THE MOMENT I met her, I knew she was a Minnesotan. Her crisp white apron, the way she came out on the porch to greet me for lunch — that’s so Midwestern. Kim Cole lives in Redwood Heights today, but her cooking career goes back to those childhood days in Marshall.

“Growing up, we had pizza all the time,” she remembers. It was Chef Boyardee Pizza in a Box — a staple in every Midwestern mom’s pantry. “I needed to get close to that (taste) but with my East Bay sensibilities.”

Cole worked on a recipe for almost a year, and finally came up with the organic dough she markets today as Mom’s Pizza Dough. In a word, it’s delicious. Easy to use, you just thaw it in the package and spread it out on a pan, adding your own special ingredients. A little olive oil, some fresh veggies and cheese and voila! — you have a culinary masterpiece.

Cole is a one-woman operation. She makes her dough in a commercial kitchen in Montclair called A Chef’s Eye. She markets it, delivers it and does the bookkeeping while her daughter is in preschool. So far, 12 stores carry her product in the Bay Area, including Rockridge Market and Berkeley Bowl.

Will Cole get rich making dough? Profits are thin, but rising every day.

“I’d like to eventually open a take-and-bake pizza place,” she says. Until then, she’s just happy to be doing something she loves, and helping folks put a healthy meal on the dinner table. For more information, see Cole’s Web site athref=”http://www.momspizzadough.com”>http://www.momspizzadough.com.

Zoo Do: Speaking of culinary masterpieces, the Oakland Zoo’s Walk in the Wild was a huge hit the other night. Men dressed in khakis and women wearing leopard prints got a rare treat — a moonlit party where the animals were the stars. And the food was fantastic. P.F. Chang’s served lettuce wraps; Skates had Kobe Sliders; Spengers was barbecuing oysters and the owner of Compadres, Rick Enos, was serving up savory burritos. The East Bay’s best restaurants, wineries and brew pubs lined the pathways offering hearty samples of their fare. This event has come a long way since it started 14 years ago. It’s a real class act, and one of the many things that makes the Oakland Zoo one of the best in the nation.

Around Town: After months of anticipation, El Agavero is finally open for business in the old Round Table Pizza spot on Mountain Boulevard. What a transformation! The Pelayo family has done a great job of decorating and their light, airy restaurant and bar are a welcome addition to the village. You’ll be surprised, too, at the prices, which are modest by Montclair standards. The father, Gregorio, says he tried to keep the costs close to what he charges at his Fruitvale restaurant, Guadalajara. To that end, the whole family helps. The mom, Rosa, runs the taco trucks, and the kids, Al, Fernando, Maria, and daughter-in-law Nancy, work inside the restaurants. It’s nice to see a family-owned operation in Montclair and I wish the Pelayos the best of luck!

Sweet Deal: There may be no such thing as a free lunch, but you can find a free dessert. Just ask hills mom Sabrina Stewart, who entered the Dreyers Neighborhood Salute contest, last spring, and won $200 worth of free ice cream. It’s the perfect prize, since Stewart has a block party on her circle drive every September. Twelve cartons of ice cream will arrive just in time to set up a sundae table at the block party with bananas and nuts and all the toppings. It’s tough to top that!

A promise is a promise — even if it takes 32 years to fulfill. That’s how long it’s been since the city of Oakland designated Shepherd Canyon Road a scenic route, with a promise to put up appropriate signage. Not surprisingly, the signs never went up, until now.

Neighbors and Boy Scouts have just finished putting up the signs that the city should have installed over three decades ago. It wasn’t easy. Just finding the sign design from those 1975 documents took hours of digging into the state archives.

Once the drawings were located, Matt Ceraldi made the sign installation his Eagle Scout project, placing the first of the placards at the top of Escher Drive. He even used some of the leftover debris (from the years when the city used the park for an un-permitted dump) to anchor the sign’s base.

Signs also went up this week at the top and bottom of Shepherd Canyon Road, the east and west boundaries of the scenic route. Now every motorist, pedestrian and biker will know what we already know — that this canyon is precious and protected. Thanks to the ongoing efforts of our neighbors, and scouts like Ceraldi — a promise made in the 1970s has finally been fulfilled.

LADY LUCK: Some guys have all the luck. Take reader Jack Summerfield. He sent in a postcard for a giveaway on the Regis and Kelly show recently, and within days his card was picked. “They called me at 5 in the morning (8 a.m. in New York) and said they’d call me back live at 6 (a.m.),” hesaid.

