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!

Laughter is the best medicine!

This video has been floating around on Facebook and it's so wonderful I had to share it here for those who haven't yet seen it.  There are 2 contagious things that we should always share.........
Laughter & Love!
~THChristi

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! 

Cheesey Cannabis Crackers

A quick savory snack!

I don't know about you, but I do get tired of all my medicine choices being sweets.  I mean I like a good brownie or candy as much as the next patient, but I've been wanting something a little more on the savory side.  Here's what made today.....

Cheesy Cannabis Crackers:

What you'll need:

• 1 3/4 Cup of shredded cheddar cheese
• 4 Tablespoons butter
• 1 Cup flour
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon fresh ground coarse pepper
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 3 grams decarboxylated kief
• 2 Tablespoons evaporated milk

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees

mix until crumbly texture

Place all ingredients except for the evaporated milk in your mixer.  With the paddle attachment mix the ingredients on medium speed until it is crumbly.  About 2 minutes.

Add your evaporated milk and continue mixing for 1 minute until ingredients form a dough.

On a floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4" thick. Cut into desired shape.  Pierce cut outs with a fork to make small venting holes.

Place on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.  

Remove from the oven and place immediately on a cooling rack.  Allow to completely cool on the rack. 

Makes about 2 dozen 2 inch crackers.

  

Store in a sealed container.

Enjoy!

Tincture Teddies

After 2 day soak

Today I'm sharing a recipe for Tincture Teddies.

What you'll need:

• 1 package gummy bears
• A good amount of Cannabis Tincture (enough to cover the bears)
• Mason jar and lid or other glass container with a lid
• Time and patience

After 3 day soak

Instructions:

Place your gummy bears in mason jar. Cover bears with Cannabis tincture Place jar in fridge.  Shake jar daily.  When your gummy bears have doubled in size they are ready.  Store in sealed jar in the fridge and eat 1-4 bears as a medicated dose depending on your tolerance.  

Any tincture that didn't absorb into the gummy bears is now flavored like the gummies and can be taken by dropper full under tongue for a sweetened sub-lingual medicine.

These little Tincture Teddies help the medicine go down.  The sweet chewy little bears soak up the marijuana tincture and lend their fruity sweetness to what can be a very medicinal tasting plain tincture of cannabis.

Stay Elevated!

When good weed goes bad or the trouble with teddies

Once again I'm working on a new recipe for medibles to share with other patients who want to make their own medicine.  The thing with creating new recipes is that they don't always work out.  Like that 1/2 pound of Cannabutter I wasted trying to make a butterscotch candy.  The first recipe I had the heat on too high and it burnt the sugar and the 1/4 pound of Cannabutter that was in there too.  

"So what it's all R&D." I told myself "I'll try a second batch and turn the heat down"

Cannabis Tincture

Well the second batch didn't turn out either so there went another 1/4 pound of Cannabutter.  There I went back to the drawing board with this recipe and there it sits, on the drawing board.  

No biggie, I just won't share that attempt until I get the recipe figured out and no one will be the wiser.

Tincture infused bears

No such luck with today's fiasco! I've been sharing on twitter for the last 3 days how I've been working on a batch of Ganja Gummy Bears.  So this morning I pull the beautiful little bears all fattened up with Cannabis tincture out of the fridge with the intention of evaporating the alcohol and leaving behind little bears full of Cannabinoids.  I decide to place these scrumptious little yummies in the food dehydrator on low and let the alcohol evaporate in the machine.  Seems like a grand idea!  What could go wrong?  I couldn't even think of one bad outcome.

That just goes to show that no matter how much cooking experience you have, there's no way to predict all the results. 

  Disinigrated Gummy Bears

Here's what happened.....  All those delicious little plump tincture bears disinigrated!  Cannabis goo melted all over my kitchen counter and throughout my food dehydrator!  Ugh!  There went a lot of work all in the name of research.  $100s of dollars of high CBD tincture just oozed over my counter top!  When I think of all the work that went into growing these beautiful plants, making tincture and then infusing the gummies I cringe!  But again it's all in the name of research and development and in the long run it's a small price to pay when I remember all the wonderful Cannabis recipes I've been able to create and share with other patients who are looking to make their own medicines.  

So here I am sharing one or two of my failures in working out Cannabis recipes just to let you all know that it's love that keeps me at it.  Thanks for supporting my efforts with your words of hope and encouragement and letting me know when one of the more successful recipes has helped you with what ever ails you. 

And all is not a loss.... I did find that the little bears infused with tincture make a potent medible.  Lucky for me I kept one jar of gummy bears out of the dehydrator.  Those little teddies will stay in the fridge soaking in the tincture and I'll be enjoying them as needed for my fibromyalgia pain.  So even if the intended recipe was a flop, I have a great recipe to share with you if you'd like to make little tincture infused gummy bears.  I'll share that in my next blog post.

Stay Elevated!

HOT Chocolate Cannabis Cookies

Great Mexican ingredients inspired this recipe

I was scouring through my cupboards yesterday looking for inspiration for a new medical marijuana edible. I have this wonderful vanilla that my folks brought me back from their trip to Mexico and one of my favorite treats, Mexican hot chocolate and to spice things up we'll use some Cayenne pepper. This could be interesting.  So after some experimenting here's what I've made.....

