| | |  Travel & Outdoors 
Taking The Kids: Have Fun at School While Learning to Cook
 Eileen Ogintz - TakingTheKids.com
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May 29, 2010
| | A cook making tortillas at Seasons of my Heart Ranch on the special outdoor cooktop called a Comal. (Eileen Ogintz) | |
Grilled Cactus anyone?
I am standing in a Mexican kitchen on a picturesque Ranch outside of Oaxaca city kneading dough that will become mini tortillas.
I've already grilled the cactus that will be a part of the topping for these mini tortillas called Memelas.
The rest of my gang is working equally hard - my son Matt and husband Andy volunteered for the rice, my two daughters Reggie and Mel (chocoholics!) for the chocolate pudding dessert made with the famous chocolate from this region and I work on the little tortillas that we will cook outside on a special tortilla grill called a Comal.
Welcome to Seasons of My Heart Cooking School (www.seasonsofmyheart.com) run by well-known chef Susana Trilling, an American from Philadelphia, who fell in love with Mexico on vacation more than 20 years ago and has lived here most of the time since, raising her two kids here, offering cooking lessons and culinary tours.
"Mexico is so wonderful for kids," she tells me. "They love children."
We had spent the morning touring the ancient ruin of Monte Alban, where Zapotecs lived from 500 BC until 1500 AD. The place is huge - some 12 square miles with 21 buildings in various stages of excavation. The views of the surrounding mountains and valleys are stupendous.
We climb down into an ancient tomb to the museum and marvel at the artifacts that have been found here - skulls, pottery, jugs, beads and even tiny children's toys.
Oaxaca is in the southeastern part of Mexico (www.oaxaca.travel) or (www.visitmexico.com) and we've come here for a few days of cultural immersion after a week lazing on the beach.
Mexico beaches are terrific, of course, but there is so much more to see and do in this country, including learning about the cuisine.
To make the most of our time, we've arranged for Austin-Lehman Adventures (www.austinlehman.com) to guide us - including our day at cooking school - so that I don't have to fret the details.
While we were touring the ruin, the other people in Susana Trilling's class, including a family of eight whose members ranged in age from seven months to 88 years, shopped with Trilling for the ingredients for the feast we would cook.
"We all love to cook and be in the kitchen together," said Annie Hooker of Lake Forest Ill. She'd gathered her family - mother-in-law, children and grandson - from around the country for a trip to Oaxaca and a day here.
As kids become more sophisticated eaters there are more opportunities to learn about cooking and local cuisine on vacation, whether visiting local restaurants or farmer's markets.
(I especially love San Francisco's Ferry Plaza Marketplace (www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com) where kids can talk to local farmers. or taking cooking lessons. Even museums are getting into the act. The Greensboro Children's Museum (www.gcmuseum.com) will become the first museum in the country to have an Edible Schoolyard featuring gardens, a greenhouse, teaching kitchens and even a chicken coop - all designed as a national model to teach kids where food comes from and how to prepare it.
Kids can even learn to cook while cruising the high seas! Aboard the Holland America Line (www.HollandAmerica.com), for example, there's the kids and teens Culinary Arts Center where kids learn to create dishes on board ship as part of Club Hal.
Disney Cruise Line's Med cruises (www.disneycruiseline.com) offer adults-only cooking lessons at a farm in Tuscany while the kids are entertained and supervised on board. Disney also offers family shore excursions where you can all cook together.
"Family cooking classes in Italy are a big hit and can be the most memorable part of an itinerary," says Amie O'Shaughnessy of Ciao Bambino! (www.ciaobambino.com), which arranges such excursions. "The best classes are hands-on where kids are engaged and interacting with the instructor, and then everyone sits down for a yummy meal as the grand finale."
Resorts are incorporating cooking lessons and demonstrations in their kids programs too - from major all-inclusives like Beaches in the Caribbean (www.beaches.com) to the Grand Velas in Puerto Vallarta (www.grandvelas.com), offering great summer kids-free deals along with deals for single parents.
The Ritz-Carlton Golf & Spa Resort, Rose Hall, Jamaica (www.ritzcarlton.com) offers a Jerk Center class every Saturday that is open to the entire family. This class focuses on the origins of "Jerk," the ingredients used in making it and how to prepare it.
The mega-resort Atlantis (www.atlantis.com) in the Bahamas has even built a Culinary Room for budding chefs, as part of its expansive new Kids Club, while Loews hotels (www.loewshotels.com) in Miami Beach and Lake Las Vegas invite kids to Sushi Skool.
There are plenty of options too at small hotels like The Coppertoppe Inn and Retreat Center in Hebron, N.H., (www.coppertoppe.com) or the Essex Resort & Spa in Vermont (www.vtculinaryresort.com), which offers summer culinary camps for kids, as well as special private family classes.
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