That’s when the fun began. The hosts spun the wheel and the marker landed on the biggest prize — a trip to Jamaica and a $5,000 Price Grabbers gift certificate. All Jack had to do was correctly answer a question about the previous day’s show.

“I was hemming and hawing and trying to come up with the answer,” he says, “and with two seconds left of the 20 seconds they gave me — I got it.” Now Jack and his wife are headed to Jamaica to celebrate, not just their good fortune, but Jack’s 75th birthday AND the couple’s 51st wedding anniversary. Congratulations, Jack and Sandy. You guys really know how to live.

CAT SIGHTING: A mountain lion and her cubs have been spotted outside The Village Market on Broadway Terrace, according to reader Howard Smith, who says a dog walker spotted the big cats on the hillside recently. “When he saw the mountain lions, he scooped up his little dog and disappeared,” says Smith, who thinks the cats may have been drawn to the area by a flock of wild turkeys.

AREA ODDITIES: You’ve heard of a jungle beat? Reader Jane Fuerch says there’s a beat of a different kind echoing through the Canyon between Montclair and Moraga. At least once a week, a guy has been playing his drums (a full set including tom tom and cymbals) in a pull-off along Pinehurst Road. The acoustics may be great, but I bet he’s driving the wildlife squirrely.

A GROUP OF GRADUATES gathered for lunch in Montclair Park the other day. Like most classmates, they laughed and shared memories of their school years. But much time has passed since these kids were together. They were students at Montclair Grammar School (now Montclair Elementary School) during the 1930s and early 1940s.

My connection to this group came in a very strange way. I met one of these “youngsters,” quite by chance, in the northernmost part of Finnish Lapland last winter. There I was, in a cold, dark place near the Russian border — on a tour with a man who’d grown up in Montclair.

Dick Winterhalder has colorful memories of his childhood in the Oakland hills. He remembers how the train would rumble past Montclair Grammar School at least twice a day. “Everything stopped,” he recalled. “We’d all wave at the conductor and he’d wave back.”

Alma Rulofson remembers her acrobatics on the monkey bars.

“I would wrap my legs around the bars and twirl and go round and round and round,” she said.

Pat Blesse and her sister Barb used to climb over the fence for a moonlight swim at what was then Forest Pool on Thornhill Drive.

“We never got caught,” boasted Pat with a smile. Back then, the pond in Montclair Park was more of a swamp, Barb recalled, and their parents told them it was full of quick sand. But the girls still caught frogs on the bank, and in a rare snowstorm around 1935, their brother was one of the boys who tried ice skating on the frozen pond.

Beverly Byron remembers walking with her friends to the corner drugstore for sodas. She was a bit of a tomboy, changing into her jeans and her dad’s long white shirt after school to play touch football with the boys in the Montclair field.

The school, at the time, was a mixture of portables and an old red brick building. The brick schoolhouse was demolished because of earthquake fears. Don DeLong and classmates Don Sloan and Byron Schroeder remember the portables being heated with pot-bellied stoves, and each desk had an ink well.

“It was a great school with good teachers,” Schroeder said, “although some of them we didn’t like at the time.” One scary teacher had arms as big as tree trunks — or so he remembered.

But then everything seemed bigger when these grads were small. DeLong said the pond (lake) was bigger and so was the old firehouse. He and his buddies, including John Brodie, who later became a star quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers and a Senior PGA Tour professional golfer, used to play ball on the old baseball diamond and had some rousing games of pingpong.

“Brodie was the champion of everything,” DeLong recalled.

As the group gathered for a photo, Pat Blesse broke into song. A rah-rah song about their great little school that she still recalled after all these years. Classmate Donna Oehm (a well-known activist in Marin) made a pitch for her classmates to join her in working toward peace.

“For your grandchildren” she urged. They smiled for the camera, again and again — posing for posterity.

As I stood there soaking up the sweet memories of a simpler time, I realized the things they did as kids in Montclair were not so different from what kids do today. Catching crawdads in the pond, swinging on the monkey bars and trying to hit baseballs over the fence. It’s what makes Montclair special to those of us blessed enough to spend time here. And with a little imagination, you can almost see the bright-eyed children waving at the train as it passes the old brick school.

