What a crazy day!

The phones are work were ringing off the hook today with back to back calls just like during the busy season. After the last two months lull, it was a bit of a jolt, particularly since I'm now a Tier Three staff and doing considerably more complicated tasks than I was as a Tier One the last time the phones were this crazy. I didn't mind the hectic pace so much because it made the day fly by and it was 5 PM before I knew it. However, I was definitely feeling a bit weary on my way home and what a treat it was to pull up in my driveway and have visitors literally waiting for me at my door to offer me a cold beer. And after we attended to Theo's needs for a walk, food and attention, I was then whisked away for a free dinner at Serrano's. Wow!

Bread baking day

Theo actually let me sleep in yesterday and despite a rather late start to the day, I managed to get everything done that I wanted to get done, including baking some bread in my bread maker. It's taken me six months to get around to using it due to the narrow counter space that requires me to keep an eye on it during the kneading cycles. Otherwise, it will bounce itself right off the counter if I don't push it back from the edge on a regular basis and it wasn't until yesterday that I had the block of time and the desire to deal with that. I made up the recipe because that's half the fun of it and it turned out to be very tasty, though not as strongly flavored as I wanted. This time I remembered to write it down so I could adjust it later. Here's the recipe from yesterday:

Cheese/Onion bread (with just a hint of cheese/onion flavor)

Makes a 1 lb loaf in the bread maker machine

3/4 cup water

2 Tablespoons honey

1 Tablespoon Chicken & Tomato Bullion

2-1/4 cups flour

1 package of yeast

1/2 cup shredded cheese (I used a four cheese mexican blend)

1/2 cup diced sweet onion

Add the ingredients to the bread machine in the order listed and use the Fruit/Nut bread cycle with a medium crust setting.