Food time!
Here's an oldie! I really thought I had already posted this but I guess not! Omurice, which can be separated out into omelet rice, I must assume is a Japanese creation. Basically you take some rice, add chicken and some veggies, squirt on some ketchup and throw an egg on top of it all and you are left with a deliciously awesome meal. 
First, I diced some onion and bell peppers. I used half an onion and 3 baby bell peppers. I also cubed the chicken.
I popped the peppers and the onions into the pan with a bit of olive oil first. After they browned and softened a bit, I added the chicken. 
Make sure the chicken is cooked through before you add the rice.
So, when I was in Japan, I used store bought rice that was already cooked for me. I heated it up for about a minute before adding it to the chicken veggie mixture. Having it hot helped it mix better with the other ingredients. (Also, make sure your heat is on med-low or low at this point. You don't want the rice to stick to the pan. You can also add some rice wine to help with sticking/burning. 
After a rough mix, add some ketchup! I like a lot of ketchup in mine, so I add a little extra. It took me one or two tries to figure out that I like mine covered in ketchup. And then mix that up really well and your ready to put it on a plate.
Try to shape the rice mix into an oval, because the egg will be covering it. 
Hopefully, you're not as ghetto as I am and can afford some plates and silverware....hahaha. Scramble the eggs and then pour them into a pan that has been lightly oiled and on medium heat. Also, you want to use about 3 eggs. If you use too few and you're using a wide pan, then the egg will be really thin and will break easily. 
Once the sides solidify, pull them back a bit and tilt the pan so that the liquid egg can move to the free space. 
Cook the egg until it's to your liking. I don't like slimy eggs, so I usually cook them until almost everything is solid. Next comes the tricky part.
The trick is to flip the egg onto the rice without breaking it and covering all of the rice. This just takes practice. Half the time the egg sticks to the pan for me or I toss the egg half on and half off the plate. 
Hmmm....As you can see, I need a little more work at it. And to top everything off, I add more ketchup of course!
And then dig in. I like omurice because I can eat about half of it, and then eat the other half for lunch the next day (with a little extra ketchup). At first, I hated omurice. I thought it was weird and the only thing I would ever put on eggs was a little salt. But somehow I tried it and it grew on me. A lot. I highly recommend it!
Here's an oldie! I really thought I had already posted this but I guess not! Omurice, which can be separated out into omelet rice, I must assume is a Japanese creation. Basically you take some rice, add chicken and some veggies, squirt on some ketchup and throw an egg on top of it all and you are left with a deliciously awesome meal. First, I diced some onion and bell peppers. I used half an onion and 3 baby bell peppers. I also cubed the chicken.I popped the peppers and the onions into the pan with a bit of olive oil first. After they browned and softened a bit, I added the chicken. Make sure the chicken is cooked through before you add the rice. So, when I was in Japan, I used store bought rice that was already cooked for me. I heated it up for about a minute before adding it to the chicken veggie mixture. Having it hot helped it mix better with the other ingredients. (Also, make sure your heat is on med-low or low at this point. You don't want the rice to stick to the pan. You can also add some rice wine to help with sticking/burning. After a rough mix, add some ketchup! I like a lot of ketchup in mine, so I add a little extra. It took me one or two tries to figure out that I like mine covered in ketchup. And then mix that up really well and your ready to put it on a plate.Try to shape the rice mix into an oval, because the egg will be covering it. Hopefully, you're not as ghetto as I am and can afford some plates and silverware....hahaha. Scramble the eggs and then pour them into a pan that has been lightly oiled and on medium heat. Also, you want to use about 3 eggs. If you use too few and you're using a wide pan, then the egg will be really thin and will break easily. Once the sides solidify, pull them back a bit and tilt the pan so that the liquid egg can move to the free space. Cook the egg until it's to your liking. I don't like slimy eggs, so I usually cook them until almost everything is solid. Next comes the tricky part. The trick is to flip the egg onto the rice without breaking it and covering all of the rice. This just takes practice. Half the time the egg sticks to the pan for me or I toss the egg half on and half off the plate. Hmmm....As you can see, I need a little more work at it. And to top everything off, I add more ketchup of course!And then dig in. I like omurice because I can eat about half of it, and then eat the other half for lunch the next day (with a little extra ketchup). At first, I hated omurice. I thought it was weird and the only thing I would ever put on eggs was a little salt. But somehow I tried it and it grew on me. A lot. I highly recommend it! 
"Takoyaki-san" Mr. Octopus man. This is actually a kids make-your-own-candy kit. Looks pretty gross to me, but who am I to judge, since I never tried it? First you pop in the (hopefully) imitation octopus tentacle candy, and then pour in a jelly mixture. After you wait a while, it will congeal and you can eat it. Yuuumm.... 
Hahaha, this was some omurice I made one night for dinner. When I was painting on the ketchup I was going for the cute "Squee~" face, but instead I got the "OMG, MY FACE IS BEING EATEN" face, lol.
Ahh, thank you Hard Rock Fukuoka for being there when K and I needed you most. This blue cheese burger was so good and the fries were so good and the drinks were so good and the milkshakes we got after were so good. Thank you. 
Something not so good was this Lawson's soba lunch, which I usually wouldn't buy. But occasionally all other edible food in the store had been pilfered by greedy single men who needed to buy lunch AND dinner. I mean, if you like soba, then you would find this pretty decent, but I can't stand cold food. I like how it comes with a raw quail egg.