MARK TWAIN once said, “It’s more like kingdom come than California.”

Looking at Thomas Hill’s glorious 1876 painting of Yosemite Valley , I wholeheartedly agree. This treasured park is nature’s cathedral — one of the most heavenly places on earth — and the new Yosemite exhibit at the Oakland Museum of California makes me ache to go back.

In photographs, watercolors, graphite and oils, artists have captured the many moods of this American icon. Add to this the storytellers, ranger talks, slide presentations and more, and you’ve got a winning exhibit for the museum through Aug. 26. Catch it on the first Friday of the month and you’ll get a bonus: cool live music and dancing with a cash bar. Now that’s something to celebrate!

ART ADDENDUM: Speaking of art, I ran into Jacque Hachquet with the Montclair Village Jazz & Wine Festival the other night at Ron Scrivani’s hip warehouse party for Pro Arts Open Studios. The room was full of local artists, and Hachquet was no doubt scouting for participants for her Sept. 16 event in the village. If you’re an artist who’d like to be part of the festival, check out http://www.montclairjazzandwine.org.

GOOD BUZZ: The Berkeley Rep’s performance of Oliver Twist is getting great revues and one of the actresses is a homegrown girl. Jennifer Ikeda went to Bishop O’Dowd High School and now tours with a company out of New York. She plays the part of Nancy in the old fashioned Dickens classic which runs through June 24.

RAPID RESPONSE: My recent piece on passport problems triggered a rapid reaction from U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee’s district director. Leslie Littleton questioned a reader’s claim that her office was unresponsive when he called for help in expediting the issuance of a long-awaited passport. She says the congresswoman’s office receives daily praise in its handling of passport issues. With the growing number of complaints about the length of time it takes to process passports, I’m sure Lee’s office is getting plenty of calls.

AROUND TOWN: One of Montclair’s most recognized financiers, Dale Marie Golden, has jumped ship (or should I say the stagecoach) at Wells Fargo Bank. Golden and several colleagues have left the venerable institution to join a start-up called Alta Alliance Bank on Grand Avenue. The bank has branches in Oakland, Piedmont and Walnut Creek.

Meanwhile, the most anticipated new restaurant in Oakland must be El Agavera in Montclair. After lengthy delays in the permit process (converting the space from a longtime pizza parlor), building owner Ed Hirshberg says the Mexican eatery and tequila bar will be open any day now. Really.

And La Salle Cigars has reportedly shut its doors for good. Word has it some of the mental health professionals above the cigar store were complaining about the smell coming from the patio. All those years of business for the La Salle Cigars — up in smoke.

AERIAL ATTACK: You may want to duck and cover when you walk past the Hallmark Store in Montclair. There have been reports of a belligerent blackbird dive-bombing the area. One reader says the creature came down from the awning and boldly pecked at her head, then flew off.

Minutes later she saw two or three other ladies being attacked. Why wom

NOTHING SAYS summer like a day on the water. And while oceans and estuaries are great fun, I’m kind of a river gal, myself. I love the way a river cuts through canyons and spills over rocks, with its roiling rapids and lazy stretches of cool, meandering water.

One of the best ways to enjoy a river is by kayak. You’re low to the water and can feel each little nuance as you maneuver your craft along miles of scenic waterway. Fish jump around you. Birds glide alongside and you get the sense that you’re more in tune with nature in a kayak.

A good place to learn this sport is along the Truckee River in Reno.

They’ve got this great whitewater park downtown, where you can rent an inflatable kayak and go out with a guide along five miles of gentle class 1 and 2 river. Inflatable kayaks are forgiving, and let you bounce off the rocks as you learn to negotiate whitewater. They’re also less “tippy,” so you can stay upright — if a river dip is not in your plans.

So this summer, why not try something new? Instead of jumping in a lake, try giving credence to a new water sport. Rolling on a river.

HEAR, HEAR: Thanks to reader Chuck Harrison for tuning me in to the good deeds of his Oakland audiologist, Raymond Crookston, who spoke recently at a local meeting of the Hearing Loss Association. This Piedmont Avenue doctor, along with two dozen colleagues, spends a week or two each year donating time to treat patients in Third World countries. On their last trip to Africa, they tested 600 villagers and fitted 160 of them, mostly children, for hearing aids. Crookston says the hearing loss among kids is especially bad, triggered by untreated disease and poor overall health. Thank goodness there are people like Crookston who hear the cry of the poor — and respond.

