She Cooks, She Sews, She Shoots

Joni Schaper sounds like a cross between a tomboy and homebody. But she doesn’t act or look like either.

She’s got the layered mane of a movie star, the exuberance of a cheerleader and the compactness of a gymnast, yet she boasts that she knows every part of a B-1 bomber.

She’s an engineering student from Lancaster who wins blue ribbons for domestic skills, which in her case include dry-walling, masonry and wiring. Of course those aren’t the skills that win ribbons; it’s her Easter eggs, embroidery, cookies, cheesecakes and breads that have earned her yards of satin. So has her photography. Skeet-shooting competitions are next.

In a letter nominating her for The Times Real Cooks column, her brother Greg Schaper, a commercial pilot based in Kentucky, included some newspaper clippings with his letter.

One was about Schaper winning top prize at an Antelope Valley baking contest with her date pinwheel cookies--at age 10. Two other stories tracked her adult contest record in the annual California Strawberry Festival in Oxnard. In 1992, when she competed against 400 others, her strawberry buckle won first prize and made her $200 richer. Three years later, her strawberry plum pancake placed first, although the prize was a more modest cookie jar.

Excelling in the kitchen is in the genes, says Schaper, 38. “I was raised by good cooks. My grandmother was the quintessential gardener and from-scratch homemaker; my mother, the original superwoman. She juggled a career in real estate and a home renovation business while raising two kids. She doesn’t have the word ‘no’ in her vocabulary.”

Her mother, Ruth, is the one who taught Schaper and her brother how to dry-wall and wire outlets when they were in grade school as a way for them to earn extra money after school.

Schaper used those skills again in the mid-’70s, when she moved to Wyoming for two years and helped her mother build the Royal Palace Restaurant in Cody. The slogan on the menu: “Cooking so good, you’ll think we kidnapped your mother.”

The first dish Schaper mastered, at 8, was fudge. She found the recipe in a Snoopy comic book.

“I’ve always known what I liked,” she says over coffee and hunks of spice cake and brownies in the kitchen of her ranch house in Lancaster. “Usually, more spice, more herbs, stronger flavors.”

She and four cats live in the house where she was raised. Shelves and nooks in the living and dining rooms and corners of the yard reflect her eclectic interests: the antique wheelchair with three wheels from a flea market, saddles and cattle skulls that look like props from Georgia O’Keeffe paintings.

Schaper spent 11 years as a parts supervisor with Rockwell and Rocketdyne, which is how she acquired her knowledge of B-1 bombers. Meanwhile, she was attending evening school at Edwards Air Force Base to earn a bachelor of science degree accredited by Southern Illinois University.

Cooking became her escape from work and school. And neighbors always volunteered as guinea pigs. Eventually, she picked up the hobby she’d dropped as a teenager and began to enter cooking contests again. Of the 20 contests she has entered as both child and adult, she’s placed in all.

“I don’t compete for publicity,” she says, “because I’m pretty shy. It’s for the fun of meeting contestants and finding out why they cook. It’s one big party.”

The key to winning, she says, is entering foods you love to eat because you’ll fuss and care more. The appearance of a dish is critical in a contest; she’s often stayed up all night perfecting up to 12 recipes for several categories in a contest.

“You can’t cook ahead for the judging,” she says. “Brownies suffer in appearance if they’ve been baked ahead of time. That’s why I usually enter local fairs instead of state ones. I can get the food to the judges at the last minute so it’s really fresh.”

Being highly organized is a trait she inherited from her parents. She reads recipes carefully, absorbing their information, but rarely uses them. You could say she cooks the way she sews: She never uses patterns.

“Cooking is about understanding how things work and fit together,” she says, “what method to use and why. You get it by repetition and experience.

“I usually alter the taste of a recipe, simplify the preparation and substitute ingredients. You just figure things out.”

Inspiration for recipes comes from women’s magazines, newspapers, the Food Channel, dishes she’s tasted in restaurants. She says failures are opportunities. When a cake fell, she served it at a party in razor-thin slices, covered with strawberries.

