Sunday Night Dinner

Lately, I've been spending a lot of time with a new cookbook: Thomas Keller's "Ad Hoc at Home". Keller is the owner and chef of two of the top restaurants in the country - The French Laundry in California wine country and Per Se in NYC. I almost ate at The French Laundry once, but the person on the phone made it painfully clear that my younger child wasn't welcome in the restaurant, so we cancelled.

Anyway, the new cookbook comes from a newer restaurant that Keller and his team created. Ad Hoc sort of came about as an idea to create a temporary restaurant to keep some employees busy and use a space that Keller owned. But, the temporary restaurant became so popular for its home-style cooking that they haven't gotten around to closing it.

The first few chapters focus on entrees and all of them are extremely "primal" friendly. That is, the recipes mostly contain meat, quality fats, and vegetables. This weekend, I borrowed some ideas from the cookbook and made an amazing dinner that was very low in carbs. And, it was very tasty.

On Saturday, I sauteed a whole pork belly and when it was well browned, I covered it with beer and braised it in the oven for a couple hours. Then, I chilled it overnight. Last night, I pan-sauteed some scallops in butter. I cut some pork belly into cubes and roasted them in the oven until they were very crisply. I cooked some haricot verts and made a salad. Very simple. The only seasoning on the scallops and pork belly was a bit of kosher salt. And, the two proteins complemented each other perfectly. The kids enjoyed the pork belly and scallops so much that no one complained that I hadn't made potatoes or rice or couscous or some other starch with dinner.

I did have a great run with my wife on Saturday during a brief lull in the rain. Then, we made dinner for the kids, took a shower, and actually went out for an evening. It's so nice that the kids are old enough that we can do this on occasion.

Then, we got home in time to see the Sharks wrap up their second round playoff series.

I did take a rest day and do some work on Sunday. I also slept in, given that I hadn't gotten nearly enough sleep all week.

Tonight, I'll go to the gym and lift.

And for dinner, I'm making a chicken stew with fennel and fresh artichokes, and maybe a few chunks of pork belly.