Passion

As they say in the teaching biz:  You can’t teach passion.  And boy howdy, is that true.  If I could have done that to the hundreds of students I’ve taught over the last five years, we wouldn’t be having the current crisis of lack of kitchen workers.

This cookbook, a collection of recipes that really work, is definitely a passion.  My former students will tell you that there is nothing more disappointing than going through all the steps of a recipe, only to have it turn out flavorless or underwhelming.

I like recipes that don’t suck.

Even more than the recipes is the reason why this cookbook is in development:  People need great recipes to bake with medical marijuana.  As an in-demand pastry chef for the last 15 years, I have had friends approach me and ask me to make edibles.  At first, I was hesitant — at that time marijuana was still illegal in all 50 states, and I was really not ready to go to jail for buying weed to make banana bread.

I took the leap and made edibles for my friends who were asking for medical reasons, not just because they wanted to get high (although, there’s nothing wrong with that either).  Edibles were made for my girlfriend who had to have an emergency hysterectomy, a friend with fibromyalgia, a friend whose mother-in-law was suffering the terrible side effects of chemo due to pancreatic cancer, a friend with brain trauma, and the list goes on and on.

I saw first hand what my treats did for them.

• I saw that A’s mother-in-law was able to have my ice cream blended into milk shakes and then after — she was actually hungry and able to get up out of bed and move around a bit.  It made her last months comfortable.
• T was able to have a slice of banana bread in the morning and be able to push aside her pain from Fibromyalgia and put her kids on the bus in the morning.
• Y used my ice cream to work through her pain after an emergency (complete) hysterectomy {every woman reading this last sentence has just shuddered in sympathy}.  She was prescribed opioids that made her puke her guts out.  The ice cream was gentle (and far tastier).

So, if you are someone who uses medical marijuana to manage pain or symptoms instead of opioids — or — you are a caretaker of someone who is chronically ill, this cookbook is for you.  Make the treats and enjoy.  I promise they won’t suck.