Burrrr! 2011 has been a cold one, thus far! Stay warm—and toasty ; )—with this yummy chile recipe. It'll warm you right up! Chile Bean Pot as seen in Cannabis Cookbook by Tim Pilcher Ingredients 2lb pinto beans 1lb bacon, chopped 2 cups red wine 4 tsp chile powder 2 garlic cloves 2 tsp chopped MMJ 1/2 cup mushroom, chopped beef or vegetable stock, cube optional salt and pepper rice or nachos, and sour cream, to serve Directions 1. All the ingredients go in a big pot with enough water or stock to cover. 2. It's brought to a boil and then left to simmer for about an hour, or until it tastes right. Salt and pepper can be added to taste. 3. This dish is great served with rice or nachos, and a spot of cooling sour cream. Enjoy!! ...

What could possibly be better than milk chocolate, pretzels, marshmallows, caramel and coconut? None other milk chocolate, pretzels, marshmallows, caramel and coconut oil infused with cannabis of course! Gaia's Garden certainly chose their most popular bar's name well: The Cloud 9 Experience. Due to it's namesake, my coworker Britanny's rave reviews and of course it's irresistable ingredient combination, I had high expectations. And I am happy to report that The Cloud 9 Experience did not dissapoint! It was sweet, salty, smooth, perfectly moist and fluffy. With my first bite, I completely forgot it was an MMJ edible. Seriously Gaia's, you should consider selling your recipe to Hersey. It's that good! I want to share it with everyone, cannabis infused or not. Cloud 9, as well as Gaia's other products from what I've been told, are stand-outs in a sea of  the sometimes strange-tasting MMJ edible industry. The only downfall to the Cloud 9 is it's deliciousness! Beware, it's very difficult to stop eating this bar once...

Pumpkin Muffins as seen in The Marijuana Chef Cookbook by S.T. Oner 12-14 muffins Ingredients 2 cups of all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon of baking soda 1 teaspoon of baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground ginger ¼ teaspoon nutmeg ¼ ground all spice 1 cup of packed light-brown sugar 1 cup granulated sugar 1 cup of Cannabutter (sold at Boulder Kind Care for $35) 4 large eggs, lightly beaten 1 can (15 oz) of pumpkin puree (as used for pumpkin pie) Cooking Instructions 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees 2. Start by mixing the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and allspice in a medium-sized bowl and set aside. 3. In a large bowl, whisk together the light brown sugar, granulated sugar, Cannabutter and eggs. 4. Add your dry ingredients and mix until smooth. 5. Whisk in pumpkin puree. 6. Place paper liners in your muffin tray and fill halfway with batter. 7. Bake until tops spring back when touched, and a toothpick inserted in the center come out clean — about 20-25 minutes (consider more time for higher elevations)....

As people who live, breathe and love the medical marijuana industry, we talk about the dream of legalization, but it’s very refreshing to know that right now the entire country is tuned into the conversation. California’s Prop 19 is the hot topic for the 2010 mid-term elections and it’s created the perfect platform to expose the rest of the U.S. to MMJ’s benefits: for our bodies, law enforcement, corrections facilities availability of resources, balancing state and municipal budgets, the growth of small business and the creation of an environmentally sustainable industry. After almost 100 years of marijuana prohibition in California, marijuana is more popular and accepted than ever. “The war on marijuana has clearly failed,” said Boulder Kind Care owner Lance Smith. If passed, this legislation “would make lawful the possession and sharing of one ounce of marijuana outside the home and allow for personal cultivation of a small marijuana garden and possession of its harvest in the home. California cities...

Boulder Kind Care is now offering several new edible choices; one of our new favorites is Fresh Republic’s Honey Hit Sativa and Peanut Budder Indica Squeeze Packs. Don’t let these 21.5-gram packets fool you! They are infused with 35 mg of activated THC. They are the perfect medicated substitute for everything from a traditional peanut butter and jelly sandwich, to fluffer nutters, to a peanut butter, banana and honey sandwich, plus the Honey Hit is a great additive to tea. One BKC employee was feeling under the weather recently, so she slipped some Honey Hit into her cup of hot tea, and it really helped her get through the day. It soothed her sore throat, calmed her headache, added honey sweetness and even gave her a little boost of energy. A much better choice for the body than Dayquil! Basically the sky’s the limit in terms of the Honey Hit and Peanut Budder packet’s many uses. Some even like the strange, but surprisingly tasty pizza crust dipped in honey, try it with a Honey Hit for an extra sweet end...

