GREAT HOME COOKS : The Picnic: Make the Good Times Roll

“Life is uncertain--eat dessert first,” reads the sign hanging in Christy Cowell’s dining room. Not 10 minutes after you’ve met her, it’s clear that Cowell takes the sign very seriously.

Not just the dessert part--although sweets certainly play a big part in this woman’s life. “I especially like splashy-looking desserts,” she will tell you, “dramatic-looking things from the cover of food magazines. I’ve been known to find myself up at 3 a.m. attaching almond slice wings to marzipan bees to decorate a beehive cake!”

Dessert aside, Cowell is equally committed to the effort to overcome uncertainty. “I don’t wait for good times to roll up to the door and ask me to participate,” she likes to say. “Sometimes you just have to take charge.”

When Cowell takes charge, she does it with gusto. Which is probably why, when her friends banded together to nominate her as a Great Home Cook, they didn’t just send the usual letter. They made up a veritable press kit, complete with printed menus, gorgeous photographs and glowing testimonials. “The enclosed speak for themselves,” wrote her friend William Lewis.

“I’m not really that interested in cooking for myself,” says Cowell, a policy analyst for the L.A. County Health Department. “I often work late, so when I have time I’ll cook a big batch of food, divide it into portions and put it in the freezer. That’s what I eat most nights.”

It’s the other nights that count, for Cowell saves her big cooking energy for her big events. “To me, dinner parties are social interactions stimulated by a really wonderful meal.” And when Cowell says “really wonderful,” she does not speak lightly.

She is the sort of person who thinks nothing of turning out those three-day dishes that make the rest of us cringe. Rifle through her cookbooks, which occupy an entire room of their own, and you find annotations on the very pages that ordinary cooks skip--the main dish that requires making six sub-recipes, the cake wrapped up in hand-made chocolate ruffles, the bread that begins with a homemade starter. But good taste is just the beginning; to meet muster with Cowell, food must also look spectacular.

Consider her annual dessert party. “It started,” she says, “in the early ‘70s. And it’s evolved every year.” By now the party, which Cowell holds around Christmas time, involves “six major cakes, a dozen and a half types of cookies, at least three or four kinds of hand-dipped truffles.” Some 70 people crowd into Cowell’s small Atwater home, spilling out into the streets clutching glasses of sweet wines and plates filled with cakes.

The cakes change every year; Cowell may have mastered a lot of complicated dishes, but she rarely repeats one. “If I fixed the same old thing all the time,” she says with a small smile, “how could I justify all these idiot cookbooks?”

Cowell came by her cooking energy honestly. “I grew up in Geneva,” she says, “a suburb of Chicago filled with antique shops. My Dad was always interested in experimenting with different types of food. In the ‘60s he was already subscribing to Gourmet Magazine.” Cowell learned to cook mostly by reading her father’s magazines. “I’ve taken a few classes,” she says, “but I wouldn’t go just to get recipes. I take a class when I want to learn a technique. Last year I took a class just to learn how to make those beautiful chocolate ruffles to decorate cakes.”

Cowell’s father was proud of her cooking. “Right before Dad died he took a trip to Italy, and I asked him to bring me back some porcini. He called to suggest that I increase my homeowner’s insurance policy after he bought them--they were that expensive--and then he showed up with a pound of dried mushrooms. I’m doling them out bit by bit in various recipes.”

At the moment Cowell is focusing her attention on picnics. “This is the first summer I’ve ever gotten a box at the Hollywood Bowl,” she says happily, “and I’ve been thinking for months about what to make. I’ve been looking through cookbooks and magazines, making notes to myself, searching for a main course that’s dramatic-looking.”

Cowell, who has no use for people who don’t honor the occasion, plans to “coordinate five really full-scale picnics” for her friends. She’ll even take along a little printed menu and a menu holder. “It really incenses me to see people sitting in a box at the Bowl with Styrofoam take-out containers filled with chicken,” she confides indignantly.

For the first night at the Bowl, Cowell plans a pate, an extraordinarily beautiful tortellini tart (“I think it’s spectacular enough,” she muses) and brownies. About the latter she is slightly apologetic. “They’re fabulous brownies,” she says, “a recipe of Maida Heatter’s. They travel well, and I often take them to work, where an entire plate will disappear in a matter of seconds, not minutes. But I’d never serve them at home--they’re not showy enough.”

