Onion Dip Burger

Grilling the best part of summer. Dontcha think? Or maybe it is the beach. I think food is best in the summer. I capitalize on burgers at home since not everywhere offers their delicious combos ontop a burger I can eat. I can make my own chicken, pork, turkey, etc burger at home. Let’s be honest, I’ve been all about the ground pork lately since it is by far the cheapest, and tends to not get as dry as turkey. Try it.
The Three Bite Rule - Onion Burger
This idea came from Ms. L long enough ago that she had forgotten about it. I didn’t. I heard onion-dip burger and was all about it! I modeled this one off my technique for ranch burgers.

Ingredients:

½ pound ground meat (I used pork)
1 container of onion dip
1 packet of onion soup mix
2 slices of cheese
3 tbs fried onions

Directions:

Mix the ground meat with the onion soup mix, and 1/3 cup onion dip until well incorporated.
The Three Bite Rule - Onion Burger
Form into patties and grill (or cook) until cooked through.
The Three Bite Rule - Onion Burger
Lightly warm fried onions in toaster oven or skillet.
Top burgers with cheese, onion dip, and fried onions.
The Three Bite Rule - Onion Burger
Enjoy!

The onion burgers were juicy and completely flavor packed. I’m salivating just thinking of them. They stayed together perfectly on the grill (unlike some of my stuffed burgers).

These are such a great treat and EASY way to amp up your regular burger. I think the dip as a condiment is perfect and the crunch from the onions was awesome. They do have a use other than green bean casserole!

When I heard about onion dip burgers I was going to top it with chips, like Bobby Flay’s crunchified burgers but the onions seemed like a fun but unexpected topping.
The Three Bite Rule - Onion Burger

I do need to crunchify my next burger though.

Sauce

More vacation fun! I wanted to get this amazing meal recap out before I spill the beans of my next vacays scheduled! 😀 You can check out what else I loved eating on vacation here.

I eat at this restaurant (Sauce) every year when I travel to San Fran for work and I fell in love the first time. They had me at mushroom jenga.
Sauce sign
Sauce serves this ap of lightly breaded mushroom “fries” stacked like jenga or lincoln logs. It comes with ranch dipping sauce. Even people who don’t like mushrooms like these.

mushroom jenga
After another crazy-filled day of sightseeing Mr. J and I were starving (as in this was the day we didn’t have Ghirardelli sundaes for lunch). We also had endured a somewhat impromptu hike. I don’t mean the regular crazy hills, I mean up the side of a peak.

I mentioned this spot and the menu caught Mr. J’s eye too. Sold! It was near our hotel and I was pretty jazzed at the prospect of splitting a bunch of small plates.

Needless to say, I got the portabello fries. Mr. J got bacon wrapped mini meatloaves served on mashed potatoes with gravy. What a fun idea for a potluck or dinner party?! Then we split everything else. Put your fat pants on, there was a lot of food.
mini meatloaf
We got Dungeness crab rangoons. It was pretty much all crab, no filler. Swoon. They were really good. I kind of changed my tune when we calculated the cost per Rangoon. Whatever, we were on vacation.
wontons
Next up was a side of Mac & Cheese. It was baked with a delightful cheese and cracker topping. I’m pretty sure the deliciousness came from a good quantity of butter.
Mac & cheese baked
And then the server asked us about dessert. Mr. J felt like we had to get the mini doughnut holes with vanilla bourbon dipping sauce. I wasn’t impressed with them earlier in the week because they weren’t warm and soft. Same story this time. Womp womp. We did a good job at them nonetheless.
mini donut holes
I was really interested in the PB&J cake with strawberry perserves, chunky peanut butter layer, and vanilla ice cream center.
pb & jelly cake
That’s when it went downhill. There was a sampler and we went for it. You can see above that it had the doughnuts, the PB&J cake. It also came with rum raisin cookie dough ice cream sandwiches.
cookie dough ice cream sandwich
They put some strawberries dipped in whipped cream and brown sugar on for good measure too. Why? Probably because these are full servings and intended for 4 people.

Mr. J was adamant that we finish. We were laughing so hard about how stuffed we were that we gave it a good shot but it was a doozy. I had a serious case of the giggles and Mr. J was doing some Lamaze breathing. Our waitress kind of thought we were insane.

