Easter. It’s the last candy holiday until Halloween. While you let that sink in, check out these Instagram photos that display some incredible decorating skills. A popular technique is tie-dying, which involves wrapping eggs in silk ties and boiling them in vinegar-laced water. The result is frame-worthy. Other Easter eggs simply involve honed talent and a supernatural inclination for patience. Take a look, or just get some inspiration. And remember: last candy holiday. So, treat yourself!
Maybe in non Southern European families a big smooshy looking pile of shiny dough balls doesn’t look too appetizing. For us, they’re one of the best parts of any holiday: Struffoli Cookies!
Flash fried chunks of simple dough are covered in a honey syrup, and this version has a few tweaks to soften any family gatherings. Since honey syrup is the perfect place to jam in some cannabis, you can enjoy the cookies and save any leftover syrup for tea and other things. I’ve used a Korean citron tea concentrate to spike the honey with yuzu’s perfumey limonene, which is a helper to a good and anxiety free high.
It’s true, they don’t look like much, but these cookies taste really delicious, and just about anything covered in honey is going to make your day better. Since citrus is already in the recipe, there’s no reason not to incorporate it into the topping for that special touch that also accents the cannabis flavor.
Photos by Maria Penaloza
Cannabis Spiked Struffoli Cookies
Amalgamated recipes from Italian Food Forever, Food 52, and memories
Makes 150 cookies, .5mg of THC per cookie estimated
For the dough:
4 eggs
2 ¼ c flour
¼ tsp salt
1 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp lemon extract
A few dashes of ginger powder
Citron Honey Sauce:
½ oz glycerin or alcohol tincture*
1 c honey
1/2 c citron honey concentrate or ‘tea’
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon extract
Oil for frying
Photos by Maria Penaloza
Whisk eggs until well mixed. Add extracts and stir. Slowly add flour and mix gently until it comes together to form a ball. Allow to sit aside for 20 minutes.
Photos by Maria Penaloza
Before you roll out the dough, heat 1” of canola oil in a heavy bottomed pan to 350 degrees.
Photos by Maria Penaloza
Take the dough onto a floured surface and cut into 4-5 chunks, roll gently into 10 inch ropes. Chop off 1” chunks and cut those chunks into three pieces. Lightly roll into a messy ball shape.
Photos by Maria Penaloza
Fry in batches of 10-15 and drain on paper towels. About halfway through the frying, put the honey and citron syrup into a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Wrap up the frying.
Photos by Maria Penaloza
Put all of the fried dough into a bowl. Once it has simmered and reduced a bit, you can add the tincture and extracts. Pour the hot syrup over the cookies and stir well. Serve in a bowl and eat right away or keep in an airtight container for 2-3 days.
Photos by Maria Penaloza
*Cannabis Tincture
In an oven safe container double sealed with foil, decarboxylate 3.5 grams finely ground cannabis at 225 degrees Fahrenheit. Put cannabis in a mason jar or vacuum sealed bag, pour over 2 oz vegetable Glycerin and seal tightly.
Place in a water bath at just under boiling for 1 hour. Strain and keep contents in a sterilized container. Stores indefinitely in freezer.
Photos by Maria Penaloza
Now you can be one of the proud few non grandmas to make this dish. It does well at office holiday parties in the cooler months, and is a great snack to work on during a busy week. Some people add almonds, sprinkles, or even candies fruit rinds to theirs, so have a ball, or a hundred of them.
It’s a busy time of year for religious folks all over the globe. Devout Christians are observing Holy Week, culminating in celebrating the resurrection of Jesus on Easter this Sunday. Observant Jews are celebrating Passover, commemorating when God freed the Chosen Ones from the bonds of slavery in the time of Moses. And on April 20, the unofficial annual holiday for cannabis enthusiasts around the world, Elevationists will for the first time open the doors to The International Church of Cannabis in Denver.
You read that right. Elevation Ministries, a Colorado non-profit religious organization, will welcome fellow Elevationists and the cannabis curious to see the refurbished 113-year-old church in the West Washington Park neighborhood.
What is Elevationism? And who are the members of The International Church of Cannabis?
According to the denomination’s website:
Elevationism started in Denver, Colorado with a small group of individuals unsatisfied with the outdated, organized religions currently available to them.
Church members are called Elevationists and our lifestance is that an individual’s spiritual journey, and search for meaning, is one of self-discovery that can be accelerated and deepened with ritual cannabis use. We use the sacred flower to reveal the best version of self, discover a creative voice and enrich our community with the fruits of that creativity. As a group Elevationists demand the right to congregate and partake of their sacrament together. They do not believe it is just that they be thought of as criminals for carrying out their deeply held religious traditions, no matter how new those traditions may appear to be.
