On Monday, I went to the Hi-Lo Market and bought a Zip-Lock bag of piñon nuts for nine dollars. I couldn't resist nibbling on them on the way back home!
When I brought them to my sister, she was adamant about washing them first. "It was in the paper," she explained. "The nut gatherers don't pick the piñons off the pine cones one-by-one. Instead, they raid the large caches that mice assemble in their ground burrows near the trees. It makes it easier to gather nuts that way. But since so many mice have hantavirus these days, and since the mice pee in their burrows, they highly recommend washing the piñons first.
We washed the hantavirus nuts, and noted how clean they already seemed to be. Then, we roasted them the traditional way (15 minutes in the oven @ 350 deg F; stirring frequently). Delightfully fragrant, and delicious, traditional Southwestern fare!
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