| the ever so popular pot brownie |
Welcome to the first installment of Baked! -- an occasional series designed to prepare you for the implementation of Prop. 203, the medical marijuana law. Polly Cooper (not her real name) is an accomplished local baker who will remain anonymous til the law is in effect, but she's eager to share tips for cooking with cannabis.
Tomorrow she'll give us her all-important recipe for canna butter. Today, let's get to know her.
My Nana was a beautiful, large, Hungarian woman, who was my best friend, or as I would call her, "My Beautiful Nana". I would often sneak in late at night, as if not to disturb, then always creep, ninja style, half way up the staircase to make sure she was silent or snoring, and not moaning in pain.
Gratefully, this night I heard nothing and my friend and I proceeded our brownie experimentation -- not properly, but good enough. The smell of marijuana and chocolate melted through the walls and crept up through the ceiling, only to awaken Nana.
After all, she had a "love affair with food, and no need for a man".
She wanted the warm, fresh-out-of-the-oven brownie, but I did not dare give her one. She was on numerous medications, and who, for fuck's sake, gives their nana a "special brownie"? So I made up some lie and said we couldn't share.
Later that night, as I crept up to my bedroom, my body feeling light and painless, I heard Nana moaning in pain. I crawled into bed with her and massaged her aching arm, and wished I would have given her a brownie so that she could feel what I felt, and sleep peacefully for the first in a very long time. Knowing what I know now, I regret not sharing even more.
Years later, a dear friend of mine lost her mother to cancer. She was her caregiver and none of the drugs prescribed worked. She didn't know about the process of making "canna butter," or oil, or about any other medicinal use for marijuana, so she did what she thought would work best, smashing some cheap marijuana to a powder with a mortar and pestle and putting it in capsules. Unbeknownst to her, eating the pot was not the most effective way to relieve her mother's pain, but it did give her some measure of relief.
Even years after that, this dear friend of mine went to see another loved one, this time her great aunt, suffering from excruciating and crippling arthritis, but she was prepared. She had made a preparation of butter infused with marijuana. She spread some on a piece of bread and then covered it with peanut butter. My friend sat at her bedside while she ate the "special toast" and for about 30 minutes, they sat and talked, then her aunt said, "I think I'm going to sleep now."
The next morning, when she was asked how she slept, she replied, with tears in her eyes, "That was the best, most restful night of sleep I've had in years."
My friend left the butter for her and returned to Phoenix with a new sense of purpose, feeling like she had done something great, watching this work for someone she loves dearly.
There is a stigma associated with marijuana use. The lazy video gamer, sitting in front of the TV; those damn, dirty hippies, burning one and trying to wax philosophical. There are examples everywhere, and I'm sure everyone knows at least someone who fits a stereotype. The most destructive part of this stigma is that it can prevent those who may benefit from its therapeutic aspects from even asking about it.
Finally, the voters of the state Of Arizona have decided to make marijuana legal for people suffering with chronic (no pun intended) pain.
If you don't agree with the law or don't believe in the medicinal properties of marijuana, this blog probably isn't for you... BUT, I would like you to continue reading and maybe I can change your mind.
And for those of you on board, I'm going to tell you how to make concoctions and tinctures, as well as some wonderful tips, recipes, and ideas that can help either you or a loved one in pain. You never know when the time will come when you are sitting beside your mother, father, aunt, sister, best friend, or lover, watching the meds not work and feeling helpless because there is nothing you can do....Well, this blog's for you.