She eats what she wants and squeezes several meals out of a batch of pasta or meatloaf. “Of course, sometimes it’s easier just to buy a salad from McDonald’s rather than cook. Eating’s got to fit in with the lifestyle, and sometimes I just don’t have time.”

For her culinary skills she’s won a VCR, gourmet gifts, serving trays, silk flowers, a microwave oven and membership in a health club.

Although she toys with the idea of entering the biggest cooking contest of all--the Pillsbury Bake-Off--there is never enough time for everything. Her main goals include earning a master’s degree in business management and getting her private pilot’s license. And somehow she’ll make time for honing those skeet-shooting skills.

“Still,” Schaper says, when asked what she’d love most of all, “I’ve always dreamed of moving to Montana and opening a dude ranch.” Her guests would certainly be well-fed.

DATE PINWHEEL COOKIES

In 1969, when Joni Schaper was 10-years old, she was the youngest contestant to enter a recipe contest in Antelope Valley. Here’s her winning recipe.

6 tablespoons granulated sugar

6 tablespoons water

3/4 cup pitted dates

1/4 cup nuts, chopped

2 teaspoons lemon juice

2 cups sifted flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup butter

1 1/4 cups brown sugar, lightly packed

1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange peel

1 egg

1 tablespoon vinegar

Combine granulated sugar, water and dates in saucepan. Cook until thick, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and add nuts and lemon juice. Cool, then puree in blender or food processor. Set aside.

Sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Beat butter and brown sugar together in mixing bowl until butter is light and fluffy. Add orange peel to butter mixture and beat in egg and vinegar. Blend in flour mixture. Chill dough several hours or overnight.

Roll dough into 15x10-inch rectangle. Spread with date mixture and roll up as for jelly roll. Chill 1 hour. Slice 1/4-inch thick. Place cookies on greased baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees 12 to 15 minutes.

5 dozen cookies. Each cookie:

65 calories; 37 mg sodium; 9 mg cholesterol; 2 grams fat; 10 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram protein; 0.07 gram fiber.

CHOCOLATE CREAM CHEESE BARS

CRUST

1 cup flour

1/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted

FILLING

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed

1/3 cup butter, softened

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened

1 cup all-purpose or unbleached flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon rum or 1 teaspoon rum extract

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

GLAZE

1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 tablespoon rum or 1/4 teaspoon rum extract

1 teaspoon water

CRUST

Combine flour, brown sugar, butter and melted chocolate chips in large bowl and mix well. Press mixture into bottom of ungreased 9-inch square pan or 11x7-inch pan.

FILLING

Beat granulated sugar, brown sugar, butter and cream cheese in large bowl until smooth. Add flour, baking powder, salt, rum and vanilla. Blend well. Spread over Crust. Bake at 325 degrees until edges are light golden brown and set, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool 30 minutes.

GLAZE

Melt chocolate chips with rum and water in small saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until smooth. If necessary, add additional water until consistency for drizzling.

Drizzle Glaze over Filling while still warm. Refrigerate at least 1 hour. Cut into bars. Store in refrigerator.

36 bars. Each bar:

131 calories; 88 mg sodium; 14 mg cholesterol; 7 grams fat; 12 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram protein; 0.02 gram fiber.

MINT BROWNIES

BROWNIE CRUST

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 cup flour

1 (16-ounce) can chocolate syrup

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

MINT FILLING

2 cups powdered sugar

3 tablespoons creme de menthe

1/2 cup butter, softened

GLAZE

1 cup chocolate chips, melted

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter

BROWNIE CRUST

Stir together sugar, butter, flour, chocolate syrup, salt and vanilla. Spread in greased 13x9-inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees 30 minutes.

MINT FILLING

Mix sugar, creme de menthe and butter until smooth. Spread on cooled Brownie Crust.

GLAZE

Mix melted chocolate chips and butter. Cool slightly and pour over mint filling. Refrigerate until firm. Let brownies stand at room temperature about 30 minutes before cutting to avoid cracking.

36 brownies. Each brownie:

190 calories; 122 mg sodium; 20 mg cholesterol; 10 grams fat; 24 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram protein; 0.06 gram fiber.