No idea what was going on with it but she's had no problems since. :\