Asia 2025: Okinawa, Japan

Sunday, March 8, 2026

Time to go to Asia with the 'rents back in April 2025! Visited Okinawa, Japan where they first met.

Went to the Ocean Expo Park / Chiraumi Aquarium.

Spent a few days at Onna Beach, sifting through the shells.

Also visited Zakmi and Nakijin Castles.

As well as buying some lion statues from Yomitan Pottery Village and visiting the Okinawa Prefectural Museum.

The trip wouldn't be complete without visiting Okinawa World and the Peace Memorial Park.

Reproducing Bergman's "Mur D'Or" Painting

Sunday, February 22, 2026

Saw this lovely painting (on the right), Mur D'Or by Anna Eva Bergman while on a bit of a soul-finding trip in Antibes, France. Decided to make a 2-dollar reproduction when I returned home. Next time, I think I'd use some household cleaners as solvents to actually tarnish the immitation gold leaf, prior to applying the gloss sealant to prevent tarnishing.

Paint canvas, apply gold leaf glue, allow to dry according to insructions, apply gold leaf

Seal with gloss sealer to prevent tarnishing, paint on faux-tarnish

Spend the next week fiddling incenssantly with the shades of cream and thickness of the blue line

Recipe: Spinach Pumpkin Ricotta Gnudi in Brown Butter Sage Sauce

Sunday, February 8, 2026

The original recipe for Pumpkin Spinach Gnudi I made in November changed by December. So, we're recording the original here.

Ingredients

For the Gnudi:

• 1 15-oz can of pumpkin purée (I use roasted, processed squash from the garden)
• 16-oz whole milk ricotta
• 8-oz frozen, chopped spinach (or other leafy green)
• 2 large eggs
• 4-oz freshly grated parmesan about 1 cup, plus more for serving
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1.5 Tbsp Herbs de Provence
• 1 tsp kosher salt plus more for boiling the gnudi
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (105 g / 3.7 oz)
• 5 Tbsp semolina flour for rolling

For the Sage Brown Butter Sauce:

• 8 Tbsp salted butter (113g / 4 oz)
• 1/3 cup fresh sage leaves

Instructions

1. Dry the ricotta, spinach, pumpkin:
   • Defrost the frozen spinach, and drain the water out by pressing it into a sieve with a fork. When it's mostly dry, squeeze the rest of the liquid out with your hands. Chop very finely.
   • Drain the ricotta in a mesh sieve for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
   • Preheat oven to 325°F. Spread the pumpkin on baking sheet and let it dry out until it is the texture of play-doh, stirring every 15 minutes for 30 minutes. Alternatively, you mught be able to simply mix the pumpkin with the ricotta in teh sieve and drain the liquid out that way.
2. In a large mixing bowl, add the chopped spinach, pumpkin, ricotta, 2 eggs, 4 ounces of parmesan, dried spices, and 1 tsp salt. Add a few cracks of black pepper and mix well.
3. Add all-purpose flour in 1/4 cup increments to the bowl and mix. Gently mix until combined.
4. Dust a half sheet pan with 3 Tbsp of semolina flour. Use a 1.5 Tbsp cookie scoop to portion the dough into 22-24 gnudi. Set them on top of the floured sheet pan and dust them with another 2 Tbsp of semolina flour. Roll the gnudi into balls, coating them in semolina flour.
5. Let these rest in the fridge for 5 hours up to 24 hours. (You might be able to get away with freezing them for an hour instead.)
6. When ready to cook them, prepare a large sheet pan with paper towels to the side of your stove. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt it liberally. Add 6 gnudi to the water at a time and boil until they float, around 5 minutes. When they are floating, transfer them to the paper towels to rest.
7. Prepare sage leaves: In a large pan to the side, prepare the brown butter sauce. Put the pan over medium heat. Melt 2 tablespoons of salted butter and fry the sage leaves in batches, 2-3 minutes or until they are a shade darker in color. Transfer the sage leaves to a paper towel to drain.
8. Prepare butter sauce: Reduce the heat on the pan to low. Now, add the remaining 6 Tbsp of butter 2-Tbsp at a time. Incrementally add 2-Tbsp splashes of the gnudi cooking water. Whisk to create an emulsified butter sauce.
9. Add the gnudi to the butter sauce, gently warming them up in it.
10. Serve the gnudi on serving plates, top with crispy sage and freshly grated parmesan and eat warm!

House Painting: Exteriors!

Sunday, January 25, 2026

While getting everything else fixed up around here recently, I also decided to get the house a much-needed exterior paint job. The main house is Sherwin Williams white right out of the can, the shutters are SW Anchors Aweigh and the doors are SW Distance, for a gentle pop of denim blue/periwinkle. Would've gone with blue on the house body, but it seems all the houses around me are getting painted blue!

Looks soooooooo much better!

Wire Shelves for the Craft Room Closet

Sunday, January 18, 2026

With the craft room having snazzy new floors and organized storage, I figured I'd install some wire shelving to the closet for even better craft access! So, here we are!

Too.many.hobbies.

Engineered Hardwood Flooring for the Craft Room

Sunday, January 11, 2026

I didn't stop with the bedroom, also included the guest bedroom which previously received some upgraded craft storage, but now we've got nice floors, too! The same Bruce Hydropel Natural Hickory 7/16 in. T x 5 in. W Waterproof Click Lock Engineered Hardwood Flooring as in the bedroom, was also extended to the hallway as well.