Last July, the group purchased a delipidated 13,000 square-foot church and have been busy the past nine months renovating the interior.
“We were so happy to find a space that already had a spiritual history, and to be able to retain that element in the use of the property,” said Briley Hale, spokesperson for the church. “It’s a great privilege to be able to turn this building around, rather than watching it being converted into condos or left abandoned to attract vagrancy and crime.”
The chapel ceiling has been painted by Spanish church artist Okuda San Miguel, who had, according to the church’s press release created “an uplifting and elevating space for the congregation to partake of their sacrament, and take quiet meditation.”
The front of the church has been painted by Kenny Scharf, whose work is included in the permanent collections of New York’s Whitney Museum and Guggenheim Museum.
The renovation is ongoing — and expensive. To help pay the bills, the church this week launched an Indiegogo campaign.
Curious about the church and its teachings? Here’s some information direct from the official website:
What Is Elevationism?
Elevationism started in Denver, Colorado with a small group of individuals unsatisfied with the outdated, organized religions currently available to them.
Church members are called Elevationists and our lifestance is that an individual’s spiritual journey, and search for meaning, is one of self-discovery that can be accelerated and deepened with ritual cannabis use. We use the sacred flower to reveal the best version of self, discover a creative voice and enrich our community with the fruits of that creativity.
As a group Elevationists demand the right to congregate and partake of their sacrament together. They do not believe it is just that they be thought of as criminals for carrying out their deeply held religious traditions, no matter how new those traditions may appear to be.
What’s Up With The Whole 420 Thing?
The Christian religion took symbols of fertility like eggs and rabbits and just made them part of their celebrations. Rebirth is the message of the Christian Easter. So those pagan symbols of the cycle of life still reinforce the basic message.
We are doing a similar thing with 420. It is already a symbol of cannabis culture. So, in the spirit of the age, i.e. cultural appropriation, all we have done is decided to make it an important time, date, and number in our religion. It’s still yours, but it’s ours too now.
Can A Jew Or A Muslim Or A Christian Or Whatever Be An Elevationist?
Unlike other systems of spirituality, there is no need to convert to Elevationism. It claims no divine law, no unquestionable doctrine, and no authoritarian organizational structure. So, yes, anyone can become an Elevationist.
Further, Elevationism isn’t necessarily a replacement to existing faith, but a supplement to it. The Elevationist community is not bound together by the singular god or dogma one believes in, but rather by a flower that has positively influenced our lives and our spiritual growth.
I noticed an item that was on extreme sale: the Palmer Chick-a-Dee chocolate crispie candy. They were 39 cents each or something and Easter was coming.
While recently wandering aimlessly in the candy aisle in the drug store, I noticed an item that was on extreme sale: the Palmer Chick-a-Dee chocolate crispie candy. Like seriously — they were 39 cents each or something and Easter was coming. Needless to say, I bought a bushel of these sweet chicks, and maybe one or two more items. And now I am making Cakespy’s Chick-A-Dee sugar cookie bars.
On the way home, I pondered how they might taste all melted on top of a layer of sugar cookie bars. Would the faces melt off of the chicks? Would it all melt into a layer of chocolatey goo on top? Either way, it sounded tasty, so I set myself to this delicious task.
To hasten the process, I used Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix. I mixed it according to the instructions, adding a stick of butter and an egg to the mix, and stirring it until it was a soft, sticky dough.
Then I pressed it into a well greased pie plate (because I couldn’t find a square pan).
And then on top of that, I placed several of the Chick-A-Dee candies. And, for fun and visual appeal, I dotted the negative space areas (can you tell I went to art school?) with Robin’s Egg candies. Why not?
Then I put it in the oven. Goodnight, sweet chicks.
Now, to bake the cookies according to the package instructions, you bake them 5-7 minutes. But since I was baking bars, I set the timer for 12 minutes. At 12 minutes here’s what I saw:
So I kept ’em in for 20 minutes or so. At that point I felt confident that they’d baked through, and the edges were golden.
Weirdly, the chocolate candies never actually…melted. They just kind of got melt-y. I guess that’s not so different from what happens to chocolate chips while baking in cookies. But still, the baking process altered them just enough to be sort of strange and pockmarked looking.
But they were still highly delicious. Those little crispies tasted great against the melty chocolate and sugar cookie mixture. I went ahead and ate it with a spoon because let’s be honest, this wasn’t what I’d call a high-class baking experiment.
And oh, how satisfying it was.
Hoppy Easter, friends. If you want to do this at home, it’s easy: just prepare a batch of Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix per the instructions on the bag, press it into a greased pan, top with the chocolate Easter candies of your choice, and bake at 375 til nice and toasty around the edges and set in the middle (20 minutes or so).
