Pleasures of a Night In
I can’t think of anything better than spending time with people I love. Preferably at home, in a little bubble, doing whatever we like. Whether you have someone special in your life or not, I’d like to share what I think could be a great way to spend a night in. I used to do menu planning professionally, and love to cook. As we all know, cooking and cannabis is one of the best combinations there is. I offer this menu as something I’d share with someone myself. Whether you’re an amateur or an advanced cook, these are meant to be recipes and items manageable and flexible enough to accommodate a range of ability. These options are also only a guide accompanied by links with additional resources. Use your creativity and taste to suit your needs.
A disclaimer; if you’re going to be consuming alcohol or cannabis, be careful to manage your dosage. The combination of the two can have a heavy effect on some people’s metabolisms. Your reactions and level of intoxication will vary of factors like genetic predisposition, metabolism, tolerance level, etc. Also, remember that effects of ingested THC take longer to take place. You don’t want to get so blasted that you stop enjoying what you’re doing, which in this case is spending time with someone you love, whether that’s family, friends, a love, or yourself. Also, these offers may be interchanged, or used one at a time. If the entire meal or experience has CBD or THC, it might be too much. Up to you.
Incorporating CBD/THC into the Meal
This can be done in variety of ways. Simply adding a drop or two of a CBD or THC tincture to the meal will work in some cases, like if you’re making a salad dressing or a beverage. You can consider infusing oils or butter to create your own blend…this works well when cooking a protein like steak, fish, or vegetables and can go towards making a salad dressing as well. The process requires forethought, but is well worth it.
When making desert, you can apply this process to cream or any kind of milk as well. (This bodes well for ice-cream, pastries, etc. )
Starting
1) Beverages
I find it pleasant to start with a cocktail or a glass of wine when I’m cooking and to get people relaxed. You can go with whichever way you like. (Always make sure you have water on hand when you’re consuming alcohol, especially if you plan on mixing it with THC.) If you don’t want to mix THC/CBD and alcohol, you can always do a non-alcoholic drink, or offer something infused with CBD to a similar effect. In my experience, starting off with something hard makes the night end more quickly than I like. THC and CBD infused wines are also a viable option.
2) Hors D’oeuvres
I like to lay out a charcuterie plate most of the time, ideally with a variety of hard and soft cheese, cured meat, crackers, figs, grapes, nuts, etc. (In some cases, a good charcuterie plate is enough to serve as a meal in itself.) If you’d like to keep your appetite longer, I’d go with an amuse-bouche, which is one bite size version of what you’d serve otherwise. Crostini’s are great for this; they tend to combine fat, carbohydrates and protein to make a very satisfying meal teaser.
3) Salad
Food52 is a great site for recipes. With salad, you can go heavy or light, depending on what your other courses are. In general, it’s important to consider how one flavor or type of food will follow another. When you’re planning a meal, think of it like an album or a mixtape, for those of you who remember what those are. Each course is a piece of music that has to sit next to another, and to get the best experience from each, they need to compliment each other through just enough contrast to bring out the flavors in each. That said, is applies to mouthfeel, texture, ingredients, and balance of fat, salt, acid and heat… yes, like the show.
4) Main
Your main course is the climax before the warm cuddle of desert and after meal coffee or port. This is the central part of your meal. Whether you’re vegetarian, vegan, omnivore or have any other dietary requirements, you can use your main course to anchor the rest of your menu. Once you know what you’re serving for the main course the rest follows. For instance, if you’re serving steak, it’s helpful to think about the favorite time you had a meal with steak. How was the meat served? Was it bleeding or cooking to the right shade of pink? Was it served on its own? With raw vegetables or roasted ones? Deciding on what you’d like to serve is as simple as thinking back to what your best experiences have been. Considering that orally consumed THC takes about an hour to start taking effect, this is a great point to introduce it into the meal. This can be done through adding the cooking oils.
5) Desert
Desert can range from deeply indulgent, to lightly sweet, to refreshing. It’s the period at the end of the sentence. This is also a good course during which to add THC. You can make a recipe and THC whatever way you like, or you can buy an edible treat like THC infused chocolates.
The Takeaway
No need to do the dishes on a night like this. Enjoyment to you, happy cooking, and happy upcoming Valentine’s Day.
