LEWISTON — Every day last year, Steff Deschenes celebrated a national food holiday — think National Roast Leg of Lamb Day — taking photos of herself eating and keeping a blog online.

Her project nearly came crashing down on National Rocky Road Day.

Deschenes figured she’d pick up fudge, no problem.

Then no candy shop in Lewiston or Portland had any.

It was getting late. She started hitting convenience stores for ice cream, finally unearthing one freezer-burned pint of Ben & Jerry’s.

“I bought it for $8, I came home at 11:50, we snapped the photo and said, ‘Never again,'” Deschenes said.

The hustling, and the eating, paid off.

Deschenes has signed a deal to turn her “Almanac of Eats” into a book. It’s due out in the fall of 2014 from publisher Running Book Press, whose titles include The New York Times bestseller “Skinny Bitch” cookbooks and cookbooks by Teresa Giudice from “The Real Housewives of New Jersey.”

“It’s a lot to take in,” Deschenes, 28, said. “Last year I just felt like a silly blogger, and now it’s sort of fun to be like, ‘This is my gig now.'”

Deschenes kicked off the Almanac of Eats on Jan. 1, 2012, with National Bloody Mary Day and wrapped on Dec. 31 with National Champagne Day. The project began as a personal challenge and included food facts, stories and often-funny photos.

Last June, she started looking for agents to see if there might be interest in taking it further. By November, she had the beginnings of a book deal. Deschenes inked the final contract last month.

So far she’s spent three months rewriting the daily blog entries. She’ll spend the next two to three months refining or writing 150 recipes.

She’s also playing food catch-up.

“I’m going to go back and eat the ones I missed,” Deschenes said.

Friday, for instance, marked National Caramel, National Dandelion and National Raisin Spice days. She made Mama Spice Bars with raisins last year. This year, she planned to drink dandelion tea and something sweet from Starbucks. “At the end of 2013, I will have officially eaten every day.”

Her original blog found a vegetarian way to celebrate each holiday, even Roast Leg of Lamb Day. New recipes will include a vegetarian version, but it’s not intended to be a vegetarian cookbook.

“We’re big French Canadians, so my mom gave me her tourtiere recipe and I veganized it,” Deschenes said. She’ll include both versions. “There’s no message in there whatsoever pushing any kind of diet. I really want this to have an inclusive feel.”

Deschenes works from home as a social media specialist for Vision LLC in Lewiston, which gives her time to fit in the writing.

And plenty of baking.

“Oh my god, I have to test 150 recipes,” Deschenes said. “As of today, I’ve tested one.”

Her finished manuscript is due in October. She’s self-published one book before, a self-help guide called “The Ice Cream Theory.”

“When I was 8 I knew I wanted to be a writer. I had no idea how difficult it was to do that,” Deschenes said. “Hopefully this turns into a second book or a TV series. I know it’s all leading to big stuff.”

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