Tag: a to z blogging challenge

I is for Islandport Press | Stories connected to New England.

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When my oldest learned to read she became obsessed to the point where I would dread parent-teacher conferences because we knew we would be chastised with stories of her inappropriate reading. I am not sure reading can ever be truly inappropriate, but it impacted her attention in the classroom. If she had two minutes of free time, she read for thirty. It was a problem. Still, how lucky that she could so easily be transported into the world of books and so engrossed that everything around her disappeared.

Stories are important in my house. My youngest didn’t read as much as my oldest, but no one did. Instead, she was enthralled by the other side of stories. She became my writer. She is looking into creative writing programs at college now. It is an exciting time.

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

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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.

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G is for Good Natured Brand | Facing mosquito season with Bugaroo and no fear.

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I still remember hiking to the top of Douglas Mountain last spring. We were out numbered by mosquitoes 1,000 to 1. It was challenging and required that we stay in constant motion to minimize the swarms. Our stay at the top was brief as the bugs were relentless so we headed back down after only a few quick pictures. The memory hasn’t faded over the past year. I think Hitchcock should have done a movie on mosquitoes  instead of birds. They’re far more terrifying.

Fighting off black flies and mosquitoes is as much a part of spring and summer in Maine as is swimming in the lake or eating lobster. When the weather gets nice, the bugs come out. And, if the flying insects weren’t enough, tick season kicks in and you don’t want those little guys anywhere near you. Since we have animals, we have to be especially vigilant. We had so many one year, I made a “tick jar” full of rubbing alcohol to kill any ticks that got carried into the house on the pup.

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F is for Flight Deck Brewing | We love (really love) our craft beer in Maine.

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Craft beer rocks in Maine. This is definitely a great state live you if you enjoy beer. Actually, even if you don’t love beer, it’s still an awesome state!

Since today, April 7th, is National Beer Day, I figured I’d focus my post on (surprise) – beer! There are a lot of options for Made in Maine when it comes to craft beer. It also works out well as one of my bucket list items this year is to complete the Maine Beer Trail so I get to stamp another entry on my beer map too.

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E is for Eagre Games | Get ready to experience the dreamworld of ZED.

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Shortly after pong was released by Atari in the 70s, my cousins received the game as a Christmas present. In those years, we would video tape portions of our holiday celebrations to send my grandparents who were down in Florida. The recorder was accidentally left on that year and we ended up with 7 hours of video taped carpet with the soundtrack of pong playing nonstop in the background. My brother and cousins had stayed up all night playing the game.

While I never developed the video game bug the way that they did, my daughter, who is in art school studying communication design, has a strong passion for it. Her dream is to get into video game design and world building. Why not? It’s an explosive industry with so much creative opportunity, but she will most likely need to work away from Maine to make this dream a reality. There aren’t a lot of video game designers in Maine. But, I did find one!

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