The South Padre Island Flip Flop Foodie: The Summer Doldrums

I can't seem to get into the baking and cooking groove. It's that mid-summer sense of blehhh, I don't want to be in the kitchen. I have a long list of things I want to bake and cook - but no impetus to dig into the task. As my momma would say "my git up and go has got up and went".

Glad I got off my butt and baked some bread!

I did decide to bake a loaf of bread today - I had planned refrigerator cinnamon rolls for breakfast (but that fell through last night when I blew it off and watched a movie instead) and then hot rolls planned for dinner; but decided at the last minute I wanted to make a simple loaf of bread. Something I could just plop on the sheet pan after letting the Kitchen Aid do most of the work. I decided on the often-baked and previously-blogged-about Pillow Bread...this time, though, I used half whole wheat flour (don't alert the teen - he thinks Alton's recipes cannot be messed with). It worked great - slightly more dense than the traditional soft pillow bread dough, but very fragrant and yeasty none-the-less. I still did a half recipe (which is absolutely adequate).

My recipe is half of Alton Brown's - and I substituted 1/2 the flour with Whole Wheat Flour

We're having some lightly battered and pan fried Tilapia for dinner and some green beans kicked up with a bit of crunchy bacon, as well as some steamed broccoli (which I'll be eating solo)...so a hot loaf of bread sounded like just the thing to top it off.

It took under 30 minutes from start to finish in prep time and clean up. Thanks goodness...I just wasn't up to anything that would take any longer. It's only 91 degrees here (albeit a heat index of 105) and so I can't complain too much about the heat (since my family is sweltering at 102 in Austin with heat index of 104) but it's Sunday, I feel lazy, and that's the only excuse I have.

Rising under a cotton cloth

The teen is industriously cleaning his room, doing his laundry, and hopefully cleaning his bathroom soon. I think he'll be happy to have a Mom-cooked meal at the end of his day of chores. And if I hear one more person say "you make him do his own laundry? Really?" I'll likely scream. Heck ya, he's doing his own laundry. He's almost 18, he wants to be independent...well, ladies, that is part of it! This last year in school he is also going to be planning menus and doing his own shopping for groceries, too...on a specified budget. I'm just one of those "mean Moms" that wants him to actually know how to survive before he shoots out the door thinking "freedommmmmm" and falls flat on his face.

In the meantime, he'll happily come running in here when he smells bread baking, likely with a giant smile on his face. That boy loves homemade bread!

Between the time I typed this and before the rising was complete...the teen came to find me saying "Mom, I smell yeast in the kitchen, what are you making?" When I replied Pillow Bread, he yelled "WAAHOOOO". Told ya so! Do I know my son, or what?

So, the rising is done...and it's time to bake. Gosh, doesn't baking bread smell wonderful??? Maybe I'll rethink those cinnamon rolls ;-)