HOT Chocolate Cannabis Cookies

Ingredients list:

• 2 1/4 Cup flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 teaspoon Cayenne pepper (if this is too spicy you can substitute ground black pepper or use less of the Cayenne pepper)
• 2 disks of Mexican hot chocolate (chopped into small pieces)
• 1/2 Cup Canna-butter (softened)
• 1/2 Cup white sugar
• 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
• 1/3 Cup evaporated milk
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon Mexican vanilla (or substitute regular vanilla)

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Combine flour, baking powder, cayenne pepper, salt and chopped chocolate in a mixing bowl.  Set aside.

In another mixing bowl cream together your Canna-butter, sugars, egg, vanilla and evaporated milk. 

Gradually mix in the dry ingredients into your wet mix and beat together until blended.  About 2 minutes.

Drop dough by rounded teaspoon or cookie scoop onto an ungreased sheet pan.  Space cookies about 2 inches apart.

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-11 minutes.

Remove pan from oven.  Allow cookies to cool ON the sheet pan for 1-2 minutes then remove them to a cooling rack to complete the cooling process.

This recipe made about 35 2 inch cookies.

Enjoy with milk or serve with Mexican hot chocolate.

Mac n Meds

Real comfort food!  Mac n Meds makes you feel good!

Medical marijuana is such a versatile healer. You can smoke it, vaporize it, concentrate it, and of course my favorite eat it! 

Combining a classic autumn meal with the pain relief of cannabis, this recipe will become one of your favorite true comfort foods!

Mac n Meds

This recipe makes 8 servings and can be made at Regular strenght or Extra strength depending on your needs. It should also be noted that eating marijuana edibles is an effective way to medicate but it can take anywhere between 20 minutes to 1 hour to feel the effects of the edible medicine.  The full effect will usually be felt after about 1 hour and the pain relief can last from 4-6 hours.
 
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Butter an 8x8 square baking pan (or use non-stick spray if you prefer)  Set aside.

In a large pasta pot, boil enough water to cook your pasta.  You will need 3 1/2 Cups of partially cooked pasta for this recipe.  I used a gluten free brown rice penne pasta for mine, but you can use your favorite pasta. 

Cook your pasta according to directions on your pasta but stop cooking 2-3 minutes before the directions say.  This will be only partially cooked and the final cooking will happen in the oven.

Drain pasta, rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process and set aside.

Now we'll make the sauce.  You will need:

2 Tablespoons butter 
3 Tablespoons of flour
1 1/2 Cup milk
1 3/4 Cup Shredded Sharp Cheddar
1/3 Cup Shredded Monterey Jack Cheese
3/4 tsp salt
dash of pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp chili powder

Melt the butter in a large skillet.  Add the flour and stir together forming a rue.  Cook this rue on medium heat until golden (about 5 minutes)

Slowly whisk in the milk until you have a thick gravy like mixture.

Remove the pan from the heat.

Add in the cheeses, salt, pepper, garlic powder and chili powder and stir all together to melt the cheese.

Now add in the pasta you prepared above.  Stir together and pour this into your buttered pan. 

Now for the medicine! 
 ***To make Regular strength sprinkle 4 grams of dry sift kief over the pasta mixture. This will make 8 @ 1/8th gram servings.
***To make Extra Strength sprinkle 8 grams of dry sift kief over the pasta mixture. This will make 8 @ 1/4 gram servings.

In a separate bowl combine 1/4 Cup of Shredded Sharp Cheddar and 1/4 Cup of Shredded Monterey Jack Cheese.  Toss them together.  Add this mixture over the kief.  Sprinkle with Chili powder.

Bake uncovered for 25 minutes.  

Remove from the oven and let it stand for 8 minutes. 

Stay Elivated and Enjoy!

 
 

Cannabis Salted Caramel Sauce

Here's another recipe that I've come up with and I'm all about sharing the love!  This one's also quite easy, has a limited amount of ingredients and only takes about 5 minutes to whip up.

Cannabis Salted Caramel Sauce:

1/8 C Butter 
1/8 C Cannabutter
3/4 C Brown Sugar
1/2 C Corn Syrup
1/2 Can of Sweetened Condensed Milk (not evaporated)
1 teaspoon Vanilla extract (use the real stuff it's so much better than imitation vanilla!)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

In a medium saucepan add butter, brown sugar, corn syrup and sweetened condensed milk.  

Heat over medium heat to a boil.  Stir your mixture constantly using a wire whisk.  Be sure to scrape the sides of your pan to incorporate any sugar crystals.

Boil together for 3-4 minutes (always keep stirring)

Remove from heat.  Whisk in Vanilla & salt.

Serve warm over ice cream. Enjoy!

