Dank Doggie Biscuits

I've had a few requests for my recipe for making medicated dog treats.  As many of you know, marijuana can be good medicine for our 4 legged best friends too.  This is a personal choice so please do your own research before deciding if medical marijuana is the right course of action for you or your pooch. 

Here's a couple of articles that endorse or support this type of treatment:

• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/05/medical-marijuana-for-pets_n_3391770.html
• https://www.avma.org/news/javmanews/pages/130615a.aspx

I have also read some articles where dogs have become sick after accidentally consuming a human patient's medibles. Sometimes this can be detrimental if things that dogs shouldn't eat are in the medible (ie Chocolate & raisins).  The other problem is that most medibles made for humans contain high doses of THC which can be very disorienting and even dangerous to the animal. Please exercise caution and keep your medications up away from your pups.

In an attempt to limit the amount of THC in my dog biscuits I use the trim that remains after making infused butter or coconut oil  The key is to squeeze out all of the oil that remains in the cooked trim.  Once you have done this place the pressed trim in a small cooking pot and cover with boiling water.  Allow it to cool slightly and press again (I use a french press coffee maker to do this but you could also use a sieve and hand press it).  This will remove the water and any remaining oil.  Now you have the rinsed cooked trim material from which we will make our treats.

With all that said if you are wanting to make a medicated treat geared toward the canine in your life here's a recipe that I have created for my buddies.

Dank Doggie Biscuits

Ingredients you will need to make these treats:

• 1 Cup of rinsed cooked trim from making cannabis infused butter or coconut oil
• 1 Cup of dry oatmeal
• 1/8 Cup of water
• 1 1/4 Cup of whole wheat flour 
• 1 Tablespoon of natural peanut butter
• 1 egg -beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Here's how you make them:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
   
2. Place the rinsed trim, water and oatmeal in a blender and blend on high until the mixture is pulverized.
3. In a separate large bowl combine flour, salt and baking powder
4. Add the wet pulverized mixture, peanut butter and beaten egg to your flour mixture and stir together until the mixture begins to stick together.
   
5. Pour your mixture onto a floured surface and knead by hand until everything is well combined. (about 5 minutes). Add additional flour as necessary.  You want this mixture to be the texture of a roll out cookie dough.
6. On a floured surface, roll out the mixture to a thickness of about 1/4".  
7. Cut out biscuits using a small or medium dog-bone shaped
   
   cookie cutter or use a pizza cutter and cut into small squares.  Use a fork to make holed in the dog bones (this will vent out any of the steam created and keep your biscuits fairly flat)
8. Place these cut outs on an UNGREASED cookie sheet*** This is SO important!  If you add grease or oil to these biscuits
   
   they will be TOO strong!!!!
9. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes
10. When your biscuits are done, remove from the oven and cool on a baking rack.

For short term storage you can place the cooled biscuits in a sealed container and keep in your fridge for up to 2 weeks.

For a little longer term storage place in a sealed container in

your freezer.  These will be good for about 4 months.

To store them long term without refrigeration will require a few more steps.  To do so place your cooked dog treats in a food dehydrator for about 48 hours or until their is no residual moisture remaining in the biscuit.  Trapped moisture will cause mold so break open one or two

of the biscuits to see if the center has been fully dehydrated.  Once you've removed all of the moisture these can be stored in a cookie jar at room temperature and will last for a very long time.

NOTES ON USING THESE BISCUITS:

Just like humans, each dog will have their own tolerance to marijuana in an edible form.  Use caution when giving your dog these treats until you know how much your dog can tolerate.  So start out small!  Each batch I make is different depending on the starting material and strain of marijuana used so I like to give my dogs about 1/4 of a biscuit and wait 45 minutes to an hour to see how effective it is.  If I notice that the pooch is still in pain after this waiting period I will give another 1/4 and again wait to see what affect it has.  I do this with each and every batch that I make for the dogs that way I can determine the acceptable dose.  Always err on the side of caution.... you can always give more but you can't take it back.  Remember the goal is pain relief, not a high dog.

I use these biscuits for pain relief, to relieve canine anxiety and to calm my dogs during the 4th of July celebrations, thunderstorms and when going to the groomer or long rides.

Best wishes & puppy kisses!

THChristi & friends

Cannabis Infused Coconut Oil

Today I'm sharing my process for making a Cannabis Infused Coconut Oil.  The beauty of this medicine is it's versatility.  It can be used in creating both tasty edibles and healing topicals.

You will notice that my recipe uses a mixture of buds, sugar leaf trim & fan leaf trim.  I have found that using all parts of the plant is the best way to make this.  Each part of the plant holds cannabinoids in different concentrations.  By using a whole plant mixture (minus stems) it makes a well balanced medicine that is easily processed by the body in both a topical treatment and as an edible. 

What you will need:

Steeping the plant matter

• Crockpot
• RO (reverse osmosis) water, or distilled water
• Organic Coconut Oil
• Dried and cured medical marijuana buds, sugar leaf trim and fan leaf trim
• A french coffee press or other straining device that you can press out the liquid from the material
• A large bowl or pot
• Latex or nitrile gloves
• A gold coffee filter or fine sieve

Here's the recipe for 1 Cup of Coconut oil.  You can easily double, triple or whatever you like.

