Shotgun Willie, the Redheaded Stranger, or beloved celebrity stoner–Willie Nelson is an American superstar. The country music legend is well known for his love of weed, which is front and center in the newly released Willie & Annie Nelson’s Cannabis Cookbook.
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The culinary guide features recipes alongside personal stories from Willie himself. This inviting touch is delivered alongside engaging graphics and a page weight that gives the text a scholarly feel.
At over 200 pages, some might call the book extensive, and they would be right. Willie’s cookbook is filled to the brim with thoughtful recipes and tales. A few brilliant minds have a role in making this book happen. Recipes were developed by Nelson’s wife Annie, and famed cannabis chef Andrea Drummer. The editorial team consisted of songwriter and ghostwriter David Ritz and Mia Tangredi.
Even with stacks of directions for delicious dishes inside, Drummer marvels most at the musician’s personal touch.
“What I’m most excited about is sharing snapshots of Willie Nelson’s music, life, and travel through food and recipes. Food memory is the through line of humanity,” Drummer shared in an email with GreenState.
This sentiment is echoed in the dedication, which reads, “Dedicated to all the family farmers who cultivate the food, fiber, and fuel necessary to keep the world fed, clothed, and moving forward in a wholesome way- and to all those who make sure the hungry have access to the sustenance they require.”
What’s inside Willie & Annie’s cookbook?
Wholesome abundance connects these nourishing recipes to one another, and they are sprinkled with many never-before-heard personal stories from Willie’s storied days. His foreword is littered with quote-able phrases like “Cannabis turned my mean to mellow,” and each cements the country star as an American treasure. He hopes this book offers a nutritious cannabis experience to those who read it, and it does.
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His foreword is followed by one from Annie, who shares her experience perfecting her famous weed chocolate recipe, dealing with celiac, and how dosing someone without their knowledge is never cool. The recipes were developed with a phenotype of the MAC strain, which tested at 22 percent THC and had citrus profiles with pepper notes.
The dishes are ingenious while remaining in the comfort food realm, like vegan Rocky Mountain Oysters, or soysters. Though the recipes are golden, the personal touches will drive people to buy this future heirloom. Finger through to read tales about what’s shared around Annie and Willie’s table alongside stories from the road, the star’s rise to fame, and his childhood.
Without giving away too much, here are six of the juiciest little bites:
- A recipe he uses to hustle Woody Harrelson
- Christmas dinner when the Highwaymen were born
- His final time singing with Johnny Cash
- Big bud Jamaican hospitality from Toots and the Maytals
- Sentimental notions about fried chicken
- How his outlaw nature started in Czech polka halls
Reading this book from cover-to-cover shrouds a person in warmth, with comforting stories displaying the thoughtful depth of consideration Nelson has for food. He does not only feel this for the food he eats but the system that creates it and the experiences that surround it. He shares a deep respect for farmers, Native American lifeways, and fresh garden vegetables.
What strikes me most is the thoughtful care that he, Annie, and all collaborators feel for the food that nourishes them. Drummer tapped into that connection to the project while working with the iconic David Ritz and traveling to Maui to visit the team.
“Truthfully, this smattering of great people brought me back to myself. Writing, cooking, sketching, working the photography… It’s what the process should feel like,” Drummer said.
This cookbook is more than recipes, though it offers excellent, imaginative ones in droves.
From those who read it to the ones who worked on it, it brings a transformative quality to the modern American view of food. This book offers a glimpse into the personal life of a cannabis culture patriarch through his stomach. There’s an old phrase that is the best way to a man’s heart, and in the case of Willie & Annie Nelson’s Cannabis Cookbook, that’s true.
From Willie & Annie Nelson’s Cannabis Cookbook:
GreenState got the green light to share one recipe from the hundreds inside of this cookbook, and rightfully chose the Rocky Mountain “Soysters,” a veganized cowboy delicacy.
