RUMFORD – When Krista Cote is in the mood to bake, nothing can stop her. “In one day I made four pumpkin pies. Another day, I made 100 cookies – sugar, peanut butter, and chocolate chip,” she said. A special occasion? “No, just to eat them,” she replied.

Cote learned how to cook from her mother. “Once we learned how to sit on the counter, we started cooking,” Cote said of herself and her sister. “My mom taught me everything I know.”

One Christmas, her mother gave her the “Better Homes New Cookbook,” which she uses often. Today, Cote is taking a cooking class at Mountain Valley High School, where she is a sophomore.

Some of her favorite dishes are pasta, especially her mom’s cooked with bear meat and tomato sauce, and chicken prepared just about any way. Bear, by the way, is her favorite meat. She also likes McDonald’s cheeseburgers with lettuce and tomato. As for cookies, she enjoys oatmeal scotchies best.

Recently, Cote’s mother gave her an apron with “1, 2, 3, Good Cook Krista” printed on it, along with a chef’s hat that reads “Chef Krista” from kidsaprons.com. “My papa (her grandfather) really wanted a picture of me wearing a chef’s hat and apron because that’s what I do,” she said, explaining most everyone else in her family hunts. “My dad and sister got two moose this year. Everyone besides me and my mom got a bear,” she said. She prefers bear, moose and deer meat to hamburger because, she noted, “it’s more flavorful.”

Cote would like to learn how to cook veal because, she said, “many people are afraid to cook it.” She is also teaching herself how to decorate cakes. “I hope to go on to be a culinary cook or pastry chef,” she said.

While cooking is her favorite pastime, this teenager also likes painting and drawing. She is also involved in majorettes, joining two years ago at the insistence of her friends.

Easy shepherd’s pie with bear

(recipe from her neighbor’s mother)

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon butter

2 pounds bear hamburg

2 cans cream-style corn

1 can Snow’s corn chowder

1 can Libby’s sweet kernel corn

10-12 servings instant potatoes or 12 potatoes, boiled and mashed

Pepper, to taste

Paprika, to taste

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in a medium saucepan. Add hamburg and cook until fully browned. When browned, mix cream-style corn, corn chowder and sweet corn bear hamburg in a 9- by 13- inch glass pan. Mix with fork until well blended. Spread potatoes on top of hamburg mixture. Sprinkle pepper and paprika on top of potatoes. Cover with foil and bake for 25-35 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 10 minutes, or until potatoes are golden brown. Serves 10-12

Pumpkin pie

(recipe from “Better Homes and Gardens”)

Ingredients:

1 prebaked crust

1 15-ounce can pumpkin

½ cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 slightly beaten eggs

¾ cup half-and-half, light cream, or milk

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare and roll out crust for the pie. Line a 9-inch pie pan with crust. For filling, in a medium bowl, combine pumpkin, sugar, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. Add eggs. Beat lightly with a fork, until just combined. Gradually add half-and-half; stir until combined. Place the pastry-lined pie pan on oven rack, and carefully pour filling into the pastry shell. To prevent over-browning, cover edge of pie with foil. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove foil. Bake about 25 minutes more, or until knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on wire rack. Cover and refrigerate within 2 hours.

Dad’s favorite oatmeal scotchies

(recipe from Nestle Toll House)

Ingredients:

1¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup butter or margarine, softened

¾ cup granulated sugar

¾ cup packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups quick or old fashioned oats

1 2/3 cups (11-ounce package) Nestle Toll House butterscotch flavored morsels

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in small bowl. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla extract. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in oats and morsels. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 7 to 8 minutes for chewy cookies; 9 to 10 minutes for crispy cookies. Remove from oven but keep cookies on baking sheet for 2 more minutes. Then remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Note: “The cookies look uncooked when you take them out of the oven. The edges should be brown but the rest looks doughy – goopy,” Cote said.