I'm All About the Brunch

See that? I finished something recently! A simple washcloth for my mother-in-law. Don't you just love her sink/faucet?! You should see the rest of her kitchen...

It's official- rhubarb and Amish friendship bread* work well together (was there ever really any question?), especially when served with good coffee, or tea, if that's your thing, sometimes that's my thing too...

Baby J, trying really hard to NOT touch the dvd player.

I was feeling restless last night, not wanting to go to sleep until I knew my asthmatic one was going to be good for the night- it's been a rough week with the heat & humidity combined with high pollen counts- and I had been putting off making another batch of Amish friendship bread, so... I started baking, at 10 pm. The air conditioner has already been working double time just to stay on top of this latest batch of heat and humidity (not looking forward to the next electric bill, if the last one was any indication...) so, why not run the oven? That, there, is classic Ali reasoning for you.

Still trying, can you see the inner struggle?

And as long as you're baking (after 10 pm), why not make a double batch? Oh, and remember how you wanted to make it a bit healthier and try it with fresh ground whole wheat? Now's as good a time as any, right? Can you hear the compulsive overachiever talking? Yeah, that side of me is hard to live with sometimes, but then, it's also the side of me that actually gets things done, so I let her stay.

Looking away, moving away, now that's self-control,

if it were only that easy to train myself that well...

Out came the Whisper Mill, and, since it was after 10, and despite it's quiet name, this mill sounds nothing like a whisper (it's all relative, apparently other mills are even louder), I headed to the garage to grind my wheat. Yep, the garage. I'm weird and compulsive like that.

Not that baking is weird, even if it is a fermented batter, nor is grinding my own wheat, I've been doing that for years, though not exclusively, and not usually in the garage; but put all of these factors together and remember that I was baking after 10 pm, and, well, that was weird.

End result- I occupied my time in between checking on my 6 yr old, who needed several rounds of meds to keep her oxygen level up in the night (really trying to stay out of the ER for a while) AND AT THE SAME TIME, I made 2 big pans of yummy sweet bread to eat for brunch this morning while I stay behind, home from church due to tiredness and several coughing kids.

In between eating and licking my fingers, I'm working on the finishing touches of a couple pairs of mittens, then it'll be onto the pattern editing, yay!

There are so many things I want to knit right now, I can hardly stand it. Teen's soccer season starts tomorrow, so it's time to pack a good bag- yarn, needles, pattern, and snacks, can't forget snacks. Have you ever tried to sit and knit while watching 6 young children for 2 hours while your teenager has soccer practice? My secret is snacks, lots of snacks, oh, and the jungle gym right next to the field, that helps too.

I hope you're all enjoying what's left of this summer- it's the last summer you'll get this year!

Happy knitting-

ali

*this recipe link for Amish friendship bread is my favorite because it calls for all natural ingredients (no instant pudding mix) so I don't have to buy anything extra to have on hand, and the variations on the sidebar, check those out, who knew there were that many things you could do with Amish friendship bread?! I just added a bunch of chopped up rhubarb to mine, because, well, I had a bunch of chopped up rhubarb and it sounded good... it was!