1. In your crockpot add 1 Cup of organic Coconut Oil.  Turn your crock pot on low and allow the oil to melt into a liquid.  
2. Once the coconut oil has melted add 2 ounces of dried plant material.  I like to use about 1/3 dried buds, 1/3 dry fan leaf trim, and 1/3 sugar leaf trim. It's not important to make these exact 3rds but it is key that your total dried plant matter is a total of 2 ounces for every cup of coconut oil.
3. add 5-6 cups of your RO or Distilled water.  IMPORTANT:  some folks make this without the water and just mix the fat with the plant matter.  I do not recommend doing it that way.  The water acts as a filter for a large amount of the chlorophyll as well as prevents your mixture from becoming too hot and scalding or cooking off the precious cannabinoids which you are after.
4. Turn your crock pot on high.  Stir your mixture every hour.  This will agitate the plant matter in the oil and help to infuse the cannabinoids into the oil.  
5. After 1 hour turn your crock pot onto low or warm and allow this mixture to cook and steep for at least 4 hours but up to 24 hours.  
6. Once you've reached the desired time, turn off your crock pot and allow this mixture to cool down to a temperature you can work with easily without burning yourself.
7. Using a ladle or large spoon, scoop your mixture into your clean french press coffee maker.  Press the mixture to strain out the plant matter and pour the liquid into a large bowl or pot.  This may take several pressings depending on the size of your french press.  If you are not using a french press you can use a wire sieve to strain out the liquid.  Be sure to glove up and squeeze out the liquid by hand.  
8. When you have strained out all of the plant matter cover your bowl or pot (which now contains a mixture of water and oil) and place it into the refrigerator overnight.
9. Once your liquid has chilled overnight it will have seperated into 2 layers.  Remove the hardened coconut oil from the top and drain on a paper towel.  Discard the water.
10. At this point you may notice there are still some fine particles attached to the bottom of your hardened coconut oil.  To remove these you will want to remelt the hardened coconut oil in a pot over low heat.  Once this is melted back into a liquid strain it through a fine sieve or your gold coffee filter.
11. Place this liquid back into the refrigerator to solidify.

Now you have a strong coconut oil infusion which can be used in edibles as well as topicals.  This mixture will store well in the fridge or freezer. 

I like to place 1/4 Cup premeasured amounts into zippered bags and keep it in the freezer.  When I'm ready to make a recipe I can just pull out the amount I need and thaw it out and add it to the recipe.

You can use this infused coconut oil straight on your skin as an effective topical treatment or add it into your favorite topical recipes like my THChristi Tub Treats

For edibles, you can easily substitute 1:1 solidified coconut oil for butter, or melted coconut oil for other oils in your favorite recipes.  Or try making my 99% Organic Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

Subscribe or stay tuned for more make your own medicine recipes using Cannabis Infused Coconut Oil.  

Have fun and stay medicated!

99% Organic Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

MMMMMM!  Today I made these at the request of one of my patients and they turned out so great I wanted to share my recipe with you all.  I'm calling them 99% Organic because the chocolate and peanut butter chips are not organic but everything else in the recipe is!

So here's the ingredients you will need to make these tasty treats:

• 2 3/4 Cup Organic White Flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 Cup of cannabis infused organic cold pressed coconut oil
• 1 Cup organic cane sugar (the light colored stuff)
• 1 Cup organic brown cane sugar (the dark stuff)
• 2 farm fresh organic eggs
• 1 Cup of organic quick oats
• 1/4 Cup chocolate chips
• 1/4 Cup Peanut Butter chips
• 1/4 Cup shredded organic coconut

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees

In a medium mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, oatmeal, cinnamon and salt.  Set aside.

Put your 1 cup of infused coconut oil in the microwave for 30-60 seconds to melt.  

In another mixing bowl blend together eggs and sugars then drizzle in the melted coconut oil.  Beat this together until smooth. Then add the dry ingredients from the other mixing bowl a little at a time until you have a well mixed dough.  

Now add in the coconut and chocolate/ peanut butter chips and stir them in by hand so as not to break up the chips.

Use about 1 tablespoon to form a nice 2" size cookies. Place the cookies about 2" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.   Use the back side of a spoon to flatten the dough on your cookie sheet.  

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. 

Let the cookies sit on the cookie sheet for about 2 minutes then remove to a cooling rack to finish cooling.  

This recipe will make approximately 48 @ 2" medicated cookies.

If you are new to eating medibles start with 1 cookie and wait about 45 minutes to guage the effect of the cookie.  If you still have pain then go ahead and have a second cookie.  Everyone's tolerance is different.

Enjoy!

420 Strawberry Cheesecake Bites

Happy 420!  In celebration of this marijuana movement holiday I made up a batch of these delightful 420 Strawberry Cheesecake Bites.  Packed with a double dose of medicated goodness these little treats will surely get your party started!

