Weir - Joanne Weirs more cooking in the wine country: 100 new recipes for living and entertaining

Thank you for purchasing this Simon & Schuster eBook.

Sign up for our newsletter and receive special offers, access to bonus content, and info on the latest new releases and other great eBooks from Simon & Schuster.

or visit us online to sign up at
eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com

ALSO BY JOANNE WEIR

Weir Cooking: Recipes from the Wine Country
You Say Tomato
From Tapas to Meze
Seasonal Celebrations

S IMON & S CHUSTER
Rockefeller Center
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com

Text copyright 2001 by Joanne Weir
Photography copyright 2001 by Penina
All rights reserved,
including the right of reproduction
in whole or in part in any form.

S IMON & S CHUSTER and colophon are registered trademarks of simon & schuster, inc.

Designed by Katy Riegel
Title page and running head art courtesy of PhotoDisc

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Weir, Joanne.

Joanne Weirs more cooking in the wine country / Joanne Weir.

p. cm.

1. Cookery, AmericanCalifornia style. I. Title: More cooking in the wine country.

II. Title.

2001017019

TX715.2.C34 W44 2001
641.59794dc21
ISBN 0-7432-1251-7

ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-1251-9 (Print)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-1728-6 (ebook)

To my father

In the last year, I have been touched by the support of my family and so many extraordinary friends. There have also been many wonderful people who have helped me with this cookbook and my TV series Weir Cooking in the Wine Country II. It is here that I wish to pay them tribute.

For her dedication, support, and superior editing abilities, I would like to thank Sydny Miner and the whole team at Simon and Schuster, especially Katy Riegel, Jonathon Brodman, and Kathy Ness. They not only kept up with the rigorous schedule, but they also kept me to mine. And to my agent, Doe Coover, I thank my lucky stars for putting me in good hands.

A special thanks to Penina, for her stunning photographs, along with Amy Nathan, for her impeccable detail and lovely styling, and Sara Slavin for her superb propping. All three of you put your hearts into this project and I appreciate it beyond words.

My special thanks to Barbara Ignatius for treating this book and the show as if they were her own. I couldnt have succeeded without her. Do you have ten minutes? Thanks to Lloyd Shupnik for his computer savvy. I would also like to thank recipe testers Kelly Molloy and Jean Tenanes for their hard work and attention to detail. For their friendship and loving support, my very best to Gary Danko, Laurence Jossel, and Bibby Gignilliat.

To the entire TV production team who swatted flies, tied scarves around their heads, gave me constant thumbs-up, and did a fantastic job, I would like to thank some of the most talented people in the field, my dear friend and producer Linda Brandt, director Bruce Franchini, art director Bernie Schimbke, Tim Bellen, Steve Bellen, Allen Hereford, Nathan Williams, Mike Van Dine, Paul Swensen, Bruce Smith, Dwight Kiyono, Pat Sielski, Jill Kustner, Terrance Ranger, Lorraine Battle, Catherine Pantsios, Bruce Fielding, Kelly Molloy, Inge Scott, David Sanborn, Jim Dunn, Colleen Peterson, Elizabeth Izzy Swensen, Bernice Chuck Fong, Carol Odman, Leslie Typrin, and Jennifer Louie. To John Bayless, for being such a wonderful musician and sharing it with all of us every day.

To my dear friends Annie and Frank Farella, who let me think that their home is my own. To Tom Farella, for once again being the unsung hero. To Jean Tenanes, for the best chocolate cake a mother could make. To the best brother, John Tenanes, for being there when times are good and bad. Thanks to Peter Hall for sharing a picnic and the frenzy of shooting a show. To Jerry Comfort, Sue Conley, Evan Shively, David Goldman, and Lisa Court for adding spirit and life to the show.

To the entire staff of KQED, especially Regina Eisenberg and Shirley ONeal for all their hard work and continued support. My heartfelt thanks.

To the people that make the show possible, thanks to the team at Sur La TableRenee Benhke, Doralece Dullaghan, Susanna Linse. To everyone at Beringer Wine EstatesWalter Klenz, Tor Kenward, Brook Williams, Tracy Adamo. And to my friends at CalphalonJeff Cooley, Ann Jenkins, Paul Angelo Lo Giudice, Chris Tracy, Susan Doktorand Cogent Public Relations.

To Caitlin Connelly, Ned Takahashi, Jim Brandt, Richard Poole, and Scott Griffin. For their generous support, Peets Coffee and Tea, Manicaretti Imports, The Pasta Shop, Model Bakery, Oxo Good Grips, Melissas World Variety Produce Inc., Dean and Deluca, and Scharffen Berger Chocolate Makers. Thanks to John and Patty Norton, John Dorenbecher, Nancy Gates, Earnest and Jean Vosti.

And to Paolo, thank you for making this year such a memorable one.

why i cook

If I were to pick a place on earth where the things that matter most to me about cooking take place, it would be the California wine country. In this sun-drenched valley, everything grows, something is always in season, and the habits of living are relaxed and celebratory.

Its easy to live the rich life here: eating fresh foods right out of the garden and orchard, savoring artisanal cheeses and breads, drinking vintage wines. When Im here, I feel as though Im living in a state of grace. There are unhurried lunches, dinners under the stars, an afternoon picnic along the roadside with a table and elegant linens. Improbably, in this age of hurry, there always seems to be enough time to linger at the table, talking over plates of simple food with friends or family.

Somehow, we all must eat. We can make indifferent meals, with little connection to where the food comes from. Or we can make meals that are cooked in harmony with the earth and with the seasons, and which are a recurring source of renewal, satisfaction, and celebration. The wine country just seems to require this kind of cooking, and that is part of why I love it.

I wasnt born here. I am a New Englander whose profession has allowed her to travel throughout the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Australia, and who stumbled across this enchanted valley and found a culinary home. I spend as much time as I can here, though I do not live here year-round. But I have found that more than the valleys world-renowned wines can be imported wherever one lives.

When I travel, I pay attention to what is fresh, ripe, and ready to pick at each destination. If you think about it, thats part of what makes where you live special. Cooking and eating seasonally is to use what grows in the fields or migrates in the streams near your home, to use what is ripening on the trees or coming into bloom in the fields because thats what there is to cook with. Its wrapping fresh sprigs of thyme around the lamb for roasting because they come into their own at the same time of year; eating the cherries as fast as they ripen, baking them into warm clafoutis or layering them in a simple galette; its making a summer salad of every variety, shape, and color of tomato or of all the stone fruits. It is making a celebration of the first ripe tomato. And even though we can now get almost anything in the way of foodstuffs any time of the year, there is something right in the juxtaposition of flavors that occurs naturally.