GREAT HOME COOKS : ‘Desserts’ is ‘Stressed’ Spelled Backward

On Susan Greeven’s living room table, there’s a big basket of cookies: peanut butter, oatmeal, chocolate chip, snickerdoodles. Behind her kitchen table (itself groaning with stuffed mushrooms, baked chicken, salad and ravioli), a counter is laden with baked goods: banana bread, a high-rise apple pie, a German chocolate cake with a sour cream chocolate frosting. The gigantic cheesecake decorated with kiwi slices and the lemon meringue pie are still in the refrigerator.

She’s been cooking since 8 this morning--not counting the chocolate cake, the cheesecake and the cookies, which she made last night. “Today is my husband’s birthday,” she says, a little self-consciously. “This is for the party.”

Well, if she’s modestly trying to to suggest she doesn’t cook like this all the time, it won’t do her any good. Susan Greeven came to our attention because one of her co-workers at the San Diego Convention Center wrote in about her lavish cooking. “She’s only 25,” wrote Janie Breckinridge, “but she cooks the way our grandmothers do. We can all testify that her creations are worth every calorie we are wearing today.”

She’s more or less the office caterer; she bakes cakes for office parties and cookies to give to Convention Center clients. Her dinner leftovers usually make a brief stay on a credenza by her desk the next day. She actually keeps recipes on file at the office.

And she definitely cooks in the old American tradition, with only a few ethnic borrowings. She gets her recipes from newspapers and books, largely from Betty Crocker (her co-workers even call her “Betty Crocker”). She puts her own spin on everything, though, for instance adding coconut and chocolate bits to a graham cracker crust.

She grew up in Long Beach. “I always wanted to cook,” she says. “When I was a little girl, they tell me I’d take a scrap of lettuce and put it in the oven and pretend I was baking.” She got her wish at the age of 11, when her recently divorced mother designated her as the auxiliary cook for her younger sisters.

Today, she and her husband--married two years ago on St. Patrick’s Day--live in rapidly expanding Oceanside. The back yard of their newish home is still pretty sketchy; she points out where fruit trees and so on will go, but at the moment there’s not much in it but a dog pen and a vegetable garden. The salad comes from the garden, though, and so does one ingredient of the chocolate cake: zucchini.

Her taste is for basically simple but fairly rich recipes, particularly baked goods. “I’m a sales manager at the Convention Center,” she says. “It’s a stressful job, and I find it relaxing to cook. Somebody in my office pointed out that desserts is stressed spelled backward.”

But she is also health-conscious, and this is one reason why so much of her food winds up at the office or with visitors to her house. “I say, ‘Get them out of here!’ ” she says with mock horror. “I don’t want sweets lying around the house. I get so tempted.”

Another reason for health concern is her 6-foot-4 husband, Chris, a framer and house customizer who is also an enthusiastic bicycle racer (“In summer, I don’t see him,” she says). As an athlete, he sometimes balks at her food because there may be sugar in it, but Greeven says he eventually gives in: “I’ll be baking a couple of pies, and he’ll give me this little look and say, ‘Are you going to bake me a pie too?’ ”

Fortunately, his work and his hobby give him a substantial appetite. “I put three sandwiches in his lunch,” she says. “Between one thing and another, I buy an awful lot of food. When I shop, nobody wants to stand in line behind me. People think I have a family of five.”

Crisp on the outside, very juicy inside; “a very big hit,” says Greeven. Hot or cold, it’s good for party snacks or sandwiches.

ITALIAN CHICKEN

12 skinless, boneless chicken half-breasts, about 3 pounds

3 cups fresh bread crumbs

1 package Italian salad dressing mix

4 eggs, well beaten

1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese

Wash chicken, pat dry with paper towels and set aside.

Place crumbs in plastic food bag, add Italian salad dressing mix and shake to combine. Dip chicken pieces in beaten eggs, then shake in bag of crumbs to coat. Place breaded chicken pieces in greased 13x9-inch baking pan. When all pieces are breaded, sprinkle with mozzarella and feta cheeses.

Cover pan with foil and bake at 350 degrees 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake 25 to 30 minutes longer. Makes 6 main-dish or 12 appetizer servings.

Each main-dish serving contains about:

423 calories; 564 mg sodium; 256 mg cholesterol; 11 grams fat; 24 grams carbohydrates; 52 grams protein; 0.09 gram fiber.

This pie recipe goes easy on the sugar because Greeven feels over-sweetening spoils the flavor of apples. The Graham Topping includes a couple of surprises.

MILE-HIGH APPLE PIE

Pie Crust Pastry

3/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 eggs

4 medium assorted apples, cut in large dice, about 4 cups

Graham Topping

Vanilla ice cream, optional

Line 9-inch pie plate with Pie Crust Pastry. Trim to 1/2 inch beyond edge of pie plate and decorate by fluting or scalloping.