There’s a philosophy at work here, a way of life. You might even call it dessert-firstism. “I work with AIDS patients,” says Cowell. “Life has been hard lately. We all have bad times; that’s why you have to assume the responsibility for making sure you have other sorts of experiences too. It’s important to take charge and have some special occasions in your life.”

TORTELLINI TART (From “Cucina Fresca” by Evan Kleiman and Viana La Place)

Tortellini

Sauce

Soft Tart Dough

Bechamel

1 egg beaten with 2 tablespoons milk

To assemble tart, first mix Tortellini and Sauce together in bowl. Roll out 2/3 Soft Tart Dough on parchment, wax paper, foil or plastic wrap in circle about 14 inches in diameter. Line medium mixing bowl with plastic wrap. Invert 14-inch circle of dough into bowl. Peel off paper or plastic wrap and pat dough against sides of bowl.

Place half sauced Tortellini into dough-lined bowl, being careful to extend layer to edge of dough. Using rubber spatula, cover Tortellini with cooled Bechamel. Top Bechamel with remaining Tortellini, again being careful to extend layer to edge of dough. Roll out remaining dough on parchment, wax paper, foil or plastic wrap into circle large enough to cover filling. Invert dough onto tart filling. Peel off paper or plastic wrap and trim edges of circle (which will become bottom crust). Brush edge of circle with egg wash and fold over extra dough from larger circle (which will be top of tart). Make sure edges are well sealed. Carefully invert tart onto baking sheet and remove bowl. Peel off plastic wrap that lined bowl.

Bake tart at 375 degrees about 40 minutes or until crust is deep-golden brown. For crust with sheen, brush with egg wash before placing in oven and once or twice during baking. Serve at room temperature. Cut into pie-shaped wedges to serve. Makes 12 servings.

Each serving contains about:

804 calories; 865 mg sodium; 227 mg cholesterol; 45 grams fat; 69 grams carbohydrates; 29 grams protein; 0.9 gram fiber

Tortellini

1 1/2 pounds meat-stuffed tortellini

Boiling salted water

1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil

Drop tortellini in abundant amount of boiling salted water in large pot and cook 12 minutes or until tender yet still firm to bite. Drain and gently rinse under cold running water until cool to touch. Drain and place in bowl. Toss olive oil with tortellini to keep from sticking together. Set aside.

Sauce

1 ounce dried porcini mushrooms

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 celery stalks, peeled and minced

2 carrots, peeled, trimmed and minced

1 onion, peeled and minced

1 garlic clove, peeled and minced

2 pounds ground beef chuck

1/2 pound sweet Italian sausage

1 cup red wine

2 tablespoons minced parsley leaves

2 to 3 fresh sage leaves, chopped or 1/2 teaspoon dried sage leaves, crumbled

1 (14-ounce) can tomato sauce

2 cups broth or water

Cover porcini mushrooms with warm water in small bowl. Let soak 30 minutes or until tender. Heat olive oil in skillet over low heat. Add and saute celery, carrots, onion and garlic until tender. Add ground meat and sausage and let brown. Add red wine and cook over high heat until it evaporates. Add parsley, sage, tomato sauce and broth. Stir to mix.

Drain porcini mushrooms, checking to be sure they are free of dirt. Add to sauce. Simmer sauce over low heat until reduced enough to coat spoon. Let cool.

Soft Tart Dough

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

1/3 cup milk, about

Combine flour and salt in large bowl. Make well in center and add butter, eggs and yolks. Lightly blend butter mixture with fingertips. With knife or pastry blender, cut dry ingredients into wet ingredients until dough is crumbly. Gradually add milk, tossing with fork, until dough comes together. Dough will be soft. Gather into ball. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 2 or 3 days. When ready to roll dough, place on parchment, wax paper, aluminum foil or plastic wrap to facilitate handling.

For a food processor: Combine flour, salt and butter in food processor fitted with metal blade. Process with short pulses until mixture is crumbly. Add eggs and yolks with short pulses; do not overmix. Add milk gradually with short pulses until dough begins to clump. Remove dough and proceed as above.

Bechamel

1/4 cup unsalted butter

3 tablespoons flour

2 cups hot milk

Coarse salt

Freshly ground pepper

Melt butter in small saucepan over low heat. Add flour and stir to form smooth paste. Heat milk in separate saucepan. When hot but not boiling, pour into butter-flour mixture, