ANOTHER VISIT TO CLEAR FLOUR

It's snowing outside. Which means I'm stuck inside at my store and no one is shopping. I mean no one. I've had one customer today. So I'm also deeply bored. These are the days you want to declare a snow day and head home. If I weren't training the new employee today, you'd bet that's exactly what I'd do. But at least I brought lots of snacks to work to keep me entertained. This weekend I spent a lot of time working, but at least I had all of Sunday off to run errands. And have brunch with Leah. We went to Shangri-la in Belmont for dim sum. I hadn't been there in some time, and it was nice to have familiar comfort food. And I also really like their scallion pancakes.

After brunch, I took a nap and then did the typical Sunday stuff: laundry, food shopping and what has now become a weekend ritual, a visit to Clear Flour Bakery. As I said last week, we tried out the staples first, but were now ready to try some more unique bread. I got 2 almond macaroons, plus a loaf of bread stuffed with sundried tomatoes, a demi French and the best thing of all, a black sesame bread stick with herbed butter. We also grabbed a bread schedule. Some stuff they only make on certain days of the week. So that black sesame bread stick is only made on Saturdays and Sundays. I think it's nice, so if you go often, you can keep being surprised. Unfortunately when we got home, we noticed that the girl had forgotten our demi French, which I was planning on serving with a lentil soup I'd made for dinner.

I'd been watching Ina last week when I decided to make her lentil soup with sausage. It turned out pretty well, but while I was making it, I kept feeling it was lacking in something. I ended up tossing in some rosemary, which helped give the soup more body. And the addition of red wine vinegar at the end really did help change the flavor, as did the accompanying grated cheese and olive oil. So don't forget those. I used kielbasa sausage, as she suggested, but Tom pointed out that he likes some heat and an andouille sausage may have worked better. I couldn't agree more. I also like additional heat. Lastly, this recipe is enormous. I halved it and still have a ton of soup left, but that's ok, cause that's what I'm having for lunch today.