In an effort to empower local merchants with the skills and confidence to prevent underage liquor sales, and to ensure that stores are operating within Maine’s liquor laws, a local training will be held on Tuesday, December 6, from 9:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. at Brunswick Landing.  Communities Against Substance Abuse (CASA), a coalition coordinated by Mid Coast Hospital, offers this State of Maine-approved Responsible Alcohol Seller Training to clerks, managers, and storeowners.

Spaces are limited and registration is required.  Please call CASA at (207) 373-6957 to reserve a seat. There is a $10 registration fee that can be paid at the door.

Frank Lyons will lead this training. Lyons spent 23 years as a liquor enforcement officer and is a certified instructor with the Maine Criminal Justice Academy.

The first time I saw: Eat Your Plate on the Harvest on the Harbor Website, I felt anxious, delighted, excited, nervous, I mean, a vast array of emotions.

And since that evening when it was first brought to my attention I have thought about it in waking and in sleep.

As the days came closer, I worked furiously in the kitchen making 2,000 biscotti, 500 cupcakes and 20 sheets of blueberry layer cake for the Lobster Chef of the Year event. Oh and I must not forget the countless batches of chocolate ganache buttercream frosting to top all the cupcakes. Towards the end of the week I started to feel defeated. The only thing that kept me going was the thought of sharing my food with hundreds of people.

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to be the dessert chef at the "Lobster Chef of the Year" event that is being held at Harvest on the Harbor. The moment I was asked, I was filled with joy and excitement, completely astonished that I would be invited anywhere considering I am so new to the food scene. Luckily for me, the aesthetic of my website allows people to have confidence in my abilities. Once the initial feeling of excitement subsided, the nervousness began to set in and ever since I have been a bit of a basket case. The dessert has to be blueberry in nature and for me, that poses a little bit of a predicament since I don't love blueberries completely on their own. And because of this, I don't frequently use them in my baking unless it's a pie or a tart. This led me to have a bit of writer's block when it came to building a recipe which then caused me to sit on my computer at two in the morning googling "blueberry" just to find some sort of inspiration.