The boys are on Christmas break from school now. And yep, we baked 3 more dozen Christmas cookies today...

Just a quick little catch up from me... super duper quick! Both Branden and Noah started their Christmas break from school yesterday/Friday December 22nd. They do not go back to school until January 8th.

The kids and I baked a 2nd batch of homemade Christmas cookies this morning together all 3 of us. Half are pictured here. Three dozen you guys! We now have tons of fresh Christmas cookies from scratch to munch all weekend. Noboru is munching one right now... as I type. We baked pretty vibrant Christmas trees and stars again. I also made 2 pie crusts this morning after we finished the cookies. So tomorrow morning, I can bake us 2 fresh pumpkin pies for Christmas dinner this coming Monday. Baking them 1 day ahead just saves me time.

All things from Amazon (Japan and the US) and Sephora and stuff arrived from the US and yes the DVDs made it, phew. And everything is wrapped up and under the tree. We have absolutely nothing to buy. Nowhere to run. We're all set.

Last night we had curry soup nabe, all 4 of us. A family favorite of ours. And tonight we are having nikujaga. Tomorrow night we will eat homemade American style fried chicken made by me. Noboru *loves* my homemade fried chicken and Japanese folks, usually buy it from KFC at Christmas time in Japan, so he's stoked for mine tomorrow night. Mashed potatoes and gravy. And dinner rolls from our favorite bakery. And some broccoli. We'll have a pretty simple, but delicious homemade meal here at home for Christmas eve. And for Christmas dinner. We'll be having a spiral sliced honey ham. Marinated with a honey and pineapple juice concoction that is just so delicious. We'll have homemade gratin potatoes, cornbread. Broccoli. Black olives. Salad and pumpkin pie. And we'll be eating ham sandwiches for days after that. Yum. : ) Have a wonderful Christmas all of you.  Eat lots of good food. Be happy, kind and smile. : )

Throwback Thursday...

October 15, 2008. I had made curry and rice for supper. I had also according to my pics with dates. I baked a batch of homemade from scratch oatmeal raisin cookies that morning too. So the kids had already eaten supper, had some cookies and taken nice hot soapy sudsy showers and were in their PJ's. As you know all October long we watch Halloween movies. And since they were just wee little kiddos. We watched "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown." Sally is very mad that she wasted her whole night in the pumpkin patch with Linus versus going out trick or treating and getting candy!!!

Everyone got candy except for Charlie Brown. He received rocks!!! Poor Charlie Brown.

Noah enjoying, "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown." Wearing his green dinosaur long johns from Target. And he has a nice cozy fleece blanket he can cuddle with too. 

Branden also enjoying the movie. Wearing his Spiderman PJ's from Target too. And just a disclaimer, our house is centrally heated, so every room and everywhere in our home is super hot all winter long and we also have heated floors downstairs and it feels like you're walking on a pancake griddle. So our kids don't need super thick fleecy PJ's. In our house they'd be overheated wearing those. Thinner PJ's in winter... but still long sleeve and stuff is enough for our home. Americans you will understand since all your homes are also centrally heated. But most homes in Japan are not centrally heated. And so they wear super thick winter clothes. Sleep with hot water bottles and the whole shebang. So I am sure people living in houses without central heating probably thought wow...her kids must be cold by looking at these 2 pics. And so just thought I would nip that thought right in the bud real quick..."no, our house is not cold and neither are my kids." It's actually super hot all Winter long. So if you saw this pic of my kiddo in just long johns or just Spiderman PJ's. Rest assured...it's perfect for our home with central heating plus heated flooring, any thicker PJ's and they'd overheat and melt.  

The batch of cookies I baked from that day. Good thing, I took pics of almost everything. : )

Anyway so anything to add? Yes! Branden has mid-terms this week. In high school they break it up in days rather than lumping all subjects in one day. So Wednesday, Thursday (today) and Friday (tomorrow) Branden is taking 2 tests each day! He took 2 tests yesterday and then came home. Today he will take 2 tests and come home too. And same for tomorrow. Yesterday, Branden was at our train station at 1pm! I went and picked him up! So, I imagine today he will also be arriving back in our town at 1pm too. Why do they get off early? The kids are getting off early, so they can go home and study for the next days tests. Branden left this morning feeling very comfortable for today's 2 tests. He studied and prepared a lot yesterday and frankly since last week he's been studying in his spare time.

