100% blue agave

I know, I know, I just came out with "Wine Country Cooking!" I love the stuff and think that wine IS food and shouldn't be separated from the whole dining experience. If I hadn't studied cooking, I definitely would have gone to Davis to study oenology! But then again, I also like tequila and my next book is all about the stuff! Yeah, yeah, yeah, you had a bad experience in college and you're never going to touch it again!? Know what? You just drank the wrong tequila! You should have picked up a bottle of 100% blue agave tequila like Partida, 7 Leguas, El Tesoro instead of that caramel colored junk disquised as tequila. Because 100% agave tequila undergoes two distillations, it's one of the purest spirits made. And guess what!? No popping aspirin the next day and no regrets either! You'll remember who drove you home! Pub-date is Cinco de Mayo, also known as the fifth of May, and rumor has it, you can pre-order on Amazon and you'll get it much before Joey, your tequila-lovin' neighbor down the street. Thirty-five cocktails from the very best tequila bartenders in the country and twenty-five recipes for food, all containing tequila. Check out the photo of my research! (I love my job!) Williams-Sonoma bought 10,000 advance copies. This is going to be a big one! So, what are you waiting for?

i have an excuse!

It has been far too long... I promise not to be so remiss again. I have too many excuses. I was one of the chefs for the James Beard Media Awards in NY, I did some events at Aspen Food and Wine, I was teaching for a few weeks in Provence and Tuscany, I shot 26 new TV shows "Joanne Weir's Cooking Class," I tested 60 recipes for my newest book, I did a dinner for the Napa Valley Wine Auction, I went to Mexico to research my newest book, I had a weeklong cooking class in my kitchen where I also shoot my TV show, I celebrated my birthday and just YESTERDAY, I managed to make my book deadline! That's why they call it a deadline! This is true reason for celebration. Bring out the tequila! Not just any tequila, I'd like a Riedel tequila glass topped up with some 7 Leguas D'Antano.

Yes folks, I just finished a book devoted to tequila. It all started years ago when I fell in love... With tequila that is! I started a group called Agave Girls, for women who appreciate tequila. Ay caramba... it took off! Ten Speed Press asked me to write a book about tequila and the rest is history. About 30 food recipes and 40 cocktails from the best bartenders in the country who specialize in tequila. This meant lots of tequila research! It will be released on Cinco de Mayo '09.

Did I tell you that I love my job!? I even made a trip to Guadalajara and checked out the Highlands and Lowlands of Jalisco where 100% blue agave reigns supreme. I visited 7 Leguas and had lunch at with Fernando and Isabel, the owners at their gorgeous hacienda, spent a morning chatting it up with Carlos, owner of El Tesoro and traipsed through the mud at Partida agave fields. And of course, I tasted a lot of great tequila!