Perhaps a child in your life was the recipient of an Easter basket filled with treats this spring. A powerful tool, though, to teach generosity is to allow kids you care for to become givers, too, and the weekend kitchen is a fitting place to start.

"Handstand Kids," a series of books by Yvette Garfield, a law school graduate with a strong interest in international children's rights, not only teaches children foreign languages woven into the recipes, but suggests kids use their burgeoning culinary skills to give charitably through their cooking.

The Our Community page (www.handstandkids.com/stiritup.html) on the official website follows the adventures of the illustrated fictional international group of kids featured in the four books (on Mexican cooking, Italian cooking, Chinese cooking and international baking) and offers suggestions for how kids can give back and "stir it up" with their cooking:

—"Gabby is sending Bella Biscotti Cookies to the troops abroad."

—"Felix is bringing Apple-licious Taquitos to a local children's hospital."

—"Ari and her family are cooking Arroz con Pollo at a soup kitchen."

—"Marvin is hosting a bake sale to raise money for Nothing but Nets, an organization that provides nets to children in Africa to prevent malaria."

—"Izzy is baking Mexican Holiday Cookies for his local fire department."

Kids are then encouraged to send an email describing how they gave the gift of their cooking.

Possible gifts on the website for your own charitable tot are plentiful, from the cookbooks, which come with signature items like chef's hats and cooking utensils, to gift baskets and lesser-priced laminated place mats based on books that teach kids geography and culinary words in foreign languages while they eat.

BELLA BISCOTTI COOKIES

1 tablespoon butter

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/4 cups sugar, plus more for sprinkling

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

5 eggs

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup toasted whole almonds

Yields 5 to 7 servings.

Preheat oven to 375?F.

Grease a large baking sheet with butter and then sprinkle with flour.

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together, and make a hole in the middle of the mixture.

Add 4 eggs, cinnamon and vanilla into the hole and thoroughly stir all the ingredients.

Mix almonds evenly throughout the dough.

Make two logs on the baking sheet and leave 4 inches between the edges and the dough. Smooth them out with wet hands.

Beat 1 egg in a small bowl and coat the logs by applying it with a pastry brush.

Sprinkle the logs with sugar and bake them in the oven for 15 minutes, until they are golden brown.

Cool logs for 10 minutes on the baking sheet outside of the oven, but leave the oven on.

Place logs on the cutting board and cut them diagonally into slices that are two fingers wide.

Arrange the slices onto the baking sheet so that the cut sides are facing up. Bake for another 5 minutes.

Cool the slices.

Variation: Add 2 cups of chocolate chips to the dough. In addition to this, or instead of it, melt chocolate chips in the microwave for 1 minute and dip the ends of the cooled biscotti into the melted chocolate. — "Handstand Kids Italian Cookbook" by Yvette Garfield.

This recipe shows how foreign words are featured in the ingredients sections of the "Handstand Kids" books:

THERE ARE MEATBALLS (ALBONDIGAS) IN MY SOUP!

1 medium yellow onion (cebolla)

1 garlic (ajo) clove

1 pound ground beef

1 1/2 teaspoons cumin

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 egg (huevo), beaten

1 lime (lima)

5 carrots (zanahorias)

1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes (tomates) with juice

6 cups chicken stock

1 bay leaf

Yields 4 to 6 servings.

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Dice the cebolla and set aside.

Mince the ajo and set aside.

In the medium bowl, combine the ground beef, ajo, cebolla, cumin, salt, pepper and huevo. Cut the limas in half and squeeze their juice into the bowl. Mix well with a spatula, and then form into 1- to 1 1/2-inch balls (about 15 meatballs).

On the nonstick baking sheet, cook the meatballs in the oven for about 10 minutes, or until browned. Remove from oven and set aside.

While the meatballs are cooking, cut the zanahorias into thin slices.

In the large soup pot, heat the tomates (with their juice), zanahorias, chicken stock and bay leaf over a medium-high heat and bring to a boil.

When the meatballs are out of the oven, transfer them from the baking sheet into the large soup pot.

Reduce the heat and allow the soup to simmer for 20 minutes before serving.

Variation: Make a low-fat version by using ground turkey or pollo instead of beef. Or, for a vegetarian soup, try making soy meatballs and using vegetable broth. — "Handstand Kids Mexican Cookbook" by Yvette Garfield.

Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the author of seven food books, including "Mrs. Cubbison's Best Stuffing Cookbook" and "The Sourdough Bread Bowl Cookbook." She also writes the Creators News Service "Cooks' Books" column. To find out more about Lisa Messinger and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.