Beery, a native Austinite, unites her skills and passions -- thirteen years as a teacher, a love of children, and a longstanding joy of cooking -- to offer children's cooking classes, summer cooking camps, and lavish cooking birthday parties for the elementary age set.

During the first several years, Batter Up Kids offered only classes, at least until a friend asked for a child's birthday party. Now, birthday celebrations are a huge part of the business. Beery does everything -- she's the host, teaches cooking lessons with the birthday child as guest chef, provides the cake and party favors. All that parents need to do is send the invitations and give Beery a list of the party guests.

A typical birthday party (a lot like a cooking class, only more festive and grand) begins with Beery's lively, outgoing welcome. She quickly references a prominent menu of events and culinary delights. Written on a chalkboard, the carte du jour invites young visitors to prepare and sample such delicacies as "Lady Bugs on a Stick" and "Chocolate Covered Dragonflies." Once inside Beery's cottage-like home in the hills, guests (sans parents, except for the birthday child's) veritably rush to find their place at the table.

The children often don't realize it, but there is a certain amount of common sense training and etiquette involved in Beery's lessons. A plaque on the wall reveals one strong Batter Up Kids philosophy: Because Nice Matters. "Teaching is learning discipline and how to implement it in a very supportive, timely manner," says Beery.

Students move quickly to prepare the last thing first, usually the beverage. "Ninety percent of the time, we make a fruit based drink --  juicing oranges, lemons, limes, slicing apples," says Beery. "We always try to make a savory food item -- pizza, bread sticks, monkey bread -- something [where] you can really work the dough." She instructs some children who don't care for pepperoni to try thin slices of zucchini squash. Sprinkled with herbs and drizzled with olive oil, squash will bake up crisp on top of pizza.

Fruit dishes are prepared next. Beery employs the "Ladybugs on a Stick" recipe not only because children like them (think strawberries and tiny chocolate mini-morsels), but because, like most of her recipes, its preparation provides an opportunity for children to manipulate the ingredients. Eating a "ladybug" allows a child to try ordinary items in a different form. "The fanciful names for somewhat regular sorts of dishes are part of the enticement and intrigue, a fairy tale quality for kids," says Beery. She even shows children how to make salad on a stick.

Encouraging students to "try everything... you don't HAVE to like it," Beery teaches kids to have fun with food and to use leftovers scraps and ingredients to create new dishes. 

A creative, high-energy woman, Beery wants her students to enjoy cooking. "I want it to be something they look back on and want to keep doing the rest of their lives. I want them to think about cooking as involved with family and friends. Goodness! We center everything around food celebrations. Somebody's got to learn how to cook!"

Beery credits her mother for her love of cooking. "She let me stand there and make messes and give them names. I never remember her saying, 'we don't have time for this.  Mom saved my menus from three years old!"

Beery's menus are also getting some national press. She wrote a series of recipes for Family Fun Magazine that will appear this November or December in a special cooking section featuring holiday gathering recipes; and she was recently featured in Southern Living Magazine.

This fall she will debut a cooking club and a line of Batter Up Kids Cooking Kits complete with prepared mixes, garnishes and specialized utensils just for kids. Keep watching. Beery has a few more surprises on the back burner.

As I was growing up, my mother inspired me most. She always believed in me. She made me feel no mater what I did (or didn't) accomplish was not nearly as important as setting realistic goals and following through with them.