Makes 6-8 servings


Hash Variation:

For a stronger medication, follow recipe above but instead of using the 1/8 cannabutter and 1/8 butter, substitute 1/4 C of regular butter.  After mixture has boiled together for 2 minutes add in 2 grams of dry sift kief or other hash. Stir constantly. Boil mixture 1-2 minutes more then remove from heat and add vanilla and salt.  This variation makes 8 servings each containing 1/4 gram of hash.  The hash will decarboxylate from the heat of the mixture and this will make it activated and able to be absorbed as an medible.

***Both variations can be stored in your fridge for up to 1 week in a sealed container. To reheat simply place in sauce pan on medium heat on your stove top. Do not use microwave to reheat as microwaves do not heat evenly and may overheat and evaporate the cannabinoids in your sauce or burn parts of the sauce ruining the whole thing!

I hope you will enjoy this recipe and share freely with other medical cannabis patients.

Stay lifted!

1/4 gram chewy chocolate rolls

Oh wow! I made this super easy potent medible recipe today and I wanted to share it with all you Medical Marijuana Patients. If your like me you may enjoy creating your own edibles.

What you will need:
Crock pot
20 Tootsie Rolls
2 Tablespoons Sweetened Condensed milk
4 grams Dry Sift Kief
1/4 Cup Powder Sugar
Wax paper

Count out 20 tootsie rolls. Unwrap and place in crockpot on low. When tootsie rolls begin to soften/melt add in condensed milk and dry kief. Stir togther and leave on low heat for 4-10 minutes. Allow to cool slightly.

On clean counter measure out about 1/4 cup of powdered sugar in a mound with a depression in the center. Spoon the warm Toosie mixture into the depression in the powder sugar. Knead together. Roll mixture into a long snake. Cut into 1" pieces. Wrap in wax paper. Store in sealed container in your refridgerator.

Enjoy!
THChristi

Rainier Wellness Center Bubble Hash Making Class

Rainier Wellness Center is a great access point located at 3111 S. Pine St.

• Tacoma, Washington. The thing about this place is they love their patients.  How do I know?  Well the staff at RWC is always helpful on the phone when I call in with questions. They also send me an email  everyday with a menu of their meds and the many services that they offer to their patients

Today Triiiches and I took advantage of their free Bubble Hash Making class.  What a great experience.  This class is limited to 10 patients so you get a real one on one opportunity to learn.  Today there was 6 patients. The instructor Alek took time to answer all of our questions and show us the step by step process twice.  This class was different because everyone had a chance to get some hands on experience with most of the steps.

Another upside of this class was the free flow of information not just about bubble hash making but a lot of other medical marijuana related topics.  The information from the other patients as well as the instructor lead to some good discussion during the waiting periods of the hash making process.

It's such a pleasure to network with other patients in the MMJ community. The energy and vibe left us with a positive glow as we went home where we continue drying our sample of the class' creation.  Will review the results of that as soon as its dry enough to taste.

Our experience at Rainier Wellness Center is always a good one.  Definitely check these guys out when you are in the area or check them out on Facebook

Bad Brownies

Like a rock!

Bummed out over a burnt brownie.  This thing is so hard that it is inedible for certain.  I've been banging it on the table repeatedly and it won't even break.  What the heck.  How is a patient to medicate when the medication is inedible?  I'm sorry but if this is an indication of your $5 edible menu, I'll pass.  

What I'm looking for are elevated edibles and they're not as easy to find as you might expect.  Every access point that I go to I'm always checking for something delicious that I can try for eating my medicine (my preferred intake method).  So far I'm seeing a real need in the area for someone to come out with a good line of edibles that are not just medicated but also of high quality and taste. 

In other edible news.... I'm making my second batch of medicated fruit leather.  The last one was strawberry-rhubarb.  This time I'm playing with rhubarb pie flavored leather.  Will let you know how it turns out. 

Dispensary Review: Mountain Medicine Clinic Puyallup

A work in progress

Mountain Medicine Clinic is a brand new access point opened in Puyallup, WA.

We visited for the first time this week and met the bud-tender James.  What a nice guy!  He really seems to care about his patients and what they are looking for and what helps them.  He was very open to feedback and was very easy to talk to.

So I must say first off that this location JUST opened at the beginning of March and the inside remodel and layout is still an ongoing project.  I would call them in their "soft opening stage".  But when we were welcomed into the bud room we could certainly see the potential and progress. The location is conveniently located off of Meridian behind the 7-11 at 128th.

The one major draw back I found with this access point is that they are on the second floor of the building up a narrow staircase, so if you have mobility issues such as wheel chair or difficulty maneuvering stair ways this is not a location for you.

When we visited they were carrying about 9 strains of dried med and a couple of edibles as well as 1 tincture.  Some of the strains were familiar like AK-47, but others were named local strains that were new to us.  In our conversation with James we understood that as this access point grows they will be carrying quite a few more types of medication.  In the next week or so they will be adding a full line of topical meds and have plans to bring in more strains of dried med too.

Overall this was an enjoyable visit to a new up and coming access point.  Not a huge selection but what they lacked there (for now) they made up for in service, person-ability and interest in their patients.  We're looking forward to watching their continued expansion and I for one am glad to be one of their early members.

If you get a chance to get in here, do so and say hello to James while your there :0) Or check them out on facebook and watch the progress

Peace N Pot

THChristi