President Trump is expected to soon nominate Rep. Tom Marino (R-PA/10th) to be Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (colloquially referred to as the “drug czar”). Marino, a former prosecutor with no background in health or treatment, supports a punitive, 1980’s style approach to drugs, including mass incarceration and coerced treatment, even for medical and non-medical marijuana.
Drug Policy Action, the political arm of the Drug Policy Alliance, gave him an “F” in their 2016 congressional voter guide.
“Rep. Tom Marino is a disastrous choice for drug czar and needs to be opposed,” said Bill Piper, senior director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance. “America can do much better. Our nation needs a drug czar that wants to treat drug use as a health issue, not someone who wants to double down on mass incarceration.”
As a U.S. Attorney Marino showed preferential treatment for a friend convicted of cocaine offenses, while showing little mercy for others caught up in the criminal justice system. In Congress Marino voted against the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, which prohibits the Department of Justice from undermining state medical marijuana laws. He has called for “hospital-slash-prison” facilities where people caught possessing marijuana or other drugs would be forcibly detained.
Studies show that coerced treatment rarely works. Treatment works best when it is voluntary and meets the individual needs of the person struggling with substance-related issues. A Human Rights Watch report found that hospital-prison policies in China, Cambodia and other Southeast Asia countries led to enormous human rights violations. An evaluation by the Drug Policy Alliance of existing coercive drug courts in the U.S. found enormous problems with little positive impact. Combined with Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s support for executing drug traffickers the Trump Administration could move U.S. drug policy in horrific, un-American directions.
The nomination of Marino would represent yet another about-face by President Trump. Earlier this year the Administration signaled that it would seek to eliminate the drug czar’s office, determining that it was wasteful. On the campaign trail Trump said that marijuana should be a state issue and that he supports medical marijuana “100 percent,” positions that Marino holds the opposite views on.
The nomination of Marino for drug czar would also come at a critical time in U.S. drug policy. 29 states have legalized marijuana for medical use. Eight states have legalized marijuana for non-medical use. Polls show a majority of voters believe marijuana should be legalized like alcohol; a super-majority believes the federal government should let states set their own marijuana policies without federal interference. Dozens of states have passed drug-sentencing reform, and a bipartisan coalition in Congress came close to reforming federal drug sentencing laws last year.
“The American people are moving in one direction and the Trump Administration is moving in another,” Piper said. “There are few hard-core supporters of the failed war on drugs left, but those that are left seem to all be getting jobs in the Administration.”
An Australian rapper, real name Terry Peck, rapper name 2Pec, did something that everyone wishes they could, but often cannot afford to do: he enjoyed himself a really fancy dinner. Like $621 worth fancy dinner, a meal that included—allegedly—two lobsters, a baby octopus, 17 vodka oyster shooters, and a “number of Coronas.” That’s good eating.
But 2pec did not pay for this meal. Instead he dined and dashed in a way you probably won’t believe. He took off, running down the beach and diving into the ocean, swimming as far away as possible to get away. The wait staff chased after him. Eventually, two police hopped aboard jet skis and arrested Peck in the middle of the ocean.
Peck appeared in court Monday, charged with stealing and two counts of serious assault on a police officer. He was ordered by an Australian magistrate to never return to the restaurant and remain in his home while the case is being heard.
Peck disputed the claims to Australia’s ABC News and complained that the lobsters were “overcooked.”
“They should be apologising to me for the shell … [and] the overpriced food,” he said.
In addition, Peck stated he’d run away from the restaurant to find and help a friend who was giving birth on the beach. The problem was he was arrested before locating her.
Who hasn’t been lost deep in a mesmerizing daydream, thinking about the past weekend or an upcoming vacation or anything at all, when a coworker or teacher rudely interrupts you to bring you back to reality? No one, I’d argue. But not everyone has this happen to them while they’re live on the air as a news anchor.
The clip below shows just such a thing happening to Australian ABC News 24 anchor Natasha Exelby last week. When a segment ends and the shot returns to Exelby, viewers can see her intently fiddling with her pen, thinking of who knows what. A second or two pass before she realizes she’s back on the air, at which point she makes the most shocked face any of us have ever seen.
She soon composes herself and tries to return to the broadcast. “Now to sport with Meredith Sheehan,” she says.
By that time, of course, it was too late—her fate as an viral moment on the internet was sealed.
Making matters somewhat worse for Exelby is the fact that the clip was tweeted out by her own company, ABC News.
“That feeling when you’re caught daydreaming at work :)” @ABCmediawatch wrote in a tweet that’s since been retweeted over 6,100 times.
These squirrels receive more love than you have ever given your pet. At least that’s the consensus regarding these squirrels lucky enough to live next to Ashley Deskins. Because like any good neighbor, Deskins hosts local get-togethers like Super Bowl parties, inviting community food trucks, and hosting a drive-in movie night.
