Recipes - April Showers Bring More Than Flowers

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April Showers Bring More Than Flowers

Zola Gorgon

Every April I look forward to rain. Why? Because I'm selfish. I like April rain because it softens up the soil. You see, I not only cook often, I'm a big gardener. Come May when I want to plant all of my annuals, the soil had better be soft because I'm always in a hurry to get flowers in and growing. I'm selfish because I want ground that's easy to work and I want things growing FAST.

Even if I go into what I call "aerobic gardening mode," I usually have only one weekend to plant. On average it takes me 19 hours to do it, so you can imagine how sore I am after it's over, soft soil or not. I always feel like I'm re-enacting Cheerleading Tryouts Week again. (Those of you who went through that bizarre talent and not-so-well-hidden beauty contest know exactly what I mean!) At the end of that week you can hardly bend down to touch your knees. Forget about jumping!

It's excruciating -- gardening, that is. It's also one of the most enjoyable things I do.

But I digress. We're here to talk parties and food. April showers bring May flowers but they also bring lots of other showers. Wedding showers. All those June brides have to have their advance parties. Or is it the friends and mothers of the wedding couple that feel they have to have those parties? Or is it the aunts and grandmothers? No matter, the pressure still exists to put on these elaborate shower parties. It's like the wedding won't be complete and the marriage can't last without them. Heaven forbid we skip one part of the ritual or we will have blown the whole deal.

I've been asked repeatedly, by really nice people, how to improve the classic wedding shower party. I say these people are really nice because, first of all, they agree to hold these parties. You have to be really nice to go through that (how can I say this?) . . . "pain." These are also really nice people because only really nice people would attend more than one of these events. After the first one you know pretty much how they go and you either love them or you hate them.

Unfortunately, I'm still in search of someone who likes them, so I can't find a brain to pick about what's so special. With the exception of the tradition of taking all of the bows and making a bouquet for the bride to carry at the wedding rehearsal, I can't think of many redeeming qualities about wedding showers. I think it's the games.

And here's the challenge. You have people in the room from all different walks of the bride's life. Most don't know each other. Some are relatives who feel they see enough of each other at holidays and don't really need a frequency discount on talking or visiting. Then we ask them to play silly games in an effort to get them to bond and talk. As we used to say when we were cheerleaders, "how gross." There's just no way to make this work. But we try.

This column is too short to go into too many ideas, but I'll explain two ideas for a wedding shower and then I'm going to give you a perfectly elegant, ooey-gooey recipe for the wedding shower buffet. Give it up, girls...we really do want the ooey-gooey desserts at these events. For some it's the only chance to be "bad" without a husband or kid watching and commenting on your consumption!

First idea: Invite men. Oh, they aren't so bad. Really. It's not a requirement to invite men but at least each of you will know ONE person in the room you can talk to, and besides, I have a game idea (if you must) that will incorporate the few men in the room with a sense of humor to participate in the "game." This is not a completely novel idea, but this is a "Zola version." Divide the room into groups of about 5. Mix the sexes in each group. One man in the group will be elected to play the "bride." The only supply you need is toilet paper. Lots of it. And prizes if you decide to have winners.

Send the groups each into a different area of the house and give each group 3 rolls of white toilet paper. Give them 15 minutes to create their bride. No other supplies are necessary and everyone keeps their clothes on! Start wrapping the "bride" in whatever fashion the group chooses. You are creating a bridal dress with toilet paper. And of course, don't forget the veil! If you've chosen the guy with the sense of humor as the bride, he'll make a great contestant. The other guys can sit back and watch and, of course, laugh. Or you never know, their dress-up sense just might come to the surface while they wrap their buddy in his ensemble.

At the end of the 15 minutes, call everyone back together to judge the best "bride." The loudest whistles might be your measure of who wins. Have a "second best" so if you have a close vote you have two prizes.

Rip off the toilet paper and rip open the gifts. Excuse the guys to go watch sports if they don't want to watch the endless gift opening process. No more games. One is enough.

Here's one more idea that will help open the party. Name tags. Not your normal name tags though. Have each guest write their name at the top of the tag but then below it have them answer one or two questions. They'll write their answers underneath, which prompts conversation points for those that don't know each other or who need help getting started. Question options include (or make your own) things like: "What's the wedding gift that you got the most multiples of?" or "Who's the one person from your past that you always wished had kissed you but didn't?" You can imagine the fun telling old boyfriend or girlfriend stories and the stories about the crazy gifts you and they received. You can always come up with more questions.

My job is to come up with a dessert everyone will love, so here goes.

Cocoa Meringue Brownie Torte

For the meringue:

4 egg whites (room temperature fresh eggs)
3 Tbl white sugar
1 Tbl white vinegar
2 Tbl cocoa powder

For the brownie layer:

1 box of brownie mix (your favorite) plus the ingredients to make the brownies
1 small jar of seedless raspberry preserves

For the topping:

One-half cup grated chocolate
One-quarter cup whipping cream
One-half pint of fresh raspberries

You'll need a clean cookie sheet and parchment paper to bake the meringue. Spray cookie sheet with a little oil and spread a piece of parchment paper on top cut to approximately the size of your cookie sheet. Now make the meringue.

Whip egg whites on high until soft peaks form. Slowly add sugar until stiffer peaks form. While mixer is running, drizzle in white vinegar. Mix a bit more and egg whites will become shiny and stiff. At the last minute, sprinkle in cocoa powder and do your final mix to incorporate the cocoa.

Use your 10-inch springform pan to make the torte, so take the ring off to use as a measure for the size of the meringue. Place ring on the middle of the cookie sheet. Spread the meringue from the bowl inside the ring. It should be about 1 inch thick. Lift the ring and wash it off.

Bake the meringue at 225 degrees for one and a quarter hours. The meringue should dry out and be slightly crisp. A little moisture is fine. Don't be tempted to open the oven until your timer buzzes or you risk ruining your meringue.

Cool your meringue for about 10 minutes and carefully peel it from the parchment paper. Set aside.

Bake the brownies in the 10-inch springform pan. Follow the cooking directions on the brownies for a 9-inch pan and watch them in the last couple of minutes so they don't over bake. The timing should be just about right.

Let the brownies cool and then remove the ring from the pan. Place the brownies on your dessert tray. Spread the top of the brownies with a generous helping of raspberry preserves. Three to four tablespoons ought to do it. Place the meringue, flat side down, on top of the brownies covered in raspberry preserves.

Heat chocolate and whipping cream until very warm. Stir constantly until chocolate is just melted. While its warm, spread the chocolate over the top of the meringue. You can wave it over in a squiggle pattern any way you like. Decorate with a scattering of fresh raspberries. {prelink}http://www.apexperformancesystems.com/recipes/recipeImages/98_large.jpg{postlink} to see a picture.

Enjoy! Zola

This news arrived on: 04/05/2004

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