Name: Lisa Greenlinger

City: Thousand Oaks

Specialty: Baking

Secret: Family recipes

Cook du Jour: Fifth-grader teacher baking with the flair of her grandmother

Creature comforts: Many college students don’t fully appreciate the comforts of home until they’re away at school. Not so with Lisa Greenlinger, whose years at Ohio Wesleyan University were full of reminisces about baking as a youngster with her grandmother, Nana, when the sweet scents of biscotti, shortbread cookies and cheesecake wafted throughout the home. Greenlinger didn’t have to daydream for long, as large tins of homemade goodies, courtesy of Nan, would soon arrive, which she proudly shared with her sorority sisters. Desserts like these were to be cherished, as homemade treats were a rare commodity on campus. Better still, Greenlinger began to hear a call to action, and gathering her grandmother’s best recipes, she started baking on her own. Nan’s recipes were often simple and virtually foolproof. Her shortbread cookies, with a trifecta of flour, butter and sugar, “were very rich and good,” Greenlinger said. Her biscotti featured a basic — but delectable — combination of flour, butter, eggs, vanilla, baking powder and milk. There’s nothing quite like the sweet taste of dessert, Greenlinger asserts. “Cookies are delicious, and create wonderful memories.”

Favorite things: Everyone has a favorite treat. For her husband Jay, that probably means toffee bars. For her Aunt Linda, it’s carrot cake, while her brother, Scott, favors Greenlinger’s rum cake. Her reputation for baking excellence has transcended even her own high standards. So when she and her mother crafted their own family tradition about a decade ago and hosted a mother-daughter cookie baking day, the response was great. On a Saturday before Christmas, Greenlinger, her mother and other loyal bakers devote the entire day to preparing homemade goodness. The baking squadron fills every table and counter in Greenlinger’s home with toffee bars, chocolate peanut butter squares, fudge, shortbread cookies, pumpkin bread and lemon bars. “My favorite thing is looking for new recipes,” she said. “We have our favorites, but love to find new recipes to see if they’ll become a favorite.”

Healthy choices: When it comes to her children’s birthdays, Greenlinger’s creativity really comes through. Jackson, Siena, Joseph and Emma all have received the royal birthday treatment. Case in point: for her child’s cowboy birthday theme, she used licorice for horse hair, candies for eyes, and decorated the dessert with brown and white frosting. The “roundup” cake was a stellar success. A fifth-grade teacher at Garden Grove Elementary School in Simi Valley, Greenlinger enjoys baking desserts for teacher meetings and her many colleagues, which explains the frequent appearance of chocolate peanut butter squares and snickerdoodles. “Baking is a way of giving to others,” she said. “It’s the best way to tell them that you’re thinking of them, by preparing something homemade.”

Nana’s cheesecake

Crust:

Ingredients

25 graham crackers

1 stick butter, melted

1 tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon cinnamon

Directions

1 Crush graham crackers and add butter, sugar and cinnamon. Mix, then form into 13-by-9-inch pan.

Filling:

Ingredients

3 8-ounce packages cream cheese

1 cup sugar

5 eggs

1½ teaspoons vanilla

Directions

1 Cream the cheese into a bowl and add sugar. Add eggs one at a time with a beater. Add vanilla and beat well. Pour on crust and bake at 325 for 50 to 60 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes.

Sour Cream Topping:

Ingredients

1½ pints sour cream

½ cup sugar

1½ teaspoons vanilla

Directions

1 Mix together and pour on top of cake. Return the cake to the oven and bake at 475 for 5 to 10 minutes.

2 Top cheesecake with cherries or strawberries.

Note: “My Nana always did half with cherries on top and then the other was plain. It’s a dense cheesecake. It really fills you up and is really delicious.”

To nominate an amateur cook from Ventura County to be Cook du Jour, send an email to Mike Blackwell at [email protected].

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baking with Bill & Sheila