Things I've Enjoyed This Week

* The Lunar New Year Celebration on Solano Ave; in particular, the performance "Journey to the West" by Ah-Lan dance.
* Slade House by David Mitchell. "Grief is an amputation, but hope is incurable hemophilia: you bleed and bleed and bleed."
* Listening to Bee Wilson on the 2/4/16 episode of Fresh Air. Quick takeaway: start feeding a baby pureed foods at 4-7 months during her flavor window.
* The Food Lab by J. Kenji-Lopez Alt. He has great explanations for everything. I've always liked roasted potatoes, but this recipe takes it to a whole new level..
* Is This a Phase? Child Development and Parent Strategies, Birth to 6 Years by Helen F. Neville. This is a quick and easy read with great tables and charts. I started and finished it during Adi's nap. I wish I read this book before Adi was two.
* Watching the Golden State Warriors. Has there been a team this good, ever?
* Ellyn Satter's division of responsibility in feeding.

Things I've Enjoyed This Week

* "No Role Modelz" by J. Cole
* Isa Chandra Moskovitz's Best Pumpkin Muffins recipe
* Porco Rosso directed by Hiyao Miyazaki
* "There Was an Old Dragon Who Swallowed a Knight" by Penny Parker Klostermann
* The HBO miniseries "Olive Kitteridge"
* 30-Minute Tuscan White Bean Soup recipe on Serious Eats
* The Food Lab by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt

Turkish Red Lentil Soup

When I was visiting DC two weeks ago, my friends Dannie and Andrew took me to a restaurant near Dupont Circle called Levante's. The highlight of the meal was the lentil soup, described as "Turkish style, with red lentils and seasonings, complimented with a bit of peppermint."

When I came home, I searched the Internet and found a recipe that seemed to resemble the soup I had at the restaurant. I had just about all of the ingredients at home, though I picked up some fresh mint at the grocery store to garnish the soup. It ended up being delicious! The bulgur wheat gives the soup a creamy body, and the mint gives the soup a nice kick at the end. It's fairly simple to make too.

You can find the recipe here.

Boule Bread Recipe

It's amazing how easy and delicious this recipe is. Once you get the hang of it, you'll probably ask yourself why you ever bought bread from a store in the first place.

Ingredients
- 1 1/2 Tbs, instant yeast
- 1 1/2 Tbs, kosher or sea salt (1 Tb table salt is okay)
- 6 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour (for even better results, use bread flour)

1. In a large container, pour yeast and salt into 3 cups wrist-warm water.
2. Stir in flour, mixing with a large wooden spoon for 1-2 minutes. The mixture should be consistent, but not necessarily pretty.
3. Cover, but gas will be produced so do not seal airtight. I usually just put a large dish over my bowl.
4. Let the dough rise at room temperature for 2 hours or just stick in the fridge overnight. You can refrigerate the dough for up to two weeks, adding a few drops of water if the dough becomes very dry.
4. When ready to bake, sprinkle flour on your hands and on top of the dough so it's not too sticky, and cut off a large handful. The size really doesn't matter much.
5. Hold the dough at the bottom with both hands. Stretch the dough with your hands, pulling from the top and stuffing the excess under the bottom. Rotate the dough 45 degrees each time you do this. The top should look neat and stretched. It should take no more than 1 minute.
6. Flour a cookie sheet and rest the dough on it for 40 minutes.
7. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. (Use an oven thermometer to verify the temperature and give yourself at least 20 minutes to preheat if you're using a pizza stone.)
8. After resting, reshape the dough if you want -- you can flatten it, make it more oval-shaped, or just leave it as a big round ball. Dust the top of the dough with an abundant amount of flour to achieve a 'gluten cloak.' Slash top with serrated bread knife 2-3 times.
9. Stick the dough into the oven. I slide the dough onto a hot pizza stone, but you can just stick the cookie sheet in the oven if you don't have one.
10. Immediately open the broiler, and pour 1 cup of water into the broiler pan and shut oven quickly to trap the steam. This prevents the bread crust from getting too hard.
11. Bake for 30 minutes. The crust should be brown and your kitchen should smell delicious.
12. Let the bread cool on a rack before cutting -- it still isn't finished cooking!
13. Once the bread has completely cooled, slice with a bread knife and enjoy!

Adapted from the recipe in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.