Afternoon Tea Time

For a belated Mother’s Day outing, sis and I took our Momma to tea. We got dressed up and went downtown. Many of the hotels offer tea, but we went to The Langham, Boston because I just had an event there and they are lovely to work with. I was happy to give them our business.

The Three Bite Rule - Afternoon Tea
After cosying around a coffee table in plush sofas and arm chairs, we each ordered the Tiffin selection. For tea, I had a pomegrante green tea. I liked the showiness of getting smell the samples.

We got our tea and the sandwiches. There was a smoked salmon on Boston brown bread, egg & chive salad on brioche, roast beef and farmer’s cheese on sourdough, and English cucumber and dill with cream cheese. My fav was the egg salad.

The Three Bite Rule - Afternoon Tea
Next came the scones. Ohh the scones. This was the best scone I’ve ever had. Ever. There was clotted cream, strawberry jam, and lemon curd for the scones. I loved the mix of clotted cream and sweet jam. I could have just had the scones and tea. They were, hands down, the best part.
The Three Bite Rule - Afternoon Tea
We ended it with dessert. I think some were lacking and not really my thing. The raspberry macaroon and a little chocolate crunch cake were both amazing. I didn’t care about the other two.
The Three Bite Rule - Afternoon Tea
It was fun. I think we would have liked to order a la carte better. The sandwiches were good, but there was probably twice as many as we each needed.

Quebec Getaway

I’m baaaack! I took Monday off because

IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY!!

Mr. J and I went to Quebec for a long weekend. It was just what I wanted. Quebec is super cute and the food was fantasic. I very much appreciated getting to see the city without running ourselves ragged. Well, we could not have run. It was -15 degrees part of the time. I have a whole new appreciation for weather in the 20s and 30s. We enjoyed the old city and poked around between meals.

Quebec_fontWe were just across the square from Chateau Frontenac, the most photographed hotel in. the. world.

quebec_lower
It just looks like the set of a musical. I felt like any moment I’d have to step aside for a horse-drawn carriage with the heroine singing a tune as she passed snow covered shop steps and lit trees next to ice sculptures. That didn’t happen. But this is for real though, this is what it looks like. So cute!

We ate some really great meals. The best one was at an adorable French bistro. I, of course, got duck confit. This one came with a citrus salad of herbs and more duck confit. Ahhh-mazing.
Quebec_duck

Mr. J got steak frites
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The creme brûlée didn’t photograph well, but it was MAPLE creme brûlée which was every bit as good as it sounded.

On a more casual night we got burgers, a boozy milk shake, and coq au vin poutine!
quebec_poutine

Cheese curds are so interesting. I was thinking the texture would be too much for me, but it wasn’t. I found them to be sort of like fresh mozzarella. I don’t understand the squeak?

We had a half day our 3rd and final day, which was also my birthday. We started with pain au chocolat.

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and croissant egg sandwiches for the best of both worlds.
quebec_eggsand

Actually, another best that morning was that we got an extra coffee by accident! One bfast came with coffee so we added another. They gave us 2 and then the one came with the food. Jackpot! Happy birthday to me!

Quebec_falls
We took a quick ride (to defrost) over to the frozen waterfalls. Pretty spectacular. See that speck near the orange snow-fence? That’s a person. These falls are huuuge! I wasn’t sad that the 500-stairs up the side are closed for the snow. #nextime

It was a great getaway. I loved it. You should follow me on instagram. I went #happy, and I’m onto a new photo challenge, and I have a family birthday celebration this coming weekend. I’m a pretty lucky girl! (despite coming back to a clog in our sink drain/disposal and the pup having a seizure in our first few hours of sleep being home.)

Brunch at Redd’s in Rozzie

I had been obsessing over trying this place Redds in Rozzie for brunch for a few weekends. It kept just not working out. Somehow Sunday morning were ending up busy. I was psyched when it fit in. If you follow @threebiterule on twitter, then you’ll see this also had trouble fitting into the ole blog schedule. I’ve just come in the door from Santa Barbara and now I’m off traveling again.

We went for brunch and sat outside. It was so cute and I just loved their menu even before eating there. My mum came with Mr. J and me and we ordered the same!
The Three Bite Rule - Redds In Rozzie

Breakfast sandwiches are my go-to for brunch and usually what I get the very first time, you know, to test the place out. I got the biscuit and egg sandwich with fried chicken. Ohh my goodness. I loved it. I ignored the hashbrowns and got right to business (grits were an option too). They make their own bacon & sausage, so that would be pretty amazing in here I’m sure.

The biscuit is to die for. It is so buttery, flaky, and huge. Everything you want in a biscuit. The egg was fluffy and sized perfectly. The fried chicken was amazing. It was super crispy and juicy. Ahhh! I’m salivating just telling you about this. I also wasn’t hungry 8+ hours later.
The Three Bite Rule - Redds In Rozzie

Mr. J likes traditional breakfasts so he got the old faithful. He liked it, and the homemade bacon was to die for…way better than it even looks.
The Three Bite Rule - Redds In Rozzie

I figured we couldn’t skip the house-made sticky bun. It was a necessity. It was delicious.
The Three Bite Rule - Redds In Rozzie

Next time I’d like to try their omelettes and maybe the hush puppies. I also spy some items from the dinner menu that I could really get behind (cough: scallops with a wreckage of summer veggies: crispy avocado: roasted leg of lamb: yum: cough).