Our entire family has a flu shot appointment for this Saturday. I made the appointment the last week of September. Seems every weekend we had something. Undokai. Town undokai. Culture Day. A movie. So, I made sure this weekend was just reserved for flu shots. Which shouldn't take longer than 30 minutes for us all. And we also have to do some Winter clothes shopping this weekend too. And hopefully relax, especially for Branden... with all his tests being finished... heck rest and relaxation for the weekend for all of us sounds super excellent. And watch a movie at home Saturday night. Oh, I swapped dinner nights. Instead of making curry soup last night how I was supposed to according to the menu I write for myself. I made tacos last night. And I am making American style fried pork chops tonight with either Rice a Roni or buttered noodles and a side of broccoli. And Saturday we will be having curry soup. I did that because if we go out shopping Saturday in the day...a nice easy curry nabe is super easy to do after a full day of winter clothes for the kids shopping. So that's why I switched/swapped a few of the meals set for certain nights. We might go clothes shopping Sunday though, so it depends. And it's nice that I have ingredients for all meals, but can swap or switch nights though. : )

Anything else? This morning, I washed Noboru's and my bedding. It's in the dryer right now as I type. I have been washing the kids bedding on Saturday's like I said. But ours I wash on the weekday whenever I don't have a load of regular laundry in there. And today, I don't have enough laundry for a full load, so I decided it would be a good time to throw our blankets in the washer as soon as I dropped Noah off at school. And as for the dry time at home...they only take 30 minutes to dry. My dryer is amazing! Dries up stuff in no time.

How's the weather in our part of Japan? It's raining quite hard today. My windshield wiper blades were on the fastest setting all day whenever I was driving my car. It's very gray and just an ugly looking day outside. So glad I am home inside all toasty warm. Have a house full of groceries. My house smells like Gain dryer sheets, since the bedding is in the dryer, lol! Anyway have a great day ya'll. Stay warm. : )

Oh also sorry one more thing. The last 3 DVDs were shipped from Amazon.com already. I think the hold up was because of Spiderman Homecoming not being released until a few days ago on DVD. Anyways...3 DVDs coming to my house. And the DVD, I am most excited about is...The Big Sick. I can hardly wait. And the delivery time said it should be arriving on Friday/tomorrow. I hope that...delivery date is accurate. Would love to watch that this weekend. Although we only watch 1 movie a weekend. So that would mean Everything, Everything would have to be put on the back burner. Hmm. Decisions decisions. And if we watched everything in one weekend...that would mean we have no other movies for the rest of Fall to look forward to...but if I space them out...1 a weekend. We will have plenty of movies to last us...until Thanksgiving at least. : ) Anything else to add? I'll be having leftovers for lunch today, so that means I will be having tacos for lunch. Also the Blacklist comes on tonight. American Horror Story Cult was on last night and omg it's getting so good. Anyways...I'm gonna go. Have a great Thursday. And a nice weekend. And stay warm!!!  : )  

Recent good eats...

As you all know, I make dinner at home 99% of the time. We rarely eat dinner outside of the house. Because well, there aren't any restaurants in our town unless you count 7-11 and the Mini Stop (convenience stores hahaha) and we could go to a restaurant but they're far. And by the time night or dinner rolls around... we're all tired and just want to relax and eat at home. Plus, I like cooking. Cooking and baking relax me. I really enjoy cooking. So, why in the heck not. : ) So not in any particular order at all. Just some random pics of our meals....that our family here has been enjoying lately. : )  This night we had mashed potatoes and chicken strips.  

Just an average basic American meal for one night. Mashed potatoes, and gravy and chicken strips and some broccoli and a delicious dinner roll. These rolls taste a lot like those Hawaiian dinner rolls, with a slight sweetness to them (King's Hawaiian). These are really good dinner rolls, the bakery in the small city nearest me, make these. : ) 

This night I made curry nabe. Well technically curry soup. But it's absolutely delicious. Udon noodles, some veggies. Cabbage and mushrooms.

Chopped up potato and chicken breast about to go into the curry soup first. We eat this meal all in 1 pot in the middle of the kitchen/dining table. 

Curry soup/nabe packets. I just dissolve these first and then add the chicken and potatoes first since they take longest to cook, then add the other veggies and udon and whatnot. : ) 

Fully loaded nachos. These are so good. And we're having these again tomorrow night. : ) Because I just went to Costco today and picked up a new bag of corn tortilla chips. 

