Super Bowl Snacks: A Stoner's Guide

The Super Bowl is only days away, and whether you're a diehard Broncos fan or you're pulling for the Panthers, chances are you will need some delicious snacks for the big game. Perhaps you live in Colorado, Alaska, Oregon or Washington, where marijuana is legal for recreational use? We recommend taking the edge off during this stressful game by upgrading your snack with a touch of cannabis. It's not hard. Especially if you know how to make CannaButter (more on that below).

We spoke with James Beard Award–winning pastry chefMindy Segal, who owns the Chicago dessert barMindy's Hot Chocolateand is currently developing aline of marijuana-based baked goods, for tips on adding marijuana to your favorite Super Bowl snacks. We also got her to give us a recipe for "revised" Chex Mix—and the cannabutter you need to make it. Here, Segal's advice for kicking your Super Bowl party into high gear.

The first step is learning to make marijuana butter or honey:
"The easiest way to make edibles at home is with butter," Segal says. You can incorporate the butter into baked goods like brownies or cookies, or you can use it as a coating for snack mixes, as with the recipe below. Another option is toinfuse honey with marijuana; in this case, Segal suggests adding herbs like rosemary or thyme along with the marijuana to enhance the herbal flavor.

Don't try to hide the marijuana flavor—instead, complement it:
"Fortunately or unfortunately, infusing the marijuana into butter or honey does not take away the terpenes [the compounds in marijuana that give it its smell]—and the terpenes are what give you the cannabis flavor," says Segal. In other words, you'll likely taste the weed in whatever you make, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing. Segal suggests using flavors like butterscotch or grapefruit, which has a hoppiness that works well with marijuana, to enhance rather than mask the cannabis taste. "My go-to cookie with butter is oatmeal scotchies," she says.

小心数量,并给它时间:
Stoners everywhere—not to mention pretty much anyone who has ever tried an edible (don't forget about Maureen Dowd's infamous tripto Colorado)—are probably familiar with this rule, but it's worth reiterating. When consuming edibles, take it slow. "Eat a small amount, and then wait an hour," Segal advises. "You have to be very careful. Trust the amount. I've done the thing where I eat a cookie and am immediately like, oh my God, nothing’s happening. And then I’ll eat another and I’ll start hallucinating. A mellow buzz is way better than a freak-out."

Now that you know the basics, you're ready to make some excellent, snackable, marijuana-infused Super Bowl party treats. Proceed with caution, and have fun.

Chex Mix Original "Revised," by Mindy Segal

3 cup corn Chex cereal
3 cups rice Chex cereal
3 cup wheat Chex cereal
1 cup smoked almonds
1 cup peanut butter filled pretzel nuggets
1 cup miniature Ritz crackers
8 tablespoons CannaButter(see recipe below)
2 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
1 teaspoon honey
1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1 teaspoon onion powder

1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Combine the cereal, almond, pretzel nuggets, and Ritz crackers in a large bowl.

2. In a saucepan on the stove, bring the butter, spices, salt, honey, Worcestershire sauce & onion powder to a boil. Stir until smooth. Remove from heat and pour over the snack mix.

3. Spread the mix on a baking sheet and bake for approximately 10-15 minutes, until dry. Let cool completely and serve.

CannaButter, by Mindy Segal

1 pound butter
Approximately 1/4 ounce (or up to 1/2 ounce) of marijuana flower

1. Grind the flower to a very fine powder.

2. In a saucepan on medium heat, melt the butter together with the ground marijuana flower. Heat until the butter is clarified. Remove from heat and pour into a container. Refrigerate overnight, until the butter has solidified.

3. After the butter has sat overnight, microwave it until completely melted. Strain the butter through a fine mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth. Squeeze the cheesecloth to get every last drop of butter, and discard the ground marijuana. Use the butter in its melted form, or set it aside to solidify for other recipes.