It was such a fun meal. I kind of love the last night of vacation. Do you? I means it is almost time to go home and by the end I’m ready. It was such a fun dinner of sharing and there was PLENTY of food. Mr. J and I truly got to just enjoy ourselves and relish the moments.

source: Sauce

Olympics Potluck

The closing ceremony is almost here. So sad. I don’t know about you but I’m exhausted. It is so much work to keep up! Gymnastics and beach volleyball have been my favorites. Of course I got sucked into some swimming, diving, and track as well.

To celebrate, it was time for some office olympics…not a la Jim & Pam’s Office Olympics but  in our way of celebrating, as a potluck!

The Three Bite Rule Olympic Potluck
Let the games begin!

We had greek salad
The Three Bite Rule Olympic Potluck
I made Greek lettuce wraps
The Three Bite Rule Olympic Potluck
And some summery bruschetta with a nod to Italian athletes
The Three Bite Rule Olympic Potluck
and a full out cheer to the Italian team
The Three Bite Rule Olympic Potluck
There was a great representation of the rings!
The Three Bite Rule Olympic Potluck
These rings too!
The Three Bite Rule Olympic Potluck
There was some red, white & blue patriotism
The Three Bite Rule Olympic Potluck
Wishing both the French & USA bon chance with some trifle!
The Three Bite Rule Olympic Potluck
Local & Farmer’s market picks suggest that the USA will sweep in medals! The Three Bite Rule Olympic Potluck

 

What I ate: Cowboy Burger

I’ve made a few stuffed burgers and every time I make them I think of a new one! This time I did a cowboy burger with caramelized onions and cheddar cheese stuffed into the burger. I mixed in and topped them with barbecue sauce.
Three Bite Rule: Cowboy Burger
It was a a good combo and I think the barbecue sauce in the ground chicken was great touch to keep it juicy.

Restaurant Recreation: Big Mac Pizza

I was sad to miss out on the Mac Daddy pizza at the Pizza Rumble so I knew I’d have to recreate it ASAP at home! I can’t eat red meat so I couldn’t partake in the beef one so I made it Emily-friendly at home. It was such a winner and one I’ll totally make again!
3 Bite Rule: Big Mac Pizza

Ingredients:

Pizza dough
¾ pound ground turkey/chicken/pork
1 white onion, chopped
8 oz shredded yellow cheddar
2 tbs sesame seeds
3 tbs ketchup
2 tbs mayo
1 tsp relish
1 cup shredded lettuce

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425-degrees and precook pizza dough until starting to get puffed and the bottom is getting crisp (about 15 minutes).
While dough is cooking, brown the ground meat and add onion after about 7 minutes of cooking. Continue cooking until meat is cooked through and onions are translucent.
Remove crust when semi-cooked and top with cheese. Add the onion and meat mixture on top of cheese. Sprinkle with ½ the sesame seeds and return pizza to the oven for about 10 more minutes.
3 Bite Rule: Big Mac Pizza
Mix mayo, relish, and ketchup together to make special sauce.
3 Bite Rule: special sauce
Remove pizza and top with lettuce, special sauce, and the remaining sesame seeds.
3 Bite Rule: Big Mac Pizza

This was really a fun pizza. The flavors went together really well and although I can’t say I’ve ever eaten a Big Mac, there’s a reason everyone knows the jingle and why the burger has been popular for 40+ years. The special sauce really makes this.
3 Bite Rule: Big Mac Pizza

I found a cheddar blend of shredded cheese intending for melting, aka, it had some processed American cheese which was perfect.

I actually didn’t want to buy iceburg lettuce just for this so I used spinach. Choose your green, you’re in charge! I only topped the pieces we’d be eating that night so we weren’t reheating lettuce on top of pizza the next day. I forgot pickles on mine. Oops. There will definitely be a next-time so I can right this wrong in the future.

This would be a really fun one to make as mini ones as apps or to a potluck. How come nobody brings pizzas to potlucks anyway?