These come from Hanamasa and are super cheap there. 100 yen a bag. They sell this same brand at Kaldi for like 450-500 yen a bag. I enjoy buying the rigatoni sized pasta, because I make a delicious baked ziti about once a month in Fall and Winter. My family loves baked ziti, with a side salad and a fresh crusty loaf of bread from the bakery..

I also bought these. These are for my homemade from scratch minestrone soup. 

Stocking up the pantry for some Fall and Winter staple meals in our house. Baked ziti and some homemade minestrone soup essentials. I make minestrone soup about twice a month. In Fall and Winter. A nice hot bowl of soup when it's cold outside. Yum! : )

A slightly unattractive meal, because it's all bland one color on the plate. But it was honestly pretty good. Rice a roni, American style fried pork chops and some corn. Some bright green broccoli would have really... made this pop...but the kids requested corn...so corn it was! : )

Kabocha. Japanese pumpkin. I think it is no big secret but...I love kabocha! It is so delicious. About once a month, I make a pot of kabocha soup. A nice creamy hearty soup. So filling and so delicious. I also like to make another dish out of kabocha too.We definitely enjoy kabocha at our house in Fall and Winter. I also make a fantastic from scratch... potato soup too. We eat lots of homemade soups in winter time and with a crusty loaf of bread on the side...yum! : ) 

Baked ravioli one night with a side salad, 1 person wanted no salad that day and that's fine and I also made garlic bread. This was a very good meal that night. Again very filling. I don't want anyone to starve around here. : ) 

Rice Crispy treats. Rice Crispy treats are so good! So perfect in Fall and Winter. So super easy to make. There's definitely nothing wrong with some dessert once in a while. 

Taquito night. Refried beans are homemade from scratch, Spanish rice is homemade and the taquitos are homemade too. I buy the rotisserie chicken and use the chicken breast meat from that. This is Noah's favorite meal at the moment. Whenever I make this, he's so excited. : )

Miso. I buy the generic store brand Besia one. Miso is very YMMV (your mileage may vary) type of thing, meaning everyone here in Japan has their own personal favorite. They sell different colors of miso. And some miso are just plain and some have added ingredients like fish or dashi in them. As you know, I really hate fish and fish dashi. I just can't handle the flavor. So, I buy plain miso with zero fish. And I personally like the deep red colored one. Again it just boils down to personal preference...what everyone likes. And that's my personal favorite. : )  I use this to make homemade miso chicken and miso pork at home.  

I have the very best recipe for miso pork and miso chicken. It's so basic and easy... but it tastes totally legit! As in...you'd never in a million years guess a western woman made it. LOL. It's so good. : ) I like to marinate my miso pork or chicken first thing in the morning, because I find that if it has marinated longer it has a better flavor. : )

A simple meal, some rice, some miso chicken and some broccoli. I made enough miso chicken for the boys to take in their packed lunch the next day for school. : )

Homemade from scratch gratin potatoes. Or cheesy scalloped potatoes if you prefer. These are so bomb! We had fried American pork chops with these and a side salad. I will be making these potatoes for Christmas dinner. Just twice the amount. Branden *loves* these cheesy gratin potatoes.

Baked chicken parmesan. Ya'll know this is a family favorite that I make year round. And I love that home-style pasta from Costco too. 

Chocolate chip cookies happened too. : ) 

Holy goodness, I nearly forgot to take a pic this night. We had homemade from scratch pizza night on a Friday night and a family movie night at home followed. Best funnest way to kick off a Friday. : ) 

Sunday night pot roast happened. And funny...that I happened to buy 2 big lean hunks of beef for pot roast again. Probably this coming Sunday is when I will make that. : ) So Bran and Noah can take pot roast sandwiches in their obento next Monday. Back to the pic...pot roast, mashed potatoes and brown gravy and some green beans. 

When we're in Inzai/Chiba New Town there are so many restaurants there. We will usually have lunch there. Noboru and I had lunch at the Ohsho. This was my lunch. Fried rice, gyoza, 2 pieces of karaage (all white meat) and egg drop soup.

Sweet and sour chicken. I love sweet and sour chicken. I love it. And that Cook Do packet it is so delicious. I love using that. : )

Pizza Hut and Dominoes is in Narita City. We prefer Pizza Hut. We don't go there often, but when we do... we go to Pizza Hut and take it home. : ) This night we picked up 3 large pan pizzas, this was also on another Friday. 