After a long, busy, saddening day—we discovered several more of our members/visitors have lost their homes to the tragic Fourmile Fire—I thought it appropriate to wind down with Green Sky Confections Boulder Cookie. I find that edibles give me a body high rather than a smoker’s heady high. I don’t always eat my MMJ, but when I do I’ve usually been very happy with its effects. Because I have a nagging shoulder injury and recent knee surgery, which has thrown off my gait and posture entirely, I find myself in more and more pain in the evenings. So I ate the Boulder Cookie, in "high" hopes that my physical ailments would wash away into relaxation and comfort. I ate a little less than a quarter of the cookie—I’m a light weight—and not 20 minutes later I was feeling much better. My shoulder and neck relaxed immediately. Yet, I still felt alert enough to do some computer work that needed attention. I didn’t have that stony, distracted feeling I sometimes get from smoking. Plus, it tasted amazing! It’s made with organic chocolate chips, almonds, coconut and oats. It had a lovely homemade taste to it, like my grandma’s oatmeal cookies. It was perfectly moist, but not overwhelmingly buttery as some baked MMJ treats can be. The taste of weed was very subdued, which was nice, but also dangerous, because I wanted to eat the whole (1.1 gram) cookie in one sitting!...

Here are some recipes that Chef Rachel from Baked at a Mile High shared with us at the Plant Medicine Expo and Healthcare Provider Conference in Denver last month: Cannabutter 1/5 - 2 ounces of Cannabis-use the best whole bud you can find, we reccommend BKC Cannadiential 1 lb of butter Grind up whole bud, and place in a crock pot with 1 lb of butter on low heat. Let cook on low for 24 hours. Strain bud out with a cheese cloth. Place in a sealable container, store in refridgerator. Chocolate Cocunut Cannabis Bites 1/2 cup medicate coconut oil 1/3-1/2 cup maple syrup 1/2 cup cocoa powder 1/2 cup shredded coconut, lightly toasted (optional) 1 T. soy lecithin 1 t. vanila 1/2 t. sea salt Melt all ingredients together in a sauce pot over medium low heat until combines. Pour into molds of your choice and place in freezer for 15 minutes. Remove from molds and tip with candied almond. Bud Brandy Snaps makes 20 1/2 cup medicated butter, unsalted 3/4 cup sugar 2 T. corn syrup 1 cup flour 1...

Holy Cow Hot Chocolate (Makes 2 Cups) 1 cup of milk (can substitute soy, rice or coconut milk, they all contain lecithin, which bonds with cannabinoid oils) 5 tbsp granulated sugar 1 cup light cream (substitute Soy Milk, vanilla will taste best) pinch of ground cinnamon (can add more, Chef Rachel of Baked at a Mile High, says you can add double spice in any recipe to mask and work with cannabis flavor) ½ tsp vanilla extract 4 grams of cannabis, finely chopped (Chef Rachel says that you should always use whole bud in cooking, and the best strain available will maximize effect and benefit, we recommend BKC Cannadential). 150 grams (5 oz) of unsweetened chocolate 1 chocolate bar garnish with whip cream (substitute Soy) and marshmallows. How to Prepare: 1. The milk and sugar are combined in a pan on medium heat. Once the sugar has dissolved, all the other ingredients can be added, apart from the chocolate. 2. Bring to a boil, allow it to simmer for about 1 hour. Then it is filtered through a coffee...

In the past year, I have been amazed at all of the red tape that has been born to this industry.  The requirements are sometimes laughable. I have been impressed with the companies out there that have really risen to the challenge and started producing legitimate brands.  We used to have to fight with certain edible vendors who came through our doors for any kind of label to identify their product's ingredients, potency and suggested dosage.  Our staff had to become guiney pigs to try the products before we would put them on our shelves.  Invoice?  What are you talking about?!  Scheduled orders? Eh, what? But the times they are a changin' and recently we have aligned ourselves with some great vendors.  They have great packaging, with dosages and ingredients.  A little symbol at the bottom shows us that their product is tested in a lab. These are all things that are great for our industry.  We need to adopt standards of practice so that the medicine that people get is exactly what they are expecting....

Boulder Kind Care co-owner, Lance Smith was diagnosed with lymphoma early in the spring of 2010. He is recently cancer-free, and attributes it to his access to medicinal marijuana. “It was literally the only thing that made me feel better during my chemo treatments.” Cannabis has been found to help cancer patients with pain and nausea, and recent research indicates it has tumor-reducing and anti-carcinogenic properties as well. It has proven highly effective at controlling the nausea associated with chemotherapy, and its appetite stimulation properties help combat wasting. Cannabis can also help control the pain associated with some cancers, as well as that resulting from radiation and chemotherapy treatment (Americans for Safe Access). Because of his own success story, Lance is frustrated and saddened for all the other cancer patients in the U.S. who don’t have access to MMJ, especially considering how commonplace cannabis is discussed among the general medical community. “In my initial consultation...