Here's what you'll need:

• 1/4 package of cream cheese (2 ounces)
• 1/4 Cup of Powdered Sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1/2 Cup Graham Cracker Crumbs
• 9 fresh ripe strawberries 
• 2 teaspoons of cannabis infused coconut oil (or Cannabutter)
• 1 Cup Milk Chocolate Chips
• 1/2 teaspoon cannaoil (or Cannabutter
• 6 chocolate candy melts (these are optional for putting a "lid" on your strawberries

Instructions:

1. Finely chop 3 of your strawberries.  Set aside.  
2. Carefully cut out the stem and core of the other 6 strawberries.  Place each berry with the cut side down on a cutting board.  Set aside.
3. In a mixing bowl combine your cream cheese and infused coconut oil.  Blend until well mixed.
4. Drain any liquid that has accumulated on your chopped strawberries and discard.  
5. Add your chopped berries, graham cracker crumbs, vanilla and powdered sugar to your cream cheese/coconut oil mixture and blend well.  
6. Place mixture in fridge for about 15 minutes to set up.
7. Now fill your cored berries with the cream cheese mixture.  The easiest way is with a pastry bag or put filling in a ziplock bag, cut off a small amount from the corner and squeeze the bag to fill the berries.
8. Return your filled berries to the fridge to chill.
9. While your berries are chilling out place some wax paper on a plate or sheet pan.
10. To prepare the chocolate coating you will want to use a microwave safe mug.  Add your milk chocolate chips and your cannaoil into this mug.
11. Microwave this mixture in 30 second intervals stirring between each time until you have a smooth mixture.
12. Remove your filled berries from the fridge.  One at a time dip these into your chocolate coating mixture and place on your waxed paper plate or pan.  

**Optionally add 1 candy melt as a lid to your filling on each berry.

Return dipped berries to the fridge and allow to set up for 1/2 hour or longer.

Serve and enjoy!

Stay Safe & Have a Happy 420!

Cannabis Cookbook Update

It's been a couple of months since I started the process of making this cookbook.  I thought I better get the update out as I've been getting a lot of questions online about WHEN it will be ready for ordering.

The short answer.... I'm not sure.  The long answer is I've got the recipes I'm going to publish narrowed down with a few recipes in each category (ie: topicals, sweets, savory etc).  I've been working on getting them all entered & formatted as well as getting pictures of the final product.  Next phase will be editing and proofing.  Once that is completed I will order a single copy so that I can make sure that everything is looking good from the printer and then I'll let you all know how you can order your own copy.

I had a few polls to see what you all would rather have: a bigger book coming in at $40-$50 per copy or a smaller book coming in between $20-30 and the smaller book was overwhelmingly more popular so that means I'm able to include about 20 recipes.

I really appreciate all of your encouragement and enthusiasm about this project.  If so many hadn't requested this I would have never taken it on.  I can only hope that you all will be just as excited when the book is in your kitchens.  :0)

THChristi

THChristi's Tub Treats

These little tub treats can turn an ordinary bath into medicated moisturizing magic. They're easy to make and give bath time a special spa feel.  You'll get out of the tub relaxed, refreshed and fully moisturized!

Here's how you can make a batch of these little medicated melts.


Supplies:

• a large glass or stainless steel mixing bowl ( plastic will scratch and absorb the essential oil in this recipe)
• wire whisk
• measuring cups
• silicone ice cube tray (or some other mold that will hold about 1 Tablespoon per cavity like a candy mold, mini muffin pan, regular ice tray)
• wire sieve
• nitrile gloves

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup cannabis infused coconut oil  ** use recipe for cannabis butter substituting coconut oil to make your own or pick some up at your favorite dispensary
• 5-10 drops essential oil (I used lavender but you can use whatever scent appeals to you)
• 1 Cup baking soda
• 1/4 cup citric acid (I found this at Walmart with the canning jars)
• 1/4 cup corn starch

Instructions:

1. Measure out baking soda, citric acid, and corn starch. Sift these together through your wire sieve. This will help to evenly mix these dry ingredients and catch any large clumps

2. Measure out 1/2 cup of cannabis infused coconut oil into a microwave safe dish. Microwave for 30 seconds. Stir to melt any still solid coconut oil. You want this melted but not hot.

3. Stir your essential oil into your meted cannabis oil.

4. Slowly drizzle in the oil mixture into your dry ingredients whisking it as you go. This should make a loose mixture.

5. Glove up! Now get in here with your hands and mash, knead, & mix until this mixture is fully and uniformly mixed

6. Fill your molds with this mixture and place in the freezer to set up. This will take about an hour.

7. Remove from freezer and remove from molds. Place finished tub treats in a resealable container and store in a cool cupboard or in your fridge. Coconut oil will melt at around 75 degrees so if your house is warm you definitely want to keep this in a fridge.

To use:

Run a warm bath. Drop in 1 or 2 tub treats. Relax and soak for at least 20 minutes.

Breakdown of ingredients:

Cannabis infused coconut oil: Cannabis has many healing properties. In a topical application it is known to be pain relieving, anti inflammatory and helpful for skin issues such as psoriasis, eczema, rashes and irritations. Coconut oil is also known to have healing qualities when applied topically. It is an anti-oxidant, UV blocker, anti-microbial, and is high in vitamin E.

Baking soda: It's skin soothing and softening properties help with itching, acne & rosacea.

Corn starch: In bath formulas corn starch softens skin and offers relief from itching

Citric acid: The effervescent action of citric acid in the water helps to distribute the coconut oil throughout your bath. In skin care it is an anti-oxidant, astringent, and adds vitamin C to the skin.

Lavender essential oil: This oil relaxes and calms nerves, can help relieve headaches, helps with muscle pain, has anti-fungal and anti-septic properties.

Enjoy!

Hash Hard Candy

I had a request for my recipe for Hash Hard Candies.  To be honest this recipe is just the recipe from LorAnn Oils with the addition of some decarboxylated kief hash.  I've used their flavorings and recipe for awhile and have been pretty happy with my results.  Check out their website if you want to purchase LorAnn Oils candy making supplies.