Meal Planning Tips & Techniques

I’ve seen some pretty impressive meal planning posts lately

like this
or this
or this

there are tons of ideas out there…just search “meal planning” on pinterest and you’ll find endless hours of creativity and organization. Mine is pretty basic but I’m taking the food approach rather than the crafty approach. Maybe I’ll get on that later 😉

Since I’m only meal planning for two of us, my set up is pretty basic. We have relatively busy lives but we know what is coming up for the week. I used to just have in my head what I wanted to make and when that would be. I had elaborate plans for leftovers but that was just living in my head too. It made me feel like I was the dictator, like Mr. J’s tastes were at my whim, and like I was running the show.

Now that we’re homeowners, I’m being a grown up and mapping out the week for all to see. It is helpful for us because it gets us both on the same page, saves money, eliminates extra grocery store trips, and helps for lunch-packing-planning. Mr. J has taken to bringing lunch everyday so having a plan we both know.
3 Bite Rule meal planning

Step one: figuring out what to make
I usually meal plan on Saturday or Sunday mornings. I see what is going on (i.e. Mr. J playing hockey, me working late, one or both of us going out, etc). I think of a few things I’ve been itching to make and fill in the gaps with easy throw together meals (think salads or burgers or eggs). Not every dinner is special or blog-worthy: thus why I created the What I Ate series). I usually have a list of ideas to try. I get a bunch of food magazines, I subscribe to a lot of blogs, I scour restaurant menus all the time, and Pinterest is always a great source too. I tap into these sources while watching food network or combing through my lists/ideas. I sort of attempt to vary the categories or foods so that we don’t have pizza 3 times in one week or burritos/tacos/enchiladas all in a row.

ex: If I have a pizza topping idea up my sleeve that might be Monday, and Thursdays are usually quicker/lighter meals before Mr. J plays hockey so falafel wraps might be that night. Now I need something for Tues & Wed. Maybe burgers sound good because it’ll be hot on Tuesday with my fav oil/vinegar coleslaw. We haven’t had anything Mexican in awhile so maybe that’s a good use for leftover ground meat after making Wed’s burgers. Now that becomes Tuesday’s plan. Mon & Wed have leftover capabilities for lunches the following days so I’ll add salad or sandwich stuff to the list for the days after a dinner without leftovers (i.e. I’m never gonna eat a burger I cooked the night before for lunch).
3 Bite Rule Meal Planning

I have some more planning tips I share later. How do you plan meals?

What I Ate: Salad Bar

Well, we’ve made it to Friday! Somehow it always seems like an accomplishment. A wise gal, Ms. D, told me “I like to call it big Friday. Thursday is like little Friday.” I like that.

I’ve been really into salads for dinner so I wanted to throw this idea your way. We like salad bar dinner to each customize and because it’s all the fun stuff at the salad bar that make it fun food. Toppings to a sundae.
3 Bite Rule - Salad Bar
There’s nothing super crazy in this bar, but it’s a good use for leftovers!

Pizza Rumble Recap

It is almost too late to post this now that it is August, but hey, I make the rules so here you go! Ms. L and I went to a pizza rumble. SO good!

The rumble was a taste-off amongst 4 pizza places hosted by Parlor Sports. We paid for the tickets and then got to taste all 4 and vote for our favorite. There wasn’t any criteria but we heard from each pizza joint about what they were serving us.

Emma’s Pizza in Kendall Square gave us what the kitchen staff most often make when they themselves are hungry. It had a paper thin crust topped with, in their words, “crispy smoked bacon/scallions/gorgonzola/house roasted tomatoes/garlic olive oil/light mozzarella”. Wow, right? Well, I was underwhelmed. The toppings weren’t evenly distributed. I was thankful that the toppings were sparse given that gorgonzola isn’t my fav.
Emma's Pizza

Eat at Jumbo’s cracked me up. I lived across the street for years and don’t remember eating their pizza. Mr. J thinks we didn’t love the pizza…who knows. Their pizza seems MIA from the menu but from what I remember, it was Jamaican Jerk chicken, roma tomatoes, bacon?, and banana peppers. This one was really good. It had the right amount of cheese and was so flavorful.
Jumbo's Jerk Chicken

Easy Pie served us Mac Daddy pizza. I could have this one because there was beef on it, but what a great idea?! Everyone loved this one! It was ground beef, special sauce, onions, pickles, and shredded lettuce. Spoiler alert: I recreated this one at home. Quite Tasty!
Mac Daddy Pizza