First, I combined 3/4 cup (a stick and a half) of soft butter with 12 tablespoons of cocoa and 3 tablespoons of oil. Make sure the butter you use is soft and at room temperature. Also, honestly, after making these, I would probably cut back on the butter...maybe just one stick and the oil. The brownies came out a little greasy which gave it a slightly soggy texture. 
I used dutch process cocoa. Want to know the difference between dutch process and regular cocoa? You can find it here on 
Like, I said before, I mixed all three of the ingredients together. It turned out to be a thick thick mixture. Next, I added the sugar. 
I added 2 cups of sugar, and stirred that in. After that was fairly well mixed, I added 3 eggs and 1 teaspoon of vanilla (no need to measure the vanilla--just add a dash). 
After stirring in the sugar, eggs and vanilla, I added 1 cup of flour. I also really like sticking my hands in the flour bag, lol. 
Stir Stir Sir. This is a nice work out since the batter is so thick. Okay, this next part is of critical importance! 
All in all, for my first time making brownies from scratch, these came out preeeetty good. Next time, I just want to cut down on the butter to get rid of the slightly squishy texture. It's amazing how much I like brownies now, considering when I was a kid I detested them. Just goes to show I come around to all good things sooner or later :)
Since Georgia is not known for king cakes of any kind, I ordered mine from a great bakery called 
The top of the cake is always covered in purple, green and gold sprinkles. 
So, of course, we had to sing happy birthday first.
And then FINALLY I got to eat a piece, and purple being my favorite color, I chose purple. As you can see, I bought a traditional cinnamon and sugar king cake, but Julie Annes sells them filled with all kinds of delicious fruits, like cream cheese and cherries, pineapple, or blueberries (just to name a few). 
And with my awesome luck, after my 2nd fork full, I felt my fork hit something hard. It was the baby Jesus! So I guess I'll be buying the cake next year, lol.
I would really love to know how they get the bread to turn pink. I'm pretty sure it's not food coloring because the bread is very sweet (but not in a sugar added kind of way). After baking, they pour a simple icing on top. It's called "berry berry bread," but the only berries I've ever found in it are cranberries, and that's fine with me. It's sooooo delicious!!! 
Next is another of my favorites that ranks, for sure, in the top 5. 
It's a mini baguette with a wiener covered in ketchup and spicy mustard! This is sooo good. I think they pop it into the oven for a short time after putting the ketchup and mustard on because it somehow melds itself to the bread. A very yummy lunch or snack. <3
This is a walnut cranberry bread that is hard on the outside and chewy on the inside. It also happens to be my second favorite bread. I really love how the cranberries give it bursts of flavor and extra chewiness. 
Unlike almost every other restaurant/cafe in Japan, CoCo's believes in letting you have a drink! Yes, they still serve it in those tiny little bathroom sized cups, but at least you can refill your cup as many times as you want! They also have two menus: a Japanese menu, and another menu written in 5 different languages. It includes English, Chinese, Korean, and maybe French and Arabic...I'm not sure about the last two. 
I, of course, ordered my long-time favorite, katsu curry (fried pork curry). Another awesome thing about CoCo's is you can pick the spiciness level of your curry! Most places only have one level, and it's always sweet, because most Japanese people don't like spicy food. I find Japanese curry sweet because it's made with tomato sauce and probably some extra sugar is added, but when you can spice it up, oh it is sheer heaven. At CoCo's there are 10 levels of spice. You are not allowed to order over level 5 until you finish a full plate of spice level 5 curry, after that level 6 and so on. 
X got a nice vegetable curry...or maybe it was beef curry. They kind of all look the same to me. One note of warning for vegetarians. Japanese curry sauce usually contains some type of shredded beef, and Japan hasn't quiet fully figured out the meaning of the word vegetarian. So, if you are a vegetarian make sure to ask the waiter/waitress what curry has no meat in it. Make sure you specify using words like beef stock, or fish eggs, because they don't really consider those to be excluded from a vegetarian diet. 
I'll let my plate do the talking. It was delicious and perfect in every way that Japanese curry should be and it is truly one of my favorite Japanese meals (altho they claim it isn't Japanese).
Looks delicious, eh? I used a spoon to mix everything together but it was still a little lumpy. If you have a whisk, I would use that instead. 
You wanna get it so the batter is smooth. So then, I decided to add blueberries and cranberries.
I added almost the whole pack of blueberries and about 1/2 cup of cranberries. I probably could have been a little more generous with the cranberries. 
And then, or course, you mix it all together. You could make marble pancakes if you don't mix that much and if you're really good at cooking them. I just turned the whole batter blue. 
I used a ladle to scoop out the batter and berries for the pan. I'm not very talented at getting a good shape, but who really cares as long as they taste good??
The pan you use should have some kind of non-stick agent on it. I use a small coat of butter to cover the pan. I usually have to coat 2-3 times for one batch of pancakes. 
So, you can check the heat by watching the pancakes. The sides should start to fry, like in the picture above.
You can tell when they should be turned by watching for bubbles in the batter. When bubbles start to pop up, then you can go ahead and turn them. To turn them, get a spatula shove it under one side and wiggle it around until almost the whole pancake is sitting on it, and then pick it up and flip it carefully. If you make really big pancakes this might be a little tricky. Also, if you turn it before it's ready to be turned, the batter might be drippy and cause your pancake to fold in abnormal shapes. Not disastrous, but weird looking. 
The last thing for you to do is to eat and enjoy them!! They were so delicious and the berries were so juicy that we didn't need syrup (which was good b/c we didn't have any). But, if it had been available, I totally would have put strawberry syrup on these to make them true 4th of July pancakes. 
I like how they came out with a blueish tint.