So here's what you will need for this recipe:

• A Candy Thermometer (absolutely necessary)
• A heat gun (recommended but not necessary if you have a reliable candy thermometer)
• A heavy pot for cooking
• Hard candy mold or mini muffin pan with foil liners
• Patience and lots of time!
• 2 Cups of Sugar
• 2/3 Cup of Corn Syrup
• 3/4 Cup of water
• 1 dram (1 small bottle) Candy flavoring oil
• 1 teaspoon Tart n' Sour flavoring
• decarboxylated kief (amount will depend on how strong your dosing your candies)  This time I used 1/8th gram per candy in my mini muffin tin.
• extra sugar for dusting your finished candies

Ok so here's the thing with making hard candies, you have have have to be patient.  This process takes a long time and if you try to speed it up you will run the very real risk of scalding your sugar and ruining the whole batch, so please be sure you have the time before beginning this process.

How to do it:

1. Spray your mold or muffin tin with a very light shot of cooking spray.
2. Measure out your desired dosage of decarboxylated kief and add that to each section in the muffin tin or mold
3. Add the Sugar, Corn Syrup, & Water to your heavy pan. DO NOT STIR!
4. Place your candy thermometer in your pan.  Be sure that it doesn't rest on the bottom of your pan if it does, it will break and ruin your thermometer and your candy.
5. Place your pan on medium heat.  
6. Pull up a chair and be prepared for the wait.  Watch your candy  in the pot, but do not stir it or turn your heat up past medium. 
7. Watch for the sugar mixture to begin to boil.  Now allow it to boil together until it reaches 300 degrees F (hard crack stage).  This takes anywhere from 20-40 minutes depending on your oven.  Here's where the heat gun comes in handy.  I use it to check the temperature of the boiling candy in different parts of the pan.  I do this throughout the boiling process.  Inevitably there will be a hot and cool spot in the pan.  When any one spot hits 300 degrees F immediately remove the pan from the burner.
8. Quickly add your flavoring and Tart 'n Sour.   It will incorporate with the boiling action of the candy mixture. DO NOT STIR! Stirring will create bubbles in your candy. 
9. Add your candy mixture to your prepared molds.  I use a metal tablespoon and quickly spoon it into the mini muffin tin.  Whatever is left over I pour into one of my hard candy molds. (Be sure you are only using molds that are rated for high heat.  Chocolate molds are NOT and WILL MELT if you add this molten sugar into them! Ruins your mold and your candies too!)
10. Allow your candies to cool completely
11. Carefully unmold your candy
12. In a small bowl add about 1/4 Cup of granulated sugar.
13. Place each candy into sugar and flip the candy over so both sides are coated with sugar.  You may spray a fine mist of water on the candies to help the sugar to adhere.
14. Place candies on a plate and allow to dry with the sugar coating in place.
15. Package and enjoy your Hash Hard Candies.

***Please note you are working with REALLY HOT sugar and this can burn really bad.  Use extreme care to keep this away from your skin!

OK so I hope you have fun making your own Hard Hash Candies, just remember to have lots of patience & time.  And again please be very careful.  That molten sugar can do a lot of damage to your skin.  I recommend doing this entire project BEFORE medicating so you are able to give this your full attention.

Stay Elevated!

Decarboxylating Kief For Medibles

Decarboxylating kief makes it more potent in medibles

OK here's a quick DIY and Why for decarboxylating kief for medibles.  The main reason to do so is by decarboxylating the kief you convert the THCA in THC which is activated for the body to process through oral administration (eating).  When I first began making my edible medicines I didn't know about this crucial step.  After all my hard work making my medibles sometimes they just didn't seem to kick. I did a little research and found that by decarboxylating the starting plant matter (in this case kief) you could convert the THCA to THC and make sure that your edibles were made with the fullest absorption into your body.

So here's how I do mine.  First using a kief box, shake out some kief from your buds or other plant matter.  For cooking it's ok if your kief material is yellow to yellow/green in color, so you may want to shake twice.  The first shake (yellow) you may want to save for smoking.  The second shake (yellow/green) you can use for all of your cooking needs.  Remove the kief from the base of your shake box and place in a baking pan.  Place this kief in a 250 degree oven for about 30 minutes.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool.  Now your kief is decarboxylated and ready to be added to all of your delicious medible recipes.  I store my decarboxylated kief in a small mason jar in a dark cupboard and use it as needed.'

Here's a fantastic article about decarboxylation.  In the article they say 240 degrees F for 30-60 minutes.  I still do mine for 30 minutes at 250 F.  You can decide what works best for you.

Stay elevated!

THChristi's 5 Minute Marijuana Muffin

THChristi's 5 Minute Marijuana Muffin

Because sometimes you don't have a lot of time for cooking fancy medibles I wanted to share one that I make when I need a no nonsense medible.  This recipe only takes 5 minutes start to finish and is cooked in a mug in the microwave so no big clean up.

Here's what you'll need:  

• 2 Tablespoons of all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons of Cannabis Sugar *
• 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 2 Tablespoons of milk* (I use evaporated from a can but you can use whatever milk you prefer)
• 1 Tablespoon + 2 teaspoons vegetable oil*
• 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla
• Yogurt for topping the muffin

Here's how you do it:

1. In a small mixing bowl combine your dry ingredients.  Stir them together with a fork until well mixed.
2. Add milk, cooking oil & vanilla.  Stir well
3. Spray your mug with cooking spray
4. Pour mixture into mug
5. Microwave on high for 1 minute.  Check to see that center of this muffin is done by inserting a toothpick.  If the toothpick comes out clean its done.  If the toothpick has wet batter on it, microwave again in 30 second intervals until it's done.
6. Remove from the mug.  Allow to cool for a minute or so.  Serve with a scoop of yogurt over the top.

