Category: Cooking & Local Ingredients

N is for Northwoods Gourmet Girl | The special joy of a Blueberry Dessert Sauce.

16 Comments

I’m sure it’s no surprise that blueberries would come up in my A to Z posts. As my previous blog post shared, Maine is the largest producer of wild blueberries in the world. And, there are some great local business incorporating blueberries into their product lines.

I stumbled upon Northwoods Gourmet Girl Blueberry & Green Tea Dessert Sauce randomly while shopping at Bow Street Market in Freeport. I was intrigued as even though I’ve eating blueberries all my life, I’d never had them in a dessert sauce.

I’m sure this will date me, but I pulled out my “Cooking with Friends” (as in the TV show) cookbook. When my husband and I bought our first house, we hosted a housewarming party and asked guests to bring either a bottle of wine or a cookbook. I know it’s a little greedy to ask guests to bring something so specific, but we do have an amazing collection of cookbooks now. The wine however is long gone.

Continue reading →

H is for Highland Foods Maple Pepper | Maple makes everything taste better.

32 Comments

The maple connoisseur in my family is my husband. It is with great pride that he was able to wean me off of imitation maple syrup and onto the real stuff. Now I’m a convert and the worst kind of zealot. I can’t image not using the real stuff for my pancakes, over ice cream or in recipes.

Other maple products have thus far eluded me even though there are many to choose from in Maine. There was even a limited edition craft beer release of Maple Sunday from Lone Pine Brewing that was released this year on Maine Maple Sunday.  I blogged about Maine Maple Sunday during last year’s challenge with my post #atozchallenge | C is for Coopers Maple Products and Maine Maple Sunday.

Last month, with St. Patrick’s Day on the horizon, I decided to try out Highland Foods Maple PepperTM and cook the Guinness Beef Stew recipe listed on their blog. Highland Foods has been making maple pepper for thirty years and they sell three types: garlic, original and habanero. I used the original maple pepper for my beef stew. The original flavor is made with 100% pure maple sugar, sea salt and black pepper along with a few other ingredients.

Continue reading →

Wings Closeup

#atozchallenge | W is for Wings Made with Deer Camp Black Bear Chipotle BBQ Sauce

9 Comments

Finding ourselves in Portland one late afternoon with a few hours to spare, my daughter and I decided to pick up a few groceries at Trader Joe’s. Since the trip was unplanned, we didn’t have a shopping list so instead spent time wandering the aisles. Shopping without a list can be a dangerous activity. You never know what you’ll bring home. On a whim, I grabbed a two-pound bag of frozen organic chicken wings. I love wings, but surprisingly have never actually made them at home. This seemed like a reasonable splurge.

During checkout, the cashier commented that he’d heard great things about the wings saying “You wouldn’t think wings would be anything special, but they’re supposed to be delicious”. Interesting observation. I was feeling pretty pleased with my purchase.

Continue reading →

Alien Autopsy Cake Full

Alien Autopsy Cake to Celebrate the X-Files

Leave a comment

The X-Files was probably one of the first cult shows that I was obsessed with, and it launched a lifelong attachment to cult shows. It was unique, quirky, fun and had two extremely likable leads. While I admit, my attention did wane towards the end of the original series as I never quite got over Mulder leaving; it still holds extremely fond memories.

When I heard they were going to re-boot the show, I was so excited! My youngest even binge watched the entire series (thank you Netflix) so that she would be able to watch the revival and understand the history. She loved it so much she named her biology book Mulder. It was a proud Mom moment.

Continue reading →