FARMINGTON — An after-school cooking club at Mt. Blue Middle School has kids exploring the world of food and nutrition with a dash of history, math, reading and science.

With the traditional home economics classes in Mt. Blue Regional School District cut this year due to tight budgets, school health coordinator Alyce Cavanaugh is filling the gap with the Now You’re Cooking! Club. The seventh- and eighth-graders who signed up meet for a lab in the former home economics class every other week to learn about new cuisines and get a hands-on cooking lesson from a guest chef.

At an open house this week, student and adult volunteers spent a few intense hours after school preparing more than 15 appetizers and desserts — grilled bruschetta with peppers and feta cheese; roasted asparagus bundles wrapped in prosciutto; grilled portobello mushrooms stuffed with blue cheese; crab Rangoon; English-style cucumber sandwiches; and platters of sugar plums made the traditional way with dried fruits and nuts; chocolate-dipped bacon; and chocolate mascarpone-stuffed strawberries.

Each student-chef wore an apron and white chef’s hat, or toque, and stood by their creations, ready to answer questions and describe the dishes.

During the afternoon prep, Jacob Hatch, 12, was threading cubed, marinated vegetables onto skewers with the help of volunteer Lorri Brown from the Healthy Community Coalition.

“I like to eat and I like to learn how to cook,” Jacob said as he worked. “I’m learning to experiment with different foods and realize that home cooking is healthier than eating out.”

Russell France was busy making crab Rangoon at another work station.

“I love to cook. I’ve been cooking with my mom for years and it is so cool what you can do with food,” he said.

The favorite dish he makes at home for his family? Coconut curry shrimp or chicken over rice.

Why? “It combines tastes that are sweet, salty and spicy,” the 12-year-old answered without hesitation.

Cavanaugh started the club with fellow district employee, Connie Otero, after having offered a similar project for fifth- and sixth-graders at Cascade Brook School two years ago. Many of those early students, now in middle school, are in the club.

Cavanaugh said the goal is to find creative ways to introduce new foods and generate interest in nutrition and eating local.

“What I want to do is promote healthy eating through fun,” she said. “And you really can teach every subject through cooking.”

Community sponsors and volunteers are key to the success of the project, she said. She pointed to the new “Now You’re Cooking!” logo sign that hangs over the classroom door that was donated by Signworks.

Another community resource has been William “Bucky” Leighton, the food services production manager for Aramark Corp. at the University of Maine at Farmington.

Leighton is the club’s “adopted chef.” He attends each meeting and teaches kids about food preparation and the culinary arts, sharing his 40 years of knowledge in the field.

“The opportunities in the culinary profession are endless. There will always be jobs because people will always eat,” he said as he showed club members Alex Morrell and Mitch Guillaume how to roast and stuff portobello mushrooms.

Alice Schlosser from the Maine Nutrition Network in Augusta, a statewide program that promotes nutrition and physical activity in the schools, has worked with Cavanaugh in the past and was at the open house. The Network is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Maine Department of Health and Human Services and offers small grants to schools that promote nutrition education and physical education.

“Alyce has so much passion for nutrition and for kids and she finds creative ways for them to learn. She does great (public relations) in the community and manages to get things donated and people involved,” Schlosser said.

On Nov. 18, Cavanaugh has lined up a representative of King Arthur Flour to come to the school and give two bread-baking demonstrations to the entire student body. Each student will go home with a bag of flour, yeast and other ingredients to make two loaves, with one of the loaves to be brought back and shared with the local food bank.