Here’s the twist: All these are custom-made for the squirrels. That’s right. Deskins custom builds miniature dining sets that would make hipsters in Williamsburg jealous.
Her soft spot for the furry creatures started when Deskins and her husband returned home one day to find two injured squirrels. They hurried the poor guys to the vet, but apparently it was too late. The event inspired her into creating this safe spot for the squirrels to interact and play.
The move has been one of trial and error. “By observing the squirrels, I can determine what they feel comfortable jumping on,” she told Bored Panda.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BRGjq7ajdiN/
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“I will usually set up a scene and it could be hours before any visitors come by,” she said. “It can take several more hours before I can accomplish some finished images as they usually come, take their almonds and run.”
This week we’ve been discussing a lot how cannabis continues to go mainstream in refreshing ways. In most cases this involves celebrities embracing the green, and either endorsing a product with their name on it, or building an entire niche enterprise from the ground up.
But now it appears the investing side in cannabis is going mainstream, too, at least according to this latest Variety feature. That a trade magazine like Variety would publish an in-depth cannabis features is also a statement in and of itself about marijuana’s continued push into the mainstream. (Major kudos to this line for Variety’s audience: “Much like the independent movie biz, the cannabis industry attracts investors looking for high-risk, high-reward investments…”)
However, Variety pinpointed a number of investment firms, old and new, that are pushing the cannabis industry forward in fresh and exciting ways. Here are just some of the firms they decided to profile.
The Colorado-based and family-owned company is known around the nation as the exclusive provider of one of the most trusted hemp extracts “Charlotte’s Web.” (If you haven’t, you should read Kathryn Gurley’s touching story how Charlotte’s Web helped her son.) CBD-enriched products continue to be a significant opening in the pathway toward raising cannabis awareness and its possible health benefits.
“We produce a product that’s considered a ‘whole plant extract,’ so we can legally market our products in all 50 states,” CW Hemp’s chief marketing officer Ashley Grace told Variety.
Bonita “Bo” Money is the creative and driving force behind the popular topical cream That Glass Jar. She is also known as the founder of Women Abuv Ground, a networking organization aimed at “cannapreneurs.”
Money’s ventures are primarily self-funded, though she has accepted funds from private sources. “I’ve had the chance to work with some very like-minded people who believe in this cause. I’ve been courted by major companies, but I didn’t want to give up control,” Money told Varitey.
The OG Collective and P&S Ventures Holding Co.
Patrick McMahon and Scott Lambert base their company in Cathedral City but are looking to expand to Los Angeles. They’re enthusiastic about marijuana reform as they try to grow their business to include more specialty products like edibles and vape pens.
As McMahon told Variety: “The industry is too big to turn back on now, and the amount of potential tax revenue cannot be ignored. Investments are tough because we’re still dealing with a cash business, which is a big obstacle, but we’re getting there.”
The venture capital and investment firm boasts possibly the most well-known cannabis entrepreneurs in Snoop Dogg, in addition to Ted Chung, Evan Eneman and Karan Wadhera. As Casa Verde writes on their website, the firm “makes early stage investments in innovative and fast-growing ancillary businesses in the emerging cannabis industry.”
You can head over to Variety for the full list and breakdown, where they discuss Beboe, the high profile product company we previously wrote about and is labeling themselves as the “Hermès of marijuana,” and MedMen, a strategic marketing group in key markets that also offers “turnkey services” to cannabis license holders.
As businesses and activists for legal weed wonder how the cannabis industry will fare in the new administration, California legislators are proposing a bill, called Assembly Bill 1578, to essentially keep the state’s control over marijuana law enforcement.
The proposed legislation would prohibit state and local agencies — unless served with a court order — from using local money, facilities or personnel to assist a federal agency to “investigate, detain, report, or arrest” any person for commercial or noncommercial marijuana or medical cannabis activity that is authorized by law in the State of California — and transferring an individual to federal law enforcement authorities for purposes of marijuana enforcement.” California authorities would also be barred from responding to requests by federal authorities for the personal information of anyone issued state licenses for a marijuana operation.
“This is the equivalent of noncooperation on deportation and environmental laws, part of the larger California resistance to federal intrusion,” Dale Gieringer, state coordinator of California NORML, told LA Weekly.
Not all cannabis advocate groups are on board with the idea, however. “Cherry-picking when to respect states’ rights and arbitrarily doing so is inconsistent at best and confusing at most,” Adam Spiker, the executive director of Southern California Coalition, a lobbying group for Greater L.A. pot enterprises, said. “We are looking forward to making sure the intent of AB 1578 becomes law.”