Random lunch pic. I make Branden and Noah lunch every day Monday through Friday. And these Oscar Meyer 100% beef hot dogs are what I grew up with and same for my kids too. : ) And I skillet fry them and a little ketchup and mustard under the hot dog. And a container of seedless grapes from America. And another container of some macaroni salad. And lunch was ready! Noah takes 1 hot dog, while Bran takes 2, he's older and needs more fuel. And they both took the same sides, grapes and macaroni salad this day. : ) 

Good Food. With lots of pics...

Do you like to cook? Some people really love cooking, where as some people not so much. Meanwhile some people are really good at sewing and that's their passion. Some people love to bake. Some people's passions are gardening. And while many of us are good at quite a few things and have a wide range of interests. We usually have 1 thing that is really our "favorite" of the bunch. : ) I'm not crafty and don't want to be. I don't sew (unless you count sewing name labels on my kids things that are necessary/required at school) I don't crochet. And I'm not frankly interested in sewing or crochet at all. Like if the subject were brought up, I'd be bored out of my skull. And that's okay. If we were all the exact same on this earth...it would make for a very boring earth. hahaha. : ) I however really enjoy cooking. I find cooking relaxing and fun. I like it a lot. And hey, that's okay, that's my thing.  And yes I do have other interests too. Like my treadmill, travel, my kids, my family, going to the movies, good TV, organizing my home, cosmetics and skincare, hanging at the beach in summer or wave pools. etc etc. And yes, I have friends who love sewing and crochet and I admire their skills, but it's not something I'm into at all and never will be. Where as many of my friends like cooking and some really dabble in cooking, I do have 1 friend, we've been friends since high school and she hates cooking. She dreads it. And that's okay too. : ) I love cooking all sorts of different types of cuisine. Chinese, Mexican, Italian, Tex-Mex, BBQ, Japanese. American. The list goes on. I love perfecting a dish until I know it's absolutely perfect (for me). Flavor is right on. And I enjoy all the tries/attempts it took to get there. I also love watching my love ones... enjoy the food I made for them. Watching them take their first bite. Watching them chow down and asking for seconds. That to me is like...a mom version of a touch down TRULY! I love that feeling. Probably dorkiest thing I have ever said. But that's okay. : ) Anyways, what have I made for my family lately? Here's some pics. Homemade from scratch refried beans. Boiled a pot of beans all morning. And right before I went to get Noah from school, I refried them real quick and covered them. Turned the stove off and came back in 7 minutes. And finished up the last minutes of supper that night.    

We had taquitos (crunchy rolled corn tortillas with rotisserie chicken breast from Costco, this is so flavorful it's perfect wrapped inside. Topped with sour cream, lettuce and cheese with a side of homemade beans and rice. Bran and Noboru eats 3 taquitos plus side dishes. But Noah and also my limit is usually 2 taquitos each. A very filling dinner.

Fresh fruit is booming and plentiful this season. We have been eating bunches and bunches of grapes every week. Fresh watermelon and fresh cantaloupe weekly too. For breakfast, lunches and dinners. We just honestly add fruit for every meal. My area of Japan has tons of fruit and melons especially cantaloupe and watermelons are super cheap... since I live right at the edge of Chiba and Ibaraki. And Ibaraki melons are well known for being delicious sweet and plentiful. For where we live they are super cheap. : ) 

Another night, I made cheesy gratin potatoes baked in the oven of course. These are always a hit around here. And I made fried chicken and we had steamed veggie and we also had salad as well.

I bought and snapped this pic... during Golden Week. But, my breakfasts are the same exactly....day in and day out. I have yogurt 5 days a week. That's just my morning thing. And I have toasted croissant with peanut butter and a sliced banana on top. Besia sells a croissant 4 pack for 98 yen or 99 yen. That 4 pack lasts me 4 days. And usually on my 5th day I'll have a slice of bakery bread toasted with peanut butter and banana. But yep, my breakfasts are cheap and healthy. I like knowing exactly how many calories are in my weekday breakfasts. Weekends are for nice leisurely indulgent breakfasts but weekday breakfasts are fast and basic. : ) This flavor of Greek yogurt is coconut and pineapple, it's really good, tastes very tropical. : )

Homemade pizza night happened one Friday.

The dough is resting for the day. : )

Baked in a 450F degree oven... the crust is so crisp and delicious. Yummers. : ) 

We had salad and pizza for dinner that night. Before we kicked off a family movie night at home.

Homemade chicken and cheese enchiladas. Right about to go into the oven. I make them in the day right after lunch. Make the Spanish rice in the day too (right after lunch) and leave covered on the stove. And the enchiladas I wrap in tin foil and place in the fridge. As soon as the kids get home. I whack this into the oven for 30 minutes. Since the kids have homework to do right when they get home and Bran showers usually right after he gets home. By the time they get done with all that. Dinners totally done. 