*If you don't have Cannabis Sugar, use regular sugar and either substitute CannaMilk for the milk in the recipe or substitue CannaButter or CannaOil for the cooking oil in this recipe.  If you don't have any of these Cannabis cooking items on hand you could add a measured dose of decarboxylated kief to the recipe too. 

There are several variations you can do on this recipe......

• Add 1/8th Cup of dried fruit &/or nuts to the recipe
• Add 1 Tablespoon of cocoa powder for a chocolatey muffin and topp with a few chocolate chips &/or nuts
• Add 1 Tablespoon crushed pineapple & substitute 1 teaspoon brown sugar to make a pineapple upside down muffin.  Serve topped with a maraschino cherry 

Stay elevated!

Cannabis Sugar

As promised, here's an easy recipe using the medical marijuana tincture I taught you to make last month.  Cannabis infused sugar!  I love this recipe because it is so easy to make and to use.  I package in small ziplocks from the bead store and keep these in my purse.  When I'm out and about and need to medicate, I can order up a coffee or tea and stir in a packet of my cannabis sugar.  You can also make and use in place of sugar to make any recipe a medible.  I  like to use as an extra layer of medication by sprinkling on top of my medicated sugar and/or peanut butter cookies. 

What you will need:

• Mixing Bowl
• Measuring Cups & Spoons
• Baking Sheet
• Alcohol Based MMJ Tincture 
• Granulated Sugar
• Optional: sugar/candy molds

Directions:

1. Place 1 Cup of granulated sugar in a mixing bowl.  Add 1 Tablespoon of tincture.  Mix well to fully incorporate tincture into sugar.  Mixture will still be grainy.  This is fine.  
2. Spread the mixture onto a baking sheet pan in a thin layer ****
3. Place in a 200 degree F oven for 30 minutes.  This will evaporate the alcohol from your sugar.  
4. Remove from oven and allow to completely cool. Sugar will be clumped up on your baking sheet, this is normal 
5. Place clumped sugar in a sieve and press through with a metal spoon to re-granulate the sugar
6. Place sugar in an airtight container for storage

Uses:

Use Cannabis sugar in any way you would use regular sugar.  I like to add it to my coffee, iced tea, hot tea, oatmeal, cereal, on a halved grapefruit,  in a fruit salad & anywhere else where I would use granulated sugar. Use in recipes to make medibles.  Keep a container at your desk at work or package in single serving sized bags for convenience.

****Optional:  To create pre-portioned sugar cubes, press sugar mixture into a teaspoon or sugar mold.  Place onto a baking sheet and follow above directions for baking.

I hope you will find this recipe an easy way to get your medical marijuana for home and on the go.  

Stay Elevated!

Tincture Tutorial

Getting ready to make tincture

Tinctures are such a versatile way to use medical marijuana. Dispensaries here in Washington State carry various flavors, strengths and strain types to treat a variety of medical issues. Tinctures work in 3 ways in that they can be used under the tongue for fast action, swallowed for an edible effect or even used topically for relief without any psycotropic effect. Tinctures allow for discreet options for patients looking to medicate in public or private. *Please note that under Washington State law 69.51a "it shall be a class 3 civil infraction to use or display medical cannabis in a manner or place which is in open view of the general public" so do so only at your own risk

I use tincture as a base for many of the medical marijuana recipes that I'm planning toshare with you, like my Tincture Teddies so I thought I'd better rewind and give you the basics. So here's my method to make your basic cannabis tincture with alcohol. You'll be surprised at the ease and effectiveness of this medicine.

What you will need:

• Everclear or some other high proof alcohol. The higher proof the better to capture the Cannabinoids in your plant material
• Dry medical marijuana. For a more well rounded tincture I like to use a mix of ground bud, sugar leaf and fan leaf. This allows you to extract not only THC which is most prevalent in the bud, but also CBD and other Cannabinoids which can be found in higher concentrations in the leaf material. See my notes at the end of the blog for choosing which marijuana strain to use for your tinctures
• A resealable glass jar
• Labels!

Step 1:

Rough chop your material. Do not grind it too fine or your final tincture will be cloudy. Place the ground marijuana on a cookie sheet in a thin layer and bake in a 250 degree oven for 30 minutes. This will decarboxylate the marijuana activating the medication so that your body can process it. This is the most important step in this recipe. Here's a short video by Dr. Frankel which explains how decarboxylating works on a chemical level and why this step is so important in making edible marijuana medicines.

Step 2:

Once your marijuana has cooled, place your resealable jar. Now add enough of the alcohol to cover your plant matter. Seal the jar and label with strain name, today's date and any other information about your stain. Place sealed jar in a dark warm place for 1 month. I store mine in the back of the cupboard above my stove.

Step 3:
Wait. This is the hardest part, but trust me it will be well worth it! I like to check on my tincture once a week and give it a little shake. If you are in great need, you can sample the tincture at 2 weeks, but allowing it to go the full month in a dry warm cupboard allows for the fullest extraction and the most potency.

Step 4:
Remove the tincture from the cupboard and strain out the plant material. I pour mine through one of those gold reusable coffee filters. Put the liquid tincture back into a resealable jar and store in a dark cupboard, fridge or freezer. I keep one in the freezer for making cold drinks and another in the cupboard.

