a-Babka-at-the-end-of-the-stick-kind-of-night

Ever since Wendy came into my life there are lots of days that end like this. (Truth be known, there were probably more days like this before any children came into my life than there are now, but I was more relaxed back then and had leisure to wait until the mood hit me to spend hours cleaning up.)Now, it drives me crazy.  I learned with Charlie’s infancy that the only thing more depressing to me than seeing this mess at the end of the day, is waking up to it the next morning and having to deal with it while dealing with an infant. 

I hope you realize I pose no moral judgment on the untidy.   If you can live in chaos without it gnawing at your insides like itchy wool at your neck, then fantastic.  I cannot.  Somehow having children has turned me into a crazy woman for neat. I now equate “peace” “rest” and “relax” with “tidy and clean.” At the end of the day, when I’m tired of wrangling 2 year old cowboys and pampering 6 month old princesses, I wish this weren’t true. But it is. 

So the other night I decided to bribe myself into doing the dishes with Chocolate Cinnamon Babka. 

“What?!??” you say?  “Do more work to convince yourself to do more work?”   Yes, it is true.  I am that much of a sucker for chocolate,butter and white flour. 

Here’s how it went down:

made Babka dough (a whole cup of butter, folks!)  (and also some whole wheat roll dough because it’s easy and I was baking already and we needed it for the next day.)mixed up some divine chocolate-cinnamon-butter spread and soaped up the dishes while the dough rose shaped it and rinsed dishes while it rose some more…finished the dishes in time to watch a show while the bread bakedTHEN I ate me some Babka from a sparkling clean kitchen (and breakfast was already made for the next morning too!) SO worth it!