A la minute literally translates from French as at the minute. By culinary definition, à la minute refers to a cooking approach where an item is prepared to order, rather than in advance of service.

Traditional infusions take advanced planning to prepare; but what if there were a more impulsive approach?  Sort of à la minute?

Of course, cooking with weed will certainly take more than a minute; but this is an interesting — and successful — alternative.

Imagine this scenario:

It’s been a rough day. You can’t wait to get home and…

Aw, crap!

You’d intended to make butter over the weekend, but your not so open-minded auntie showed up unexpectedly. Can you just imagine her flopping down the stairs in those old terry cloth mules:  “Is the coffee ready? Where’s the paper? What’s that God awful smell?”

This is your first evening alone in days.  A sauteed chicken breast with a side green buttered rice would be so good right now…

Option 1:
Go around the corner to the dispensary and spend a bunch of money for a packaged something or other which will get the job done, but tastes like crap.

Option 2:
Go around the corner to the dispensary and spend a bunch of money for Cannabutter that you can make yourself way cheaper tonight or tomorrow now that Auntie left.

Option 3:
Whip up some goodie in your own kitchen that incorporates the actual weed.

Remember that jar of prepared weed you’ve stashed in a cool, dark place? Pull it out and add some to your favorite baked good recipe. You may have to increase things like butter or liquids to offset the addition of the weed. Or how about meatloaf night ? Again, just add extra egg or tomato sauce to the mix — the weed increases the density of the meatloaf.

If you’ve used all your prepped weed, not to worry.  Even with a coffee grinder, it’s tedious to grind and clean a whole pile of weed in one sitting. Just prep what you need before you bake.  The entire prep process takes less than an hour; and with any luck, you might be able to force yourself to stay put and grind a little extra for next time.

Here’s another trick: If the recipe calls for melted butter, bring it to 225°F, pour in the desired amount of prepared weed, and let it steep while you’re mixing the other ingredients. When using weed that has been prepped in advance, it will cool down the butter. You may need to bring the temp back up for steeping. If going straight from oven decarb, not so much. When the time comes, add the butter-weed mixture to the other ingredients. If you don’t have a thermometer, around 225° F the butter is roiling, but not smoking or turning brown.  If either of those things happen, it needs to cool down a bit first. Get a thermometer.

Play around and experiment; but before you prep that canister of pricey nugs to dump into the cake batter, imagine which flavors really pair well with that of weed. For example: in spite of the whole brownie phenomenon, my palate does not find chocolate and weed to be a good combination. My personal  preference is, instead, to go with more earthier flavored recipes such as banana bread, oatmeal cookies, meatloaf, meatballs, stuffed mushrooms — the possibilities are endless.

Label Your Treats

Even if you live in a household of willing participants, no one wants to unwittingly find themselves stoned just because they grabbed a cookie off the cooling rack on their way out the door.  Depending on the packaging, Avery labels or a Sharpie work well for refrigerated or frozen goods.

Store Out of the Reach of Children and Pets

The first one is a given; the second, perhaps not so obvious.

My next door neighbor fell asleep watching TV, but left the baggie with her last slice of Bodacious Banana Bread on the coffee table. When she woke up a few hours later, there’s her 12 lb Yorkie mix, just sitting on the empty baggie, crumbs dangling off his muzzle, rocking back and forth like he was singing Kumbaya around the campfire. Fortunately, it was only one slice, so we were able to love and pet him through it over the next several hours.  Imagine if it had been the whole loaf?

Given that there is at least an hour or so between consumption and lift off, you should be able to squeeze in a minute or two to put your edibles away.

Unexpected Benefits from Consuming Whole Cannabis

While sitting around after Friday Dinner, instead of, “Want a hit?” you can amaze your friends by asking, “Care to decarboxylate?”

I’ve never been so regular in my adult life.