Mix sugar, flour and salt in large bowl. Beat in sour cream, vanilla, cinnamon and eggs with fork until smooth. Stir in apples. Pour into pie plate.

Bake at 375 degrees until center is set, about 45 minutes. Remove from oven, sprinkle Graham Topping on top, return to oven and bake until crumbs brown lightly, about 7 to 10 minutes. Serve hot with vanilla ice cream. Makes 8 servings.

Each serving contains about:

450 calories; 336 mg sodium; 74 mg cholesterol; 21 grams fat; 62 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams protein; 0.43 gram fiber.

Pie Crust Pastry

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup shortening

3 to 4 tablespoons cold water

Stir flour and salt in medium mixing bowl. Add shortening and cut in until pieces are size of small peas. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon water over part of mixture and gently toss with fork. Push to side of bowl. Repeat with remaining mixture and water until all is moistened.

Form dough into ball. On lightly floured surface, flatten ball with hands and roll from center to edge with rolling pin to form circle about 12 inches in diameter.

Graham Topping

1 packet cinnamon graham crackers

1/3 cup shredded coconut

1/3 cup chocolate chips

2 tablespoons butter or margarine

Grind graham crackers in food processor. Measure 1 cup ground crackers and return to food processor, discarding any excess. Briefly process with coconut, chocolate chips and butter.

To make Greeven’s usual recipe, you would have to double this one. For parties, she actually triples it .

SUN-SATIONAL CHEESECAKE

1 cup ground graham crackers

2 tablespoons margarine, melted

3 (8-ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

1 3/4 cups sugar

3 tablespoons flour

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon grated lemon zest

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

3 whole eggs

1 egg, separated

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1/2 cup water

Lemon slices or fresh fruit, optional

Sour cream, optional

Combine cracker crumbs and margarine. Press onto bottom and sides of 9-inch springform pan. Bake at 325 degrees 10 minutes.

Combine cream cheese, 1 cup sugar, flour, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla, mixing with electric mixer until well blended.

Blend 3 eggs and 1 egg white into cream cheese mixture and pour over crust. Bake at 450 degrees 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 250 degrees and bake 30 minutes. Loosen cake from rim. Cool, then remove rim.

Combine remaining 3/4 cup sugar and cornstarch in small saucepan. Gradually add water and remaining 1/4 cup lemon juice. Cook, stirring constantly, until clear and thickened. Stir small amount of hot cornstarch mixture into reserved egg yolk. Return water-yolk mixture to hot cornstarch mixture. Cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Spoon over cheesecake. Chill. Garnish with lemon slices or fresh fruit and sour cream. Makes 10 servings.

Each serving contains about:

462 calories; 311 mg sodium; 160 mg cholesterol; 28 grams fat; 47 grams carbohydrates; 9 grams protein; 0.10 gram fiber.

Greeven has a scratch chocolate cake recipe, but here she suggests a packaged mix for convenience. “The shredded zucchini is for moistness. It’s completely undetectable.”

EASY GERMAN CHOCOLATE CAKE

2 packages German chocolate cake mix

1/2 cup grated zucchini

Coconut-Pecan Filling

Sour Cream-Chocolate Frosting

Prepare cake mix according to package directions with addition of shredded zucchini. Bake 2 layers according to package directions. Cool completely.

Cover 1 cake layer with Coconut-Pecan Filling, place second layer on top and frost with Sour Cream-Chocolate Frosting. Makes 24 servings.

Each serving contains about:

433 calories; 486 mg sodium; 46 mg cholesterol; 19 grams fat; 63 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams protein; 0.19 gram fiber.

Coconut-Pecan Filling

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup margarine or butter

1 cup evaporated milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 egg yolks

1 1/3 cups flake coconut

1 cup chopped pecans

Mix sugar, margarine, evaporated milk, vanilla and egg yolks in saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until thick, about 12 minutes. Stir in coconut and pecans. Beat to spreading consistency.

Sour Cream-Chocolate Frosting

1/3 cup margarine or butter, softened

3 (1-ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

3 cups powdered sugar

1/2 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix margarine and melted chocolate. Stir in powdered sugar. Stir in sour cream and vanilla. Beat until smooth and of spreading consistency.

PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup shortening

1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 egg

1 1/4 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Mix sugar, brown sugar, peanut butter, shortening, butter and egg. Stir in flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Cover and refrigerate at least 3 hours.

Shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls. Place balls about 3 inches apart on ungreased baking sheet and flatten in crisscross pattern with fork dipped in flour. Bake at 375 degrees until light brown, about 9 to 10 minutes. Cool 2 minutes, then remove from baking sheet. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Each cookie contains about:

85 calories; 39 mg sodium; 9 mg cholesterol; 5 grams fat; 10 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams protein; 0.10 gram fiber.