I made nikujaga today, a favorite meat and potatoes dish in Japan. I only learned about this dish when my friend, Nari, in Japan told me about it. I found several recipes but googled “simple nikujaga recipe” and got one I really like. I am more confident of my cooking now so I freely adapt recipes to what I have on hand. The Japanese love to include color in their dishes and I knew that the snow peas were for garnish so I left them out since I didn’t have any on hand. I used onions, potatoes, strip style beef, and carrots. I used sake but forgot to add mirin, and instead of sugar, used honey. It was delicious and I plan to make it more often.