The kid’s school concert was last Saturday- they call it Hapyukai in Japanese. Sean was awesome and impressive and had a great time performing. Catie was a little out of it, since she woke up with a nasty cough and need a little drugs before going to the concert. I’m not sure that the drugs affected her performance all that much though, Catie being Catie.

During the final song, all the classes were out on the stage, and you can tell Catie was a little annoyed by the boys performance next to her!

Afterwards we took them out to White beach for lunch and then some time on the beach. Sean thought this rock formation looked like someone on a boat.

The sun has finally returned to Okinawa, so we headed north for a day trip. First stop was the Butterfly garden. Catie requested to go here a few weeks ago, but we were waiting for the nicer weather. Finally!

After checking out the butterflies, we headed to Ufuya- “Big House” in the Okinawan dialect, for lunch. We had read that it was a beautiful place to go, but had no idea what we were in store for-

The restaurant was nestled up to a hill, with dining rooms opening out onto the hillside and waterfalls. After eating a yummy soba and goya lunch, we went climbing up the hillside. There were numerous waterfalls (all artfully man-made)

with various rest stops along the way

and a perfect spot for throwing kids into a pool!

And we finished off our visit with brown sugar/pineapple vinegar soft serve ice cream, which is much, much better than it sounds…

We’ve had a little success with our stuff growing in window boxes in the back yard. Sean and Catie have been eating carrots (the smaller ones are better according to them)

The tomatos are taking forever to ripen with the cooler temps and lack of sunshine, but hopefully we’ll have some fresh tomatoes soon.
And here’s the faucet that was missing from the last post

So this will be another picture heavy catch up post. We took Sean and Catie to Shuri castle on day. Catie had her pictures taken with all the shisas she could find and we got to watch some of a show of traditional dances and costumes( and check out the cool faucet )

Another weekend we attended an exhibition of eisa and traditional bull fighting. Sean and Catie keep asking to go back for more bullfighting, so we may need to do that before we leave here. Catie was brave and got up on top of a previous champion bull for her photo

Here are the “bulls” they used to explain the different moves the bulls will use

And the actual fighting

And Catie made friends in the stands with some women from Taiwan, they thought she was “Kawaii” and when she cried because she didn’t win one of the few prizes they were giving away, they gave her theirs that they had won.

So it was another busy weekend. Friday night it was raining as we were about to herd Sean and Catie upstairs for bed. Suddenly we heard a yowling on the front patio, and looked out to find a cat looking for some attention. She ate two bowls of food, drank some water, got lots of pets, and then a fleece blanket lining a stroller in case she needed a dry place to sleep.

The next morning we could hear her meowing as we came down the stairs. She ate again and got lots of attention from Sean and Catie, and then from the neighbor girls as well as we were heading out for the annual mochi making day at school.

As always, lots of rice was pounded by all

Catie was much happier pounding without assistance, that got her into a little bit of trouble, because she was supposed to have a grown-up holding on as well

Then all the classes gathered around tables and formed little balls of mochi to go into soup and dessert from the rice that they had pounded

and lots of mochi was eaten before it made it into the soup and dessert as well.

When we got back home, a quick search around the air-conditioning unit across the street found our new friend hiding out. She

followed Sean home, then tried to follow us as we posted signs around the base looking for her owners. So we carried her up to Sean’s room and locked her in, where she happily slept and ate for the next day and a half. After all that rest, she finally started exploring the house again, with some growls to the dog and Kitten whenever she encountered them.
Today we finally called animal control since no one had claimed her. She wasn’t microchipped, so she will be vaccinated and put up for adoption. After one nap and a night with the cat in her room (who was nicknamed motorboat for her purr, which could be heard from the next room), Catie now wants Kitten to sleep with her.

That’s what Emeril says, so there must be alot of love around here. For New Year’s Eve we put together quite a feast, spicy tuna rolls, tamago, inari, and we even made our own tempura with broccoli, green peppers, purple potatoes and unno potatoes, which are similar to sweet potatoes, plus a little fried chicken and spinach sesame salad from the local grocery. It was definitely oishi. We repeated the tempura New Year’s Day for lunch, adding shrimp this time, which was super oishi.

Then for Catie’s birthday, I made her a doll cake similar to one she had seen at a birthday party earlier this year. The frosting took a few trials, but I finally got it right.

We celebrated her birthday a day early (because no one gets to celebrate on the actual day of their birthday in this family)

Because it’s rained most of the week except for yesterday, I started playing with photoshop yesterday not drastic changes, just little enhancements

Sometimes I forget she’s almost 4, and often fearless

This one is so hard to get a picture of these days

And she loves the camera

Okay Rebecca, when the weather warms up and the basil is growing, this is how you make pesto. Pick yourself a bunch of basil, try to avoid the old tough plants/leaves. Wash them and take them off the stems.

Make sure you check the underside of the leaves for hitchhikers, we almost had a little snail in our pesto last time. Then add 2 or 3 good sized cloves of garlic, crushed.

If you guys use much crushed garlic you have to get the garlic press from pamper chef. It doesn’t bend and break like the presses you get at a grocery store. We’ve had this one for for six years.
Now for the pine nuts. I didn’t put them in for years, but noticed that they do add an extra bit of flavor. I used about a 1/4 cup today. Put them in a pan on medium low and watch them carefully, while stirring frequently.

You’ll see them get shiny as the oils are released and then they’ll get a light toasty brown.

Take them off the heat as they’ll go from toasty to burned real fast. I’ve tried using the toaster oven, but they burn too easily.
Then grate yourself a bunch of parmesan cheese(3/4 cup- 1 cup). The original recipe calls for using half parm and half romano cheese, which has a stronger flavor, but since we can’t get it over here, we just use parm.

Now throw every thing in the food processor and process away. Add a little salt and pepper, even with all the salt in the cheese, it still needs a little more. And just a drizzle, about a tablespoon of olive oil.

It’s still pretty thick, so when you go to use it you can add more olive oil, or to watch the waistline just thin it with pasta water. If I get a chance I’ll get the recipe from Jeff for pesto eggs.

It’s getting closer to Christmas. The Christmas party was held at school on Friday

Saturday, we went to dinner at the “Christmas House” a private residence that they spend a month decorating for Christmas, then open as a restaurant for the month of December

and drove around looking around at home that were lit up