OAKLAND ART: It’s open season for art lovers as we kick off two weekends of ProArts Open Studios in Oakland today. One of the most interesting pieces is being crafted right now by local artist Sal Deguarda, who is working on an 80-foot-tall statue for display on Treasure Island.

The sculpture of a woman is designed to be a symbol of acceptance and welcome for new immigrants.

NIGHT LIFE: Riding through Redwood Park rattled my nerves the other evening. As I bounced along the pitted path, I was keenly aware of the forest’s unnatural sounds at dusk. Shrill cackles echoed through the canyon joined by throaty calls from a distant owl and something that sounded like a blood-curdling scream. It was enough to get my adrenaline pumping, as well as my pedals. Daylight was waning and while I love this peaceful time when shadows dance and the last bit of sunlight splays through the redwoods, my imagination was getting the best of me. I think I’ll make all future outings in midday, when I’ve got plenty of human company. I’ll save my evenings for things less scary — like watching crime shows on TV.

IT’S A SUNNY Sunday in Montclair Village. Happy, smiling people are gathering at the usual “watering holes” — outside the coffee shops and along La Salle for the Farmers Market. Two guys are playing mandolin and guitar outside Peet’s, and a yellow lab and beagle mix is shaking paws outside Starbucks. The dog is running for mayor, so I give him my vote.

Montclair is such a welcoming place. It pains me to think of our vulnerabilities. But each time there’s a robbery, I find myself growing more guarded. Two armed gunmen hit up Crogans the other night. Word is, they scared a lot of people. It makes me angry when I think about how helpless those victims must have felt, and how it could have been any one of us in there that night.

What are we going to do about it? The merchants in the Glenview (where there were a spate of armed robberies recently) are on high alert – holding meetings and formulating a plan. But we need the Oakland Police Department’s help.

We need a beat cop who can walk the streets of our neighborhoods, day and night. And the only way we’ll get it — is to push for it. It’s time to start pushing.

HITTING HOME: Speaking of crime, a reader in Redwood Heights had her home broken into in broad daylight recently, despite the fact that her two dogs were barking and several neighbors were home.

“All of my jewelry was stolen, as well as my husband’s laptop and a digital camera,” she writes, adding that the burglar took several ofher grandmother’s rings as well as her mother’s charm bracelet. “Please remind your female readers not to hide jewelry in their underwear drawers, their nightstands, or in the closet inside handbags or shoe boxes,” she warns. “The thief went right to all of these places and dumped everything on the floor of the bedroom.”

More good advice — make sure your jewelry is listed on your homeowners insurance policy.

E-MAIL BAG: Whenever I write about Montclair’s traffic manners (or lack there-of) I get a flurry of response. One of the most interesting replies comes from reader Emily Sparks, who says she was parked in front of Head-Royce School when an AC Transit bus pulled up and some young people started shouting profanities at her. Then a girl pushed open her window and spit on Spark’s car.

“I was hurt, disgusted and alarmed,” she writes. “I have friends with children at Montera and Skyline, and they know this goes on; they avoid the buses completely.”

Sparks wonders what can be done. Probably the best thing to do is to call AC Transit and report any incidents. If enough people call, it may prompt the drivers to get involved when they see their young passengers acting out.

INTERNATIONAL FLAIR: Greek singer Margarita lit up the stage last weekend at the annual Greek Festival at Ascension Cathedral. A Berkeley native, the 28-year-old has caught fire in Greece since appearing on Greece’s hit TV show “Fame Story,” which is a little like our “American Idol.” After finishing in the top six, she and the other finalists performed throughout Greece and several other countries, making the cover of numerous magazines.

She has returned to the East Bay to make a name for herself in the U.S.

Irish singer Jack L. had his own hills performance this past Saturday night, in a benefit for the victims of the genocide in Darfur. A big star in Europe, Jack L. has a sister in Montclair and graciously agreed to sing at the fund-raiser at the Hills Swim Club. He was amazed at the warm reception and how everyone came together for such a faraway cause. A total of $42,000 was raised that night — an astounding amount — and a testimony to what a few friends can do when they set their mind to it.

PUNNY PLATE: Spotted in the lot at Willow Park Golf Course near Redwood Park, a car with the vanity plates “IH8GOLF”. Obviously, the driver is wrestling with his/her demons.