Fresh out of the oven that night.

Ready to top with some sour cream and chopped up lettuce.

This, I showed already. I had this pot roast in the oven slow cooking all day so it would be "fall apart" tender. Made a huge amount of mashed potatoes. made gravy and green beans. Branden loves pot roast, so I knew this would be the perfect...welcome home...after coming back from Kyoto. : ) 

Branden had seconds, Noah had a second serving. Noboru had 3 servings. These guys love pot roast. : ) We had just enough for about 4 sandwiches the next day. : )

This was such a killer sandwich. In fact I should make pot roast next week, just so we can all enjoy some sandwiches the next day. : ) 

Chicken parmesan happened too. And love how leftover hot dog buns become the perfect garlic breadsticks. So soft and perfect for garlic bread. If you're in Japan, you may want to try that. : )

This homemade pasta from Costco, I was showing the package to you in this pic.

This right here reminds me... of my family Sunday dinners growing up. Reminds me of Christmas time too... granted we never had chicken parmesan for Christmas dinner that was more a regular night... type of dinner. But my aunties and my mom always made homemade manicotti for Christmas. Christmas dinner to me... equals homemade from scratch Italian dinner.  So yeah this pasta....I am so glad we can get this pasta at Costco in Japan. This meal is so filling. I usually make this on a Friday or Saturday. In fact I am making this very meal... this Saturday. Noah usually on Saturday's is riding bikes or his RipStik outside with his friends. And by 4pm you can surely smell the many breaded... chicken parmesan baking in our oven on top of some sauce. You can smell it from outside. All the kids from our neighborhood know...delicious yummy food smells, dinner smells or cookies or brownies...just something is always baking or cooking at our house. By the time Noah gets in by 4:30-5pm at the latest, he is so ready to eat. : )

This night. American style fried pork chops, butter fettucini noodles, broccoli and we had salad too. Again, I like my kids to come home. They come home from school always... absolutely famished/starved. Even though I pack them a very filling lunch daily. And to see them tuck right into a nice big meal like this right away. Just makes me so happy. And we had fresh sliced and cubed watermelon for dessert this night.

A nice hearty beef stew. I had defrosted it in the fridge the night before. That morning, I diced up the beef in cubes and skillet fried and then boiled that beef for the entire day, while cleaning my house. Around 2pm-ish after the beef was indeed fall apart tender. I added the mushrooms and onions and potatoes and boiled for an extra 45 minutes. I then turned off the pot and added the roux. And at 3pm, it was ready, but Noah didn't get out of school until 3:45pm. The rice had beeped it was ready. And I went and picked up Noah from school. Bran has been riding his bike nearly every single day since starting the 9th grade. So he now rides his bike home. As soon as both kids were home and hubby was home, I very quickly reheated up the stew it took barely 5 minutes and during those 5 minutes I added a generous handful of frozen green beans to the top of the stew. Plated up everyone some hearty beef stew. We had another big dish of fresh seedless grapes in the center of the table for after stew...so everyone could munch on after our dinner. It was a darn good dinner that night. : ) 

Chopping up some peanut butter cups. You know what that means. : )

Peanut butter icecream happened one weekend. So super good and what a fun way to celebrate the weekend being here! With some peanut butter cup icecream.

Fresh corn on the cob is also so plentiful right now. Every night that we need a separate veggie...for example...when we have like fried porkchop, pulled pork or karaage or grilled chiken we have fresh corn as our veggie now. Because it's just in season right now and will be... all summer long. Again for our area of Japan we live in, fresh corn is super cheap too and the quality is so good, the corn is almost sweet.  Hard to explain but it's SO good. Pictured here were 4 ears of corn. I was peeling/shucking 1... when I remembered to take a pic. 

Also we also go through quite a bit of frozen veggies too. This pictured here...this amount.. will just last 1 full week. Why? Because we frankly eat lots of veggies. Skillet fried potatoes with corn niblets are so good. Ever had them? Yum. : ) Zucchini and corn niblets skillet fried in a dab of butter (calavacitas) ever had these? These are also so good and if you have a fresh chili to add to your zucchini and corn dish all the better. For weekend lunches or whatnot we go through tons of veggies around our house. : ) Always something cooking around here. : )  Anyway that's what's been cooking here at our house lately. : )