Entries Tagged as 'chris'

Portuguese Vinegar Meat

February 12th, 2010 · 2 Comments

Whenever we go back to Kauai Dallas’s Aunty Nancy makes Dallas’s favorite meal for him and sends him home to wherever we’re staying with a ton of leftovers for the trip. Aunty Nancy is Portuguese and the dish she makes is like a beef pot roast, but really vinegar-y and served with rice, of course. I don’t know what this is really called, but we have always called it Portuguese Vinegar Meat and Dallas loooves it.

A few months ago Dallas was in Washington DC for work. Aunty Nancy’s oldest daughter Tandy lives there with her husband Chris. They just had their first baby, Kai (photo to the right!!!), and Aunty Nancy has been staying with them to help out. They all spent a couple days together and somehow Dallas got Aunty Nancy to give up the Portuguese meat recipe!

Dallas came home and immediately had to try his hand at it. It turned out good.. maybe a little too much vinegar for my liking, but very good. I think we have a few tweaks to work out before it’s up to Aunty Nancy’s standard. I’m sure we’ll be making this many many times until we get it exactly right! We also thought about trying to adapt it for the slow cooker.

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Brunch at Green Zebra

January 5th, 2010 · No Comments

Dallas’s cousin Danny cooks at two of Executive Chef Shawn McClain’s Chicago restaurants, Green Zebra and Spring. Dallas and I have been to Spring and we’ve been to Custom House, which used to be under McClain’s umbrella, but we’d never been to Green Zebra. Danny invited us to come and eat brunch so we went on Sunday with his sister Cory and her husband Chris.

Dallas, Cory, Chris and I ordered a few things for the table and then the kitchen hooked us up with the rest. Everything was so delicious. Green Zebra is a vegetarian restaurant, but the way that these dishes came out, you never really even think about the meat being missing. My favorites were the chilaquiles, the blt, and the popover. This is everything we had:

  • Cornbread Madelines
  • Sticky Buns
  • Coffee Cake
  • Parmesan truffle frites
  • Gingerbread hotcakes with kumquats
  • Stuffed popover
  • BLT (I think the “B” was brioche!)
  • Chilaquiles
  • Eggs Benedict
  • Candied Kumquats

For a fine dining restaurant, I thought the prices were pretty good. I think an average entree was about $8 – $10. Cory and I had $8 bloody marys and Dallas and Cory had Domaine Dupage French Country Ale for $5 each. We’re gonna have to remember Green Zebra next time we’re thinking about where to go for brunch. I’d like to also someday go for dinner and see what that’s like.

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Christmas Dinner at Auntie Gail’s

December 27th, 2009 · No Comments


Derek & Mitch


Tommy was tickling Kate and Kate was giggling like crazy.


Derek playing the pinball machine that’s so old his dad and uncles used to play it at his age.


Ben, Derek, Chris, Mitch – Nintendo DSi was a popular gift this year.


Chris & Kenji setting up for the adult’s gift bag swap.


Mitch in the midst of the swap


Aly was excited to win a Snuggie in the swap. Cool, because we brought it!


Aly modeling her new Snuggie


Kids are all ready to go home and to bed: Derek, Tommy, Ben, Kenji, Kate

On Christmas day we always go to Dallas’ Auntie Gail’s house in Mt. Prospect. This was the first year we had a car to actually drive ourselves out, which doesn’t seem like a big deal, but in the past it’s always been a hassle to try to get a ride.

Auntie Gail made the same dinner she makes every year: beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, corn, green bean casserole and her mom’s lettuce/mayo/crab/pea/something salad. Not a huge fan of the salad but everything else was fantastic, as always.

All of the adults have a $10 gift bag exchange after dinner. This year didn’t get too crazy, except when someone took away Aly’s gift. She had her eye on one and it turned out to be a Snuggie, which she was really psyched about. And it was awesome for us because that was one of the gifts we brought. Dallas ended up getting a metal water bottle and I got a scrapbook with two $5 bills taped on it. Not sure how that works out. Aly brought it and tried to explain it to me, but I wasn’t following. Ha.

Previous Christmases at Auntie Gail’s:
- 2008
- 2007
- 2006
- 2005

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