We rounded out our sampling was All Star Pizza Bar. I was psyched to see them there since I hadn’t made it to the famous sandwich bar’s latest pizza shop. They gave us a dessert one which was welcomed after our savory pizzas. It had hazlenuts, banana puree, roasted plantains, chocolate covered bacon. I don’t know what happened after chocolate covered bacon. It was amazing. Ms. L and I both thought it was going to have too much banana but we loved it.
All Star Dessert Pizza

I asked if Parlor Sports knew what the next rumble would be. They’ve done nachos, hot dogs, and something else. I suggested wings, or bar food, or cookies. Pizza was a good one and now I have lots of pizza ideas to add to my collection…watch out!

Best Fries of My Life

Want to hear all about my vacay? Ok, great!

I feel like I’ve been traveling non-stop for work. Luckily, I get to go to pretty great places (love Chicago, and San Fran x2) but it definitely makes me focused on maintaining my everyday life when I am home (seeing my people, going to the gym, cooking real food, blogging, etc).

As much as I was tiring of living out of my suitcase every other week, I stayed after one of my trips and Mr. J came to meet me. I was really tempted to opt for a more relaxed getaway but I do truly love San Fran and I was psyched to share it with Mr. J for the first time.

You might think that spending time in a city I’ve been to about 5x might be relaxing, but he and I are like sightseers on speed. We literally race around a city to see all the sites, learn the history, do as the locals do, all while capturing the best photography light (for him) and eating fun local finds (for me- as seen here) . This is precisely why our honeymoon cruise through Europe was so appealing to mix up the relaxing I-don’t-have-to-think (as in I’ll just show up for dinner after lounging by the pool) with how-to-see-Rome-in-a-day.

I have a few meals to share with you from this trip. They are actually both restaurants I’ve been to before. I know that might not seem exciting, but I’m telling you. After running up & down hills for about 7 hours a day without stopping for lunch meant that by dinner time we were starved and trying to regroup after a busy day. Even I don’t want to browse reviews and price ranges at that point. Our hotel did have homemade cookies all the time and that’s quite the treat when choosing a dinner location 😉

With that long winded recap, I give you Jasper’s Corner Tap & Kitchen!
Jasper's
I ate here after working a 24-hour event. We work for a million hours through the night, sleep for a few hours then everyone is up and ready for food. A group of us ended up here and I thought it was just so charming. They have this crazy-good side of brussels sprouts pedals with bacon and filberts…sooo good and definitely I want to attempt to recreate. This time I brought Mr. J back and he loved it too.

I was sad that they don’t have a veggie, turkey, or chicken burger since I can’t eat red meat, but I do get that chefs are sometimes quite against fake-burgers. It’s not really a burger-joint per se, but that’s what I had in mind. I did 100% get on board with a grilled cheese with pork belly.
Jaspers Pork Belly Grilled Cheese
Seriously best grilled cheese I’ve ever had. It was perfectly grilled on some quality bread. This was a substantial sandwich served piping hot. There’s not much worse than a limp, tepid grilled cheese. I liked the tomato and onion relish on a few bites too.

Mr. J got the “J Burger” how appropriate?! It had blue cheese, bacon onion marmalade…after that topping, need I say more? I’m sure it tasted better than my fuzzy-low-light photo makes it look!
Jasper's burger
Now, one of the best parts: the fries. This restaurant has a French. Fry. menu. The fries are seriously good enough to deserve their own menu. We splurged and got a side of fries to share in addition to the fries that came with his burger.
Jasper's fries
We had the regular thin fries and thick cut truffle parmesan. I was so impressed that Jasper’s really knows what they are doing with the fries and does it really well. These suckers are seriously addicting. I couldn’t stop reaching for more.

Needless to say we were wayyy too stuffed for any dessert. I learned a lot about their desserts from an obnoxiously loud table nearby who our sweet server humored and unfortunately the owner seemed to dote on. Chocolate cake with toffee ice cream dipped in chocolate does sound delicious now though.

Our server was from MA too and was so full of personality. She was great and I was FLOORED that she remembered the work group when I mentioned I’d been there a month ago. She remembered where we had been sitting. This gal was so great, attentive, and made us feel at home. Speaking of feeling at home, the fries didn’t hurt either.