Step 5:
Sample your product to determine your dosing. Each and every tincture you make will be different depending on the marijuana used to make it. This is why it is so important to label your tincture with the strain information. I don't know about you, but after 1 month I'm not going to remember the qualities of the marijuana I put in the jar.

• Sub-lingual use: To determine your dosing for sub-lingual, start with a 1/4-1/2 teaspoon. Hold it under your tongue and allow it to absorb. You should feel the full effect within 5-10 minutes. this will be pretty hot in your mouth.You may want to add a flavoring agent. I find that mint and cinnamon essential oils work well to make it more palatable.
• Edible use: To determine your best dosing for using your tincture as an edible medication occasional users should start with 1 teaspoon of tincture and regular users and those with higher tolerances will want to start with aobut 1 Tablespoon. You can drink this plain or add it to the beverage of your choosing. You should start to feel the full effect of this medication in about 30-45 minutes and the medicating effect lasts for hours for most people. Note the effects and adjust your dosing as neccessary.

Notes on choosing marijuana strains for your tincture:

When choosing which strain marijuana to use for your tincture you will want to consider the overall effect and medical qualities of the marijuana. If you have a particular strain that you like to smoke or vaporize you'll notice the same kind of medicating qualities in a tincture made from that strain.

Using an indica dominant strain will make a stonier final product (think: evening relaxation, couch-lock, nap, pain relief, anxiety relief, muscle relaxation, movie night, and overall stoniness).

Using a sativa dominant strain will make a more energetic tincture (think: active schedule, upbeat, energetic, motivated, productive, pain relief, depression relief, mood elevation, social time and an overall feeling of highness).

You may like to have couple of tinctures on hand so you can use whichever one is most compatible with your symptoms and schedule.

When I'm fighting pain and anxiety I use the indica tincture as I've found that for me the energetic sativa can increase my anxiety levels. When I'm fighting pain with depression or a busy schedule and long to do list I like to use the sativa tincture. It allows me to stay motivated while relieving my pain. You'll need to experiment and determine what works best for your body chemistry and individual likes and needs.

My OG Kush Tincture

Notes on how to use your tincture:

Like I said at the beginning, tinctures are so versatile Here are just a few ways to administer your tincture medication.

1. Place tincture in a medicine dropper bottle. When needed simply drop under tongue and allow to absorb
2. Add tincture to ANY beverage. Use it in your morning coffee, your juice, water, tea, hot chocolate, cocktail, or whatever
3. Take your tincture straight by the spoonful
4. Add tincture to recipes to make an easy medible
5. Add tincture to dressings & sauces
6. Place flavored tincture in a micro spray bottle & use like a breath spray
7. Use tincture topically for pain, inflammation and skin irritations
8. Add tincture to your favorite lotions for an instant topical medication
9. Add honey to make a medicated syrup that can be taken like cough syrup
10. Use tincture to make my Tincture Teddies & stay tuned to You Me & MaryJane or subscribe by email at the top of this page for more medical marijuana recipes to come.

Hope you will find this tincture tutorial useful and helpful for treating yourself.

Be Well!

Cannamilk A Shared Recipe Compilation

I'm sure you've heard the expression, "share & share alike".  Well here's what that means to me.  

Today  Natalie @CannaMilkHeals found me on twitter and offered to send me her Cannamilk recipe to help me with my Fibromyalgia.  I mentioned the blog and she offered to share on here so we can all benefit from another healing Cannabis recipe.  She's a woman after my own heart!  When we share we all benefit! 

Here's the email I got from Natalie:

Hey Christi! :)
Ok, so this is a collection of recipes I've gathered     over the years.
Use in good health and Enjoy!Nat

My apologies, firstly, for any redundancies & spelling errors...This is a collection of recipes and suggestions gathered from the interwebs, (unless marked NP), and English is not the first language for some authors.Keep in mind, making canna-milk is a lot like making hash- everyone eventually develops their own 'methods' and techniques often vary slightly from person to person...I'm sure you will come up with your own tweaks and improvements, after making a few batches; (if you do come up with anything that you think is worth passing on, I'd love to hear about it!)
I hope you find these recipes helpful and that canna-milk is as life changing for you as it has been for me!! I promised myself I would share these recipes with other patients who could benefit...
In that spirit, I hope that you will also share these recipes with other patients! Looking forward to hearing how your first batch goes and about your results!
-NP

Canna-milk tips from NP:

• Avoid using skim or lower fat milks (1%, 2%) for best results.
• Remember: the higher the fat content, the better- The fat is what the Cannabinoids will be binding to, ie: the extraction vehicle...
• We use roughly 50/50 whole milk and whipping cream; (occasionally w/ chocolate to make it a little more palatable.) 
• Vanilla extract, can also be added to make it taste better, (*add vanilla and/or chocolate just after removing from heat.*)
• Also don't forget H's ice cube tray trick for freezing in dose sized pieces...
• **Use caution when testing the potency of your first few runs...Cannamilk can really wreck your day if you take too much and can be very unpleasant-- Cannamilk has been known to put grown men with huge tolerances in a lengthy, puke-filled stupors...It can be far more potent than you might expect and catch people off guard, if not cautious about testing the potency of each batch.**

Enjoy!!
-NP

On to the CannaMilk Recipes!

A’s CannaMilk Recipe:

I use 1-2 oz salad mix of sugar trim, small bud, broken bud, and older buds in a quart of whole milk, I preheat the herb to 325 for 10 minutes. The preheating is the key, it is how I define my edible experiences, before I did this, and after.

