Growing up in Nuevo Mexico, one of life's simple pleasures was snacking on piñons. Piñons (pronounced pin-yawns) are a particular variety of pine nut, with a very distinctive flavor, and in my opinion, the New Mexico variety are the very best in the world.
Pine nuts are kind of like sunflower seeds in that they are very addictive. Once you start eating them it's hard to stop. But they take about 10 times longer to shell than a sunflower seed, and you have to work really hard to ensure no shell remains with the meat, so many people don't have the patience to endure a healthy piñon habit.
When I was in Utah a couple of weeks ago, I was very excited when I saw a street vendor selling baggies of pine nuts. I shelled out eight bucks for a 1/2 pound. When I got them home, I realized they weren't roasted. So I popped them in the oven for about 1/2 hour. But when I tried them, they were...well...ok, but not great. You see, they were just pine nuts, they weren't New Mexico piñons. Rats!
So you can imagine my excitement when a birthday package arrived from my sis Rebecca, containing a baggy of roasted NM piñons. Yipee! I'm snackin' out on these. They are so good!
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