Pinole. A Gift for Christmas
Happy Christmas to all and especially to all those who have commented on my blog this year.
Just yesterday Sra Cruz Reyes Ramos sent me this wonderful story about pinole (toasted maize ground to a flour) as a Christmas treat. I’ll leave it with you.
When I was about 4 yrs old ( I distinctly remember) in Delicias, Chihuahua Mexico, my three older sisters would take me to the store and buy me little brown paper cones trimmed with shredded tissue as in little piñatitas with the broad end tucked in. Inside was the wonderful pinole.
My Dad had immigrated himself, mom, my younger brother & Jr. was a baby. My older sisters had not been immigrated yet to the US and they lived with my grandmother. Her name was Los dulces nombres de Jesus, Maria, y Jose San Juan Crisostomo y Nuestra Señora de Belen. For short we called her “Mama Maria” The town knew her as Belen. We never called her abuelita.
She died in 1957 & Dad tried to hurry up and immigrate them to where our new American home was. It is known as Lamont, California the same town of the famous Dust Bowl era featured in the Weedpatch camp of the “Grapes of Wrath” story.
Now as a 57 yr mother & grandma, I am trying to recreate those same little cones to give as fillers for gift Mexican basket to a dear and fellow folklorista as myself, so that this lady can remember her childhood memories too.
You can find pinole @ the Vallarta Supermarket for about $2 a pint and it tastes and smells just as wonderful as when I was a little girl. I can’t ask my mom who they were made, because she’s 86 yrs now with a very short memory but still very loving and affectionate and she loves to see me teach & perform danzas folkloricas & preserve all the Mecican arts that she taught me.
LOVELY!
THX4 the interesting posts all year AND for this heart warming story for Christmas.
Lovely, touchy story! Thank you Rachel!
Merry Christmas! :)
Thank you, Rachel, for sharing this — it’s a lovely story. And, again, thank you for all the other marvelous stories and thoughts you post on your blog throughout the year.
Hope you enjoy the holidays with plenty of Rompope! ;->
Good luck with the book, too — I’m impatiently waiting until the day I can pre-order it on Amazon.com.
Cindy
I feel honored Rachel! For posting pinole story! If readers are interested, I researched over 30 yrs an old recipe of the “Olla podrida” @ my mom Alicia’s request. Could never find it.Low&behold, last year I found it .You see Mama Maria was head cook in a hacienda & my young mom would always hear gandma & other cooks talk about “Olla Podrida” which sounds yucky when translated into The rotten clay pot!This was back in the early 1920’s.I gifted the recipe in writing for Christmas ’08 to my mom & she felt content & happy that I had struck “old world Mexico Recipe Gold” So now I can share for interested readers!
I’m really enjoying your new feature of Linkwithin thumbnail photos with links. I’ve just been tripping from one article of yours to another, following a pinole trail. I will have to start asking about it, and hope I can find some.
Kathleen
It´s usually sold by one of the ladies seated outside the market from a plastic bucket. Good luck! And great stats on your blog by the way.