I cook for 1-2 hours, and try to avoid boiling, simmering is good. Strain, cool, freeze. Add water back into the herb and reheat, then repeat the straining process. I do 3-4 pressings, and mark the bags a,b,c, so I know the strength in that cup. I get 10 full strength hits and about 10 at the lesser concentrations, a one month supply m/l.

Always eat a small snack 15-20 minutes before taking edibles, this engages the liver so it does not reduce the THC digested. The milk works great because it is easy to digest.

I pour the Cannamilk into 3 oz plastic cups, freeze them then bag them the next day, thaw as needed.-A

B's Cannamilk Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 2 liters of Milk (full cream or extra cream if available)
• 2 full cups of chopped high quality cannabis (a lot of gear).

Directions: 

1. Coarsely chop cannabis
2. To remove water soluble nasties that effect taste, water wash the cannabis. Add it to boiling water and boil gently for 10 minutes, strain through cloth. Do this three times. Each time water will be less dirty and should be clear(ish) by the third wash. Squeeze as much water out of the washed cannabis as possible (let it cool down or run it under the cold tap first).
3. Place washed cannabis on a baking tray and dry in the oven at 50 C. Check every 20 mins until dry then remove. You can open and close the door or turn on/off the oven if you want to be extra careful not to overheat. Alternatively place tray in a warm, dark place until dry (24-48 hrs).
4. Add about 2+half cups of milk and all of the washed, dry cannabis to a pot and boil (very, very carefully) for about an hour. Do this on lowest heat required to get the the milk moving about gently. Cover pot with lid, leaving some space for excess steam to escape. Check every 20 mins, stir and make sure its OK. At this time, add 1/4 cup of boiled water (out of the kettle) as the milk reduces. Then strain through cloth into a container. l do this with the same cannabis and fresh milk three times to get as much good stuff out as possible. Just add each lot to the same batch. Should end up with about 1.5 liters. (Hmmm... wounder if l should just do the whole lot of milk at once. l read some place that three is the magic number in solvent based extractions and so have borrowed that idea.)
5. l like to reduce the total liquid. Place the lot in a pot. There should be about 1.5 liters and simmer over very low heat, stirring every 10 minutes. It takes about 1-2 hours to reduce it by half. Once reduced it will be quite thick and creamy in consistency. l like to get it down to about 750 mls and put it into 100 ml bottles which go into the freezer and one bottle in the fridge. This stuff is very strong and only need 1-2 teaspoons for a nice buzz (approx one hr to kick in and about 3 hours duration).
6. Flavoring. As is, this stuff tastes pretty bad. A teaspoon or tablespoon isn't much l suppose, but it doesn't hurt to sweeten it a bit. 2-4 tablespoons of sugar or honey mixed in whilst hot before bottling seems to do the trick. A few drops of vanilla essence and some cinnamon work nicely too. Leaving it as un-flavored can be handy tho to avoid having too much. Its a bit too easy to have a extra when its sweet, smooth and thick.

*Potency will vary depending on the amount and quality of cannabis used.

*This method seems to work better than the butter and the high comes on MUCH faster. Although it cant be used in the same versatile way as butter for various cooking techniques. *Always be very careful when having a first dose. It prolly wont kill ya if you have too much but it will knock you over. Being raging bent for 2 days non-stop can get tiring, to say the least. Start with one teaspoon and see how it is after one hour. If its only a minor buzz, then up the dose to a tablespoon. Wait an hour. Take it from there. For example, one batch l made was good by the teaspoon (2 tsp for a nice one, 3 or 4 to go hard). The next batch was good by the tablespoon. It can vary, a little to a lot.
l find it preferable to work out a dose that gives me a sort of mildly strong buzz with a peak that lasts about 1-2 hrs. Present batch takes about 2 tablespoons, kicks in after about an hour, peaks at the 2nd to 3rd hr, then start coming down by the 4th hr. Sometimes l will have another tablespoon (or two) after 2 hrs to keep the buzz going longer. By the way, when first dosing its not a bad idea to check your resting heart rate to see how you respond. l find that cannabis raises it to around 90-100bpm, under normal comfortable circumstances. It gets uncomfortable for me when it gets over 110-120 bpm. -B

 More Tips from B:

• Water boils at 100 Celsius  THC vaporizes at MUCH higher temps. 
• 2% milk fat is too low. Full cream milk is around double that and extra cream around triple  Adding whipping cream is a very good idea. 
• 2 cups of GROUND HIGH quality bud is around 2 ounces by weight.
• Cannabis has a more powerful effect when ingested. It takes about twice as much to get the same buzz but lasts four times as long. Four times divided by twice as much = 2 times OR Double the efficient use of herb. Basically you need half as much to get same effect as when smoked.
• 2 teaspoons is 10 mls. 750mls divided by 10mls = 75 doses. Two oz by weight is around 60grms. That's very roughly about 1 gram per dose. 
• Try it with 1 gram of HIGH quality bud into say half a cup of milk and see what you get.
• One batch took around 2 teaspoons for a buzz, another took 2 tablespoons for the same effect. Couldn't be bothered reducing the 'weaker' batch, hence the larger quantity dosage. Incidentally that 2nd batch was around 1250 mls. It varies.-B

C's CannaMilk Recipe:

Supplies:

•  oven

• microwave

• PYREX measuring cup (Adding milk to a regular cup immediately after you remove it from the oven will cause it to shatter.)

