Eyes on Costa Rica and Weather Records - November 2023

(Click on images to enlarge).

During November, visits to this blog were received from the following 11 countries:

Each country is followed in brackets by the total number of visits received since records first started to be kept in November 2012.

From the time I started to keep track, the total number of countries and non-independent jurisdictions from which visits have been received remains at 135. Of this number, 13 are non-independent jurisdictions - e.g. Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States from which 12 visits have been received.

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The following is a summary of weather for November in the area where we live:

Towards the end of the month the upcoming dry season was signaled on two days by some very strong trade winds. They were persistent - beginning in the small hours of each morning and continuing well into substantially cloudless days. Rainfall during the month was significantly less than the same month last year.

Lime Cake

Recently, I purchased a lime cake mix. I just assumed the instructions would be in Spanish, which I could have read, but it turned out to be a cake mix from Portugal.

No problem - I went to my trusty iTranslate app and learned what milk and eggs are in Portuguese. I was a bit stymied by one instruction which told me "to shave". Shave what, I do not know. Anyway, I plowed ahead and substituted lime juice for one of the three eggs called for in the instructions because I like strong lime and lemon flavors. Found a round cake pan in the kitchen supplies included in our rental house (thanks, Kathleen!).

My friend and neighbor, Rose Mary, brought me back an oven thermometer and a box of parchment paper on her last trip to Texas. I finally know what the temperature is in our little oven when it is set to "bake" and "high" and both settings are pretty accurate for baking and so on. The parchment paper is so handy to have. I priced a box of it here and it was around $20!

Into the oven went our cake, baking for about 40 minutes. It came out a bit lopsided - I think I had the pan set too far to one side. Oh well, at least it did rise. I made a lime icing, using lots of lime juice. After piercing holes in the cake, I iced it. I pierced the holes so the lime icing could sink into the cake and add even more lime taste.

Limes here in Costa Rica are plentiful all year around and are inexpensive so there is no reason not to have them as a constant in my kitchen.

Here are some photos of my cooking endeavors today:

 

The cake mix.

Finished product - Top Chef quality. Hey, I even put lime peel on top.

Listing a bit to port.

 

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