It is such a cute spot and they care about local products while making everything themselves. I like the southern touches to their menu. The food is really good and true and not pretentious. I like that. A lot.

GO Burger NYC

Everytime I get back from NYC I say that I don’t go nearly enough. It is true, it is actually pretty close & easy to get to. Mr. J and I hopped a bus after work and were there in just a few hours. Enough time for a brief snooze and a movie on the laptop.

We got in and hung with S & E and their cute puppy Stella. Before we knew it, it was morning and the rest of the gang was arriving. When in NYC, we got bagels and devised our plan for the day. We picnicked and played in Central Park for a bit, did a beer tasting/sampling, got cupcakes and regrouped for dinner plans.

There was pretty much food & beverages all day. We took the dog for a walk along the East River to build up some space for dinner.
The Three Bite Rule - NYC Eats

I love that NYC has everything you’d ever want, and many many many locations of just what you want. We went to Go Burger and loved it.

I got the Mac & Cheeseburger. I mean, how could I not? When I saw that it had fried mac & cheese on top I really couldn’t look elsewhere. I thought about the salmon burger with pickled red onions & avocado but I just couldn’t.
The Three Bite Rule - NYC Eats

My Mac & Cheeseburger was a turkey burger topped with fried mac & cheese, cheddar cheese, caramelized onions, bacon, and homemade ketchup. It was so good.
The Three Bite Rule - NYC Eats

Mr. J got the same, but on a beef burger. There were some BLT burgers, a smashed burger, and a turkey burger amongst our group too.

Sunday morning we squeezed in a jaunt through Central Park and may have had Pick a Bagel…again. I was thinking about why bagels aren’t as good other places and maybe that’s how it should be. Maybe I don’t need a whole-wheat-everything-bagel that good to be around the corner from me.

It was definitely a weekend of eating, drinking, and catching up with longtime friends. Exactly as life should be.

Cape House and Beachy Eats

The perfect way to round out the summer meant family getaways to the Cape and Maine. This is the start of being gone for 7 consecutive weekends but was totally worth it.

Growing up my parents had a house on Cape Cod and began renting it more and more as we grew older. The house was super charming and HUGE! We made lots of great memories there and I get nostalgic wishing they still owned that house. Now that I’m older I definitely understand what goes into owning property, paying taxes, planning for time there, and can only imagine the stress of finding normal renters, especially for the off-season months.

I usually go to that beach at least once a year for a beach day trip, but the ‘rents rented a cottage for a week this year! I hadn’t stayed there in years, decades really. Mr. J and I boarded the pups and spent a few days at the beach. Sis was able to squeeze in a brief stay while we were there too. I’m protecting this special spot’s anonymity since the beach is spacious, adorable, and I don’t want it overrun with tourists (ask me outside of the blogosphere and I’ll profess my devotion, proclaim my love, and give great recommendations).

We got pizza the first night, for old time’s sake. There’s one pizza joint in the town and everybody loves it. Literally, the 3 phones ring off the hook while a steady stream of walk-ins place orders to go or to eat there. We walked over to pick it up and then ate on a picnic table in the backyard of the rental. The pizza was delightful and it was so great to eat a bunch of pizzas while enjoying the gentle August breeze.
The Three Bite Rule - Cape Food

We got a supreme pizza. It is a pizza turned over onto the underneath pizza. I know, I know. I get it. It sounds like a calzone. It is not. This is a pizza, with a cheese pizza overturned on top, with sauce and cheese on the very top. It was “filled” with sausage, garlic, onions, green peppers, and eggplant. I loved every bite. It was hard to stray to taste another amazing pizza.
The Three Bite Rule - Cape Food

We got some small ones too. One was bacon and onion. The other was a white one with feta and garlic. Ohh goodness. I had to cut myself off.

When on the Cape, we went on bike rides (not me), went to the beach, played card games, ate ice cream every night, and of course ate seafood while overlooking the beach.

I got lobster mac & cheese that was ahhhmazing. And huge. With tons of lobster chunks. And I had to cut myself off once again…well, I had to make room for ice cream, ya know.
The Three Bite Rule - Cape Food
I nabbed one of Mr. J’s fried scallops and would have loved them too.
The Three Bite Rule - Cape Food
Dad got clams and the other menu items were Mediterranean inspired dishes. Mum got scallop & shrimp kebobs and sis got chicken kebabs.
The Three Bite Rule - Cape Food
Nightly ice cream was an indulgence that was totally necessary. I didn’t snap any photos because it was too good to let melt. Have you heard of Phantom Berry? It was black raspberry ice cream with oreos & chocolate chips. I wish we had discovered this gem sooner!