• 6 oz. of WHOLE milk (more fat content= better extraction)

• marijuana (I use 1 gram of mid grade pot.)

• chocolate powder/syrup (I use Ovaltine)

• something to stir with (I use a fork)

Steps:

1. The first step is decarboxylation of THCA to THC. To do this you will need to set your oven rack to the middle position, then set your Pyrex measuring cup on the oven rack, close the door and set it to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. While the oven is preheating you need to prepare the pot by breaking it up and removing seeds and stems (I like to use a grinder because I feel like trichomes that I should be ingesting end up on my fingertips instead of in my stomach).
3. Once the oven has pre-heated you need set a timer for 5 minutes, open the door and carefully pour your marijuana into the measuring cup without burning yourself, then close the oven door and start your timer.
4. Once the timer goes off you need to put on an oven mitt and remove the Pyrex cup from the oven. While you are holding the Pyrex cup use the handle end of the fork to grind the pot to a fine powder. 
5. When you are finished grinding the pot make sure you look at the end of the fork to see if there is anything sticking to it. If there is some plant material on the handle of the fork you should tap it on the inside of the measuring cup so you do not waste anything.
6. Add 6 oz of Whole milk to the cup and chocolate powder/syrup then stir the mixture around so that the pot is saturated.
7. Set your microwave to 2 minutes and put the mixture inside.
8. Start the microwave let it run for 15 seconds then remove the mixture and stir well. Put the mixture back into the microwave then repeat this step until the 2 minutes is up.
9. You can strain your hot chocolate if you want to but I prefer to swallow everything because it is hard for me to believe that there is no THC left in the plant material. By swallowing everything you minimize waste.
10. Drink and enjoy!

-C

D’s CannaMilk Recipe:

This is not for rookies this is XXX strength, I'm not kidding. 
OK so I started with the 1 Quart size mason jar, ground up 1.5 ounces of A+ bud flowers and ground them up in my brand new Toastmaster brand food processor. Best $ you can spend if you like to cook with cannabis or make extracts or even rolling. This thing is compact, portable and really works great. Once it is ground up, take it all and place in Mason jar and fill the rest of the one Quart Mason jar with milk. *This is where you have to be careful with following my directions b/c I am not using any measurements and the amount and grade you use will vary greatly. Just use this as a place to start and adjust your method for your product that your using. My batch is super strong, I would say people could get away with just using a quarter ounce to half ounce if you are using bud flowers or a full ounce or more if you are using shake, trimmings/clippings, stems, etc.
So once the bottom of the mason jar is filled with your procuct, take the Milk (I am not sure what milk works best, but I used 2%) and pure it until you have about 1.5-2 inches to spare from the top. Prepare a large pot of boiling water or use a double boiler/crock pot etc., just make sure the glass jar is not in contact with the metal pot. I just filled a large pot and placed two wooden spoons at the bottom and placed the mason jars on top. Shake the jar for a few minutes while you wait for the the water to come to a boil. It is good to have a little temp gauge to test the water, you want the make sure the Milk in the mason jar doesn't exceed 100 Celsius  I used a little digital temp gauge from the super market for a few dollars. Once the water in the pot is boiling, place the mason jar in, and bring milk to boil, and cook for 5-25 minutes, bring the temp down for a bit after the initial cooking process for a little slow cooking as you slowly bring the milk back to room temp. After a little bit, turn off the stove and let the water and milk cool to room temp together. Once the milk and water are just warm to the touch (be VERY careful) PLACE the lid on top of the mason jar with milk and let cool completely  once the milk is at room temp. seal lid down and place in fridge. if you want you can filter it out right now and consume. Use a PASTRY CLOTH not CHEESE CLOTH, very important, because many cannabis recipes call for cheese cloth. It is good to always have both on hand for any well stocked cannabis kitchen. Take a second one quart mason jar and tie pastry cloth down over lid with rubber band. Pour milk with cannabis through filter and presto. It should 100% free of all product, if its not its OK not the end of the world, just fix your filter and pace it through one more time, do this until it is free of all product. If you don't have access to a pastry cloth and cant get it 100% clean, you can still drink it with some material, but it will be a little tough to swallow the weed chunks (mmmmm weed chunks). I like to let the milk sit with the material in the fridge after I cooked for at least a day or two. You can even heat it up again and add more cannabis to get it super strong. Then filter as above That's about it, now use it to make chocolate milk, cereal, oatmeal, etc.-D

E's CannaMilk Tips:

"I do this ..... heavy whipping cream (the highest fat content available, THC is oil soluble and will bind to the milk fat/butter fat) in double boiler heated to 160-170 (milk burns at 180 and the flavor is greatly affected) crushed/chopped (not to fine) herb added to make the consistency of oatmeal. 30 min simmer on the double boiler, strain and i add that to chocolate chips to make some delicious fudge or a nice creamy chocolate sauce to dip fruit cookies or what ever you want." -E

F's CannaMilk Recipe Tips:

When preparing cannabis milk, I usually rinse the plant matter a few times in hot water (not boiling, just as hot as you would drink a coffee for example) before putting it in the milk. This helps remove that "green" taste you sometimes get. As you rinse the weed, you'll notice the water you dump gets clearer each time.
Try to avoid skimmed milk. The creamier the milk, the better, THC is fat soluble. -F

**Please be very careful** milk can be extremely strong medicine!