We're not talking about stuffing a turkey with a half-ounce of Sour Diesel; leave the bird alone. But side dishes, primarily those with plenty of butter and dairy (or coconut oil, if you're vegan), are prime candidates for cannabis infusion. Just have cannabutter at the ready or be willing to visit the dispensary to get some, and you can turn most of your Thanksgiving spread into an edibles arrangement.
To keep the stress minimal, we've listed some of the easy options here. But first, a point of etiquette: Make sure you announce to your friends and family that these dishes are infused; you don't want to ruin your cousin's job opportunities in such a tough economy.
Gravy
This is the easiest call, since the dish definitely welcomes THC. Gravy is essentially several different forms of fat — butter, turkey drippings and chicken or turkey stock — mixed together. Use cannabutter as your form of infusion, and don't skimp on the pepper, because the last thing you want is skunky gravy slathering every bite on your plate. For a lighter weed flavor, more potency and an easier cooking process, decarboxylate hash and throw it in the gravy while whisking the butter.
Yams
If you're looking for another Thanksgiving side to infuse, avoid stuffing: The bread soaks up the weed butter and flavor like a sponge, and you'll likely be disappointed with the bastardized taste. Yams are a much better and safer option. Their sweet flavor and the relatively low amount of butter required (1/4 cup per six servings) means you don't need to worry about tasting weed or getting high from your meal. Add walnuts and top the yams off with toasted marshmallows if you're worried about masking the weed flavor...or just want better-tasting yams.
The dairy and butter used to make a pumpkin pie can both be infused with THC.
Flickr/CSU Extension FSHN
Sure, we could specify "pumpkin pie" or "pecan pie," but why limit yourself? Thanksgiving is a pie holiday, and there's no reason to stop your imagination at a single kind of pie. Pumpkin, sweet potato, strawberry rhubarb, cranberry custard (can't wait to try that one), pecan and blueberry pies all have one thing in common: crust, which requires a lot of butter (or cannabutter) to make. Some pies, like pumpkin and pecan, require more dairy and butter than others, so choose your infused pie accordingly.
Cranberry sauce
Infusing cranberry sauce takes more time and steps than dealing with the butter-heavy entries on this list, but that'll just make it more impressive at Friendsgiving. Since there aren't any fat-heavy ingredients involved, your best DIY bet is to infuse the sugar. You can do that by using grain alcohol to strip the cannabinoids off your weed and then mixing the liquid with sugar, baking out the alcohol and leaving THC sugar remaining.
If you're lucky enough to live near a dispensary, just buy a gram of distillate (purified THC). It's sold in a syringe, allowing you to mix it in with the cranberry sauce while it simmers. Add a little extra cinnamon during the infusion process, to help mask distillate's sometimes-grassy flavor.Be careful, though: One gram of distillate is at least 800 milligrams of THC, and that's a lot of funk to pack into one batch of cranberry sauce.
Hot buttered apple cider
Hot cider is usually amped up with rum (I prefer whiskey so that it's not overly sweet), and that's the end of that. But add cannabutter to the mix, and you've got a decadent, if not dangerous, one-two combo. Making your own hot cider is a lot easier than you might think, and the cinnamon and nutmeg easily drown out the cannabutter flavor. This hack applies to hot-buttered rum, as well as coffee and whiskey.
Monkey bread
Monkey bread might not be associated with turkey day, but it was made every Thanksgiving morning in my house, and I couldn't imagine the holiday without it. Heavy with brown sugar, cinnamon and walnuts, the bread's flavor is well-suited to masking the cannabutter. However, this recipe calls for so much butter that you might want to consider mixing in non-infused butter to lighten the potency, or try out the retail option from Sweet Grass, which is sold in 100-milligrams sticks.
