Butter Than Toast

So it seems like everyone is making homemade hamburger patties for Memorial Day. I've decided to make something that's a little less common... Buns! In my opinion, they take the hamburgers to a completely new level. Soft, fresh, with loads of flavor- these babies are wonderful!

Oh my I love pasta. I mean, who doesn't?? When we were living in the States some of the grocery stores had fresh pasta made in house available for purchase. Now that we live in Japan and the starch of choice is, of course, rice.... not so much. Naturally the solution to that problem is to make your own! It's been something I've wanted to do for a while now, anyway, and not having it available is just the kick in the motivational pants I needed. 

Our fridge is full of leftovers right now. Half an onion here, a tupperware of yummy bolognese sauce there, and a ball of pizza dough. My cooking habits change slightly when I am on the night shift, as usually two of my three meals each work day consist of breakfast foods. Poor lunch and dinner get left on the wayside, abandoned to the back of the fridge.

When Travis and I got married, one of the things I wanted to learn how to make was his favorite pasta sauce his mom would make for her three sons growing up. She made vats of it at a time, because lets face it, three boys would probably eat a whole pot of it with a spoon as a pre-dinner "snack." 

It's a very meaty sauce. Meaty, chunky, with just a few veggies in there. Very manly.

Lots of life-y things have been happening lately. That's good, since it feels like all I've been doing is worksleepworksleepcookworksleepblogworkworkwork. I'd prefer more cooking and blogging in there vs the working aspect, but c'est la vie, right? While I don't have a recipe for you in this post, I DO have lots and lots of pictures of yummy food and cultural things and pretty flowers!

The base exchange is a dangerous place. It's busy and crowded, and mostly overwhelming if you are not smart like me and choose to go right when everyone is getting off from work. Not to mention it's basically the only store with familiar products on the entire island of Okinawa. The other option is ordering things online, which is a whole different can of worms. So as I am walking through knowing that I don't need anything other than what is already inside my shopping cart, I just happen to stumble upon the baking/cooking section.