Category: Food

こんばんは！How are you doing?

Today was filled with pizza at every turn! 🍕 It was amazing… First off in the pizza odyssey was lunch. I met with a couple friends at a pizza place, where we enjoyed New York style thin-crust pizza. I love that style, but actually, I like just about all kinds of pizza so that might not be saying much! At any rate, I probably ate more than I should have. 😃 After that, I returned to the office, and there in the breakroom were several boxes of pizza! I was so full from lunch that I passed on these slices. But they did tempt me!

Later for dinner, we heated up more leftover pizza that we had previously enjoyed on Valentines Day. I had a half slice only because I was still full from lunch. I thought that it was crazy that there was so much pizza all day, but then I had to go pick up Bay from his school baseball game. And when I picked him up… guess what he was eating? That’s right! PIZZA! 🍕 I couldn’t believe it.

Well, I think I am all pizza’d out for a while. Whew! I think I need to run around the neighborhood and burn off these calories. Seriously.

📷 Today’s photo is of our tea supply at work. At around 2:30 pm myself and a coworker enjoy “tea time”, which is simply getting a nice hot cup to get us through the rest of the day. I usually stick to either Green, Darjeeling, or Chai and I was craving the latter. As you can see from the photo, I was out of luck! (Someone else had written that note on the box) Oh well… hopefully we’ll get more Chai soon. I enjoy that flavor a lot! 🍵

Well, I hope you had a nice Tuesday! The weather here in Austin is in the 80s ☀️ and tomorrow will be the same. It’s really too early in the year for weather like this, isn’t it?

Take care and have a nice day!

おやすみなさい！

-B 

こんばんは！Hello, how’s it going? Did you have a good day?

Mine was extremely busy, and started early. I arrived at the office at 7am and worked thru lunch all the way about 3:30, then came home and worked until about 4:30. But, I got a ton finished and am feeling pretty good! But enough about work… let’s talk about today’s photo.

Do you know what kind of food this is? It is called “Okonomiyaki” and is my favorite food ever! I first had it in Osaka, when I visited my wife-to-be. She took me to an okonomiyaki restaurant called “Yukari” and I absolutely loved it! Okonomiyaki (Osaka-style) is primarily made of shredded cabbage, mixed with a batter and grilled on a fry-pan like a thick pancake. Other ingredients are added, such as cheese, sliced meat, seafood, noodles, etc. according to your preference. After it is cooked (and flipped a couple times), it is topped with a sweet sauce, Japanese mayo, dried bonito flakes, and a dried green herb (I forget what it is) and eaten, sometimes with small spatulas.

It’s a lot of fun to make at the restaurant, especially drinking a large draft beer! That icy drink hits the spot because the grill pan at the table can make for a very warm dining experience. But that is a lot of the charm of an okonomiyaki restaurant.

Besides Osaka-style, there are other regional varieties, such as Hiroshima-style which has yakisoba noodles and egg. It’s also so delicious! I recommend you give it a try!

By the way, today I noticed that the bone above my right eye is a bit swollen and bruised from the baseball incident last night. I guess I took a bit more damage than previously thought. It doesn’t hurt too much at least.

Well, tomorrow is Friday and I am looking forward to the weekend! Got any big plans?

Take care and have a nice evening!

おやすみなさい！

-B 

こんばんは！Hello everyone, how are you doing?

Tonight I am in a little bit of pain (nothing serious). I was pitching to Koa at the batting facility this evening, and a ball that he hit bounced off the ceiling net, over my L-shaped pitching barrier, and hit me square on my glasses and above my eye. I got a small cut, even! The cut hurts a little bit, but luckily I don’t think I will have a bruise. I’m guessing the seam of the baseball made the cut, but who knows? At any rate, I think I got lucky. Next time I shouldn’t look up to see where the ball is, but rather should just cover up a bit.

Today’s photo is of the sushi roll called “Ehoumaki” which is eaten on Setsubun. In order to bring good luck, you need to eat the entire sushi roll (by hand like a burrito) while facing the current year’s lucky direction. 2016’s direction is south by southeast. In addition, you cannot talk until you finish your sushi! I look forward to ehoumaki each year since Mariko makes a super delicious sushi roll!

I don’t have a compass app on my phone anymore, but I do have this little combo thermometer/compass that keep in my backpack. I think this may be the first time it has been useful!

By the way, the weather tonight has gotten cold once again! And we recently had a day in the 80s… Stay warm tonight wherever you are. Have a nice Thursday!

おやすみなさい！

-バロン 

こんにちは! How’s it going today? It’s a beautiful day here in central Texas, with temperatures approaching 80° F!

Although I love the warmth, I am worried… I mean it’s January so it should be cold! I am wondering how the planet’s climate will be when my kids are adults, and even what the world will be like when my grandchildren are adults. I can imagine that there will be more powerful storms, sea levels will have risen, etc. It’s really a shame. But I am reminded of some lyrics from Everything But the Girl – “In the end, if you take care, you can be happy or unhappy anywhere.” I suppose this could also apply to your place in world history too. I’m sure there will be plenty of happiness whatever the future brings to the planet.

And speaking of happiness, just look at today’s photo! There’s happiness in-the-making right there! As you probably know, my wife is an amazing cook and baker, and she can roll some mean sushi too! Here you can see the fixings for some sushi rolls she was preparing for a potluck party. I “sampled” a lot before the party, so I didn’t eat much there… but really I needed to make sure I got to have a nice share of the sushi before it all got devoured! (I’m not an idiot)

If you haven’t made sushi at home, you should give it a try! Lots of places now sell sushi-grade (and safe) fish, and it makes for a really fun party. You can even order sushi fish online and have it delivered in refrigerated packaging. Very convenient!

I hope you all have a great day!

-B 

こんばんは！How are you today?

Today’s photo is of a cool Mason jar with Honey Dipper. It’s really cool, isn’t it? 🐝 It looks great and it works nicely too. I had never seen this before until the other day when Mariko was using it for one of her recipes. And I knew it would make a nice photo. I just had to find the right light, and today’s evening sun provided a nice brightness to the honey. If you think it is cool, you can get it using the link above. It’s only a few bucks!

Well, it’s almost Friday (already is for most of the world actually) which means the weekend is near! And the weather here in Texas is supposed to be fantastic. Hopefully we can spend some time enjoying the sunshine! ☀️😎

おやすみなさい！

-バロン