Storyteller Adventures
Storytelling is one of our most fundamental communication methods. Who doesn’t love hearing a good story? The fact is, we spend much of our daily lives hearing and telling stories! It’s our way of sharing information and living vicariously through the experiences of others.
During our first half-century, we have been fortunate enough to have some pretty incredible experiences and we fancy sharing our tales. We’ve called this blog, “Storyteller Adventures,” because we wanted to share some of our incidents of travel as well as to document our journey of how Vista Tranquila Publishers came into existence and how it continues. So, what does our blog include and what can you expect to find? For sure, we’ll touch on topics relevant to bilingual life, our travels around the world, the exotic foods we try, and the intriguing people we encounter. We have astonishing adventures every day though, even when we don’t go anywhere. We’ll share our mundane observations and some truly unique encounters.
Vista Tranquila Publishers is our creation but, it’s so much more than a book publishing company. We seek to tell stories that will inspire interest, promote cross-cultural understanding, and be entertaining at the same time. Our basic premise for our business is in favor of creating shared experiences and opposed to the collection of garage sale fodder. We want to make our books and our products come alive. Once you become a part of the story, the books and the handicrafts we sell become part of our shared encounter, a type of trophy you story in your memory. Everything we post on our website will tell a story. We hope you like what we’re doing, and we look forward to reading your comments!
Day at the zoo
Guatemalan Ponche de Frutas
Erin Raxón, author of The Gift of a Traditional Guatemalan Christmas/El regalo de una navidad guatemalteca tradicional shares her special family Ponche de Frutas recipe below:
Ponche de Frutas
As the Christmas season begins, so does the making of Ponche de Frutas. It is a favorite holiday tradition for our household. We go to the market and buy different types of fruit needed to make the punch. We usually have the rest of the ingredients on hand. We spend an afternoon together washing, peeling, and cutting fruit to add to a large stock pot. Bring the water and fruit to a boil and then simmer until the fruit is soft or tender enough to your own personal liking. The ingredients are based upon what is easily found in the markets of Guatemala, but you can supplement with your own local fruits.
Fresh Fruit Ingredients:
2 plantains (ripe)
1 pineapple (Hawaiian kind)
1 papaya
8 apples (similar to Opalescent variety)
2 coconuts (meat part only)
5 pears (brown and green varieties)
1 cup of prunes (pitted)
1 cup of raisins
1 cup of brown sugar
1 cup of white sugar
1 tbsp of allspice (whole)
6 liters of water
1 tbsp of cloves (whole)
1 pound of purple grapes (remove the seeds, or use seedless)
11 sticks of cinnamon (about 6” long & 1/2” diameter)
First wash the fruit. Peel and core the pineapple. Peel the papaya. Remove seeds or pits from: papaya, apples, pears, grapes and prunes, if necessary. Remove the husk from the coconut and enjoy drinking the coconut water. You will only use the coconut meat in the recipe. You can shred the coconut meat if preferred.
Next, start cutting the fruit into small pieces or cubes about half an inch to an inch in size, depending on your personal preference.
Then, add the water to a large kettle; we use a stock pot, and as it begins to heat up, add the coconuts, apples, pineapple, plantains, papaya, and grapes. Add the spices at this time too: cinnamon, allspice, and cloves (it is a good idea to use a bag or tiny recipient to keep the allspice & cloves contained and not have to pick them out later one by one).
Once you finish chopping the pears, add them with the prunes and raisins. Finally, add the two types of sugar.
Boil the fruit until it is soft. This will take approximately 45 minutes. If you like a sweeter punch, add more sugar. If you have an allergy to any of the fruit, you should be able to omit it and still have a tasty drink. Some people don’t care to add the coconut because it doesn’t soften as well as the rest of the fruit and you won’t always find it in every recipe for that very reason.
Enjoy hot or cold! Any amount not consumed right away can be stored in the refrigerator once it has cooled down. Enjoy it within the next several days.
I hope you enjoy the Ponche de Frutas as much as my family does!
December 23, 2024
