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Teacher Tries To Instill Love Of Cooking In Kids

Merri Lou Dobler Correspondent

New challenges and experiences await children as they start school this week. And you won’t find a more enthusiastic teacher than Diane Maffei, who believes in cooking as part of the curriculum.

Maffei, a fourth-grade teacher at Hamblen Elementary in Spokane, has her students cook every week. In groups of four, the children prepare a wide variety of foods and serve them not only to their class but to other classes as well.

“We’ve made hors d’oeuvres for Super Bowl time. We’ve made cheese cakes, cookies with Hershey Kisses in the middle, quite a few sandwiches and pizzas,” says Maffei, whose list also includes celery with cheese, bread dough crafts, puddings, pies and popovers. “One thing they love is sugar cookies, made in different shapes. They love to decorate them.”

Most of the recipes come from the children, and Maffei hopes to put the collection into cookbook format this year.

She also brings in a nutritionist to teach the children about the Food Pyramid and label reading.

Although she kids about burning water, Maffei is an excellent cook and hopes to instill a love of cooking in her students.

Here’s one of her students’ favorite recipes from last year. It comes from Maffei’s mother, who happens to be be special education coordinator with School District 81.

Mini Cheese Cakes From Polly Dolliver, Spokane.

24 vanilla wafers

3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 eggs

Canned pie filling, such as cherry or blueberry

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line 24 muffin tins with paper baking cups. Place 1 vanilla wafer in each cup. Combine the cream cheese, sugar, nutmeg, vanilla and eggs. Beat until smooth. Pour into muffin cups. Bake 20-25 minutes and remove from oven. When cool, top each with pie filling. Serve or refrigerate overnight.

Yield: 24 servings.

Kid cook alert: If you’re 7 to 12 years old and would like the title “World’s Biggest Ham,” consider this essay contest sponsored by the National Pork Producers Council. Send in a humorous one-page essay on how you make your favorite ham sandwich by Oct. 31; 10 finalists will be asked to submit a 10-minute video for further judging.

Grand prize is $500 and an all-expense paid trip to New York or Los Angeles. For official rules, send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to World’s Biggest Ham Contest Rules, c/o NPPC, P.O. Box 10383, Des Moines, IA 50306, or visit the council’s World Wide Web site at http://www.nppc.org/

, DataTimes MEMO: Kid Stuff is a monthly column featuring recipes for and by kids. Young chefs can send letters describing their cooking interests to Kid Stuff, Features Department, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210.

Kid Stuff is a monthly column featuring recipes for and by kids. Young chefs can send letters describing their cooking interests to Kid Stuff, Features Department, The Spokesman-Review, P.O. Box 2160, Spokane, WA 99210.