First Rain of 2017

On March 14, 2017, just after 4:00pm, we had our first decent rainfall in months. I took this video of the cooling tropical rain falling after so many months of dryness.

Not a drop since then, at least at our house. Now that April is close, we hope to see more rain in the coming weeks. The landscape is very dry and brown right now.

Etnia Bistro Pub

Etnia Bistro Pub is the first gastro pub in Atenas. It is located just off ruta 3, across from the gasolinera de Coopeatenas. Camilo and Nicole are the owners and chefs.

They have added a new service - Etnia Express - dinner at home with the option of picking your order up yourself at their restaurant or having it delivered to your house for a very reasonable service charge. Every week Camilo sends me the menu for the following week. A quick email to him with my selection completes my order. He emails back telling me what time he will be at our gate.

Last week, I ordered two Caribbean curried shrimp dinners. Here is the menu for that week:

 

Here is our delivered order:

 

It was delicious, lots of flavors. Lance isn't a fan of cilantro but he liked it in this dish because it had just the right amount. I love anything with coconut in it and thought the rice was very good. There were plenty of shrimp. Also included were banana chips. Total cost for the two meals was 10,500 colones (about $19 USD). C1500 was for delivery right to our house by Camilo himself.

Here is the menu for the week of  March 28 to 31, 2017:

 

Treat yourself and order dinner - no cooking!

Some of My Art

I've been painting horses and cattle for a long time. My art web page is here.

What do you do when you do not like a painting that you have created? This one, for example, I was never happy with it. I did not like the harsh bit, the overextension of the neck, the green color of the background ..... 

 

You do this ... cover it over with gesso and start again!

 

Empañadas

I decided this week to try making empañadas. I used this turkey/chicken recipe that I found at Laylita's Recipes. All the ingredients were in my kitchen, including a cooked chicken breast in the freezer, so I didn't have to go out and buy anything. I made Laylita's dough recipe - very easy.

This is the white flour that I use:

 

The package is decorated for Semana Santa (Holy Week) which this year runs from April 9 to April 15. The bags are also decorated with Christmas themes come December. Every time I see Nacarina flour bags, I think of this:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macarena_(song)

This is what the prepared chicken filling looked like, sitting on an unbaked empañada before folding:

 

Empañadas folded, edges sealed and covered with an egg wash prior to baking:

 

20 minutes later, all cooked. Oops, some of the filling ran out - no problem:

 

The recipe made about 16 empañadas so lots left over to freeze for another day. What I like about these is that any kind of filling can be used, savory or sweet.

Eyes on Costa Rica - Update/March 5, 2017

The number of countries from where this blog has received visits has risen to 119, the latest including Bosnia & Herzegovina, Azerbaijan, Bolivia and, most recently on March 3, Mauritius. The number of individual places from where visits have been received is now over 3300.

Mauritius is a small island country about 1200 miles off the east coast of southern Africa and seems to have some of the trappings of Costa Rica. On the map below, it is highlighted with reference to Costa Rica by yellow circles.

 

The red dots identify places from where visits have occurred since September 29, 2016. The density would be significantly greater if all places both before and after that date were shown (see my October 4, 2016 blog entry).

I find it fascinating that someone in another part of the world is reading my Costa Rican blog. It's like having penpals everywhere and I'm learning about so many countries/places.

Google Maps: https://goo.gl/maps/mGxHtCFykzC2

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mauritius

Official site: http://www.mauritius.net

CNN: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/01/22/africa/mauritius-tropical-paradise-booming-economy/