Attempts to resolve the Quandary:
6
Katie was more iffy than affable in Mrs. Iyer's eyes, more likely to leaven the chicken curry than the dosa dough, more nettling than settling, and from the way Kumar mollycoddled Katie, she knew this would probably end up in a disastrous marriage if she didn't intervene. (by QuaQua)
5
How I loved him, that affable mollycoddler, the leaven in the loaf of our small business, always pleasant and indulgent, quietly going about his work, his steady kindness never disturbed by our nettlesome shenanigans! (by cusheamus)
4
She seemed at her affable best, greeting every insufferable guest with charm and poise, as if she had decided to mollycoddle their fragile egos, which she later told me was precisely the case, and that every time one of them nettled her with their self-importance, it only leavened her distaste for the milieu she had married into and fortified her resolve to escape from it. (by aslam)
3
I am still an "apprentice" in title, but my skills are well leavened, so when the head baker mollycoddles me under the guise of affability, I want to stick nettles in his loaf! (by Rudi)
2
"Gadzooks! am I to be thrice nettled by this perseverating indolent logomaniac - must I conjure afresh the dead (white, purple and yellow) and grasp the comparative urticaceous duo, merely to mollycoddle his pleonastic proclivities? - must I forsake my erstwhile affability, now leavened to seething ferment? - begorra, I'll show him my mettle!" (by Bud Myte)
1
No more Mrs. Nice Guy, thought Brenda, her accustomed sadness leavened to ripe sorrow by the drip drip of his nettling disdain, no more kid gloves, this mollycoddling had gone on for too long, and, for what, for this, this betrayal? as she turned to him with affable eyes that barely hinted at the crashing, tumbling rift in her heart and said in a voice that sounded distant, like the voice of a stranger, "I'm sorry, John, dear, really, I am, but it's over." (by Sensil)
7
I find Margie to be affable and pleasant for the most part, but the way she mollycoddles her children really nettles me: last night, she threw out a cake that she had been working on for hours when little Jack announced five minutes before dessert was to be served that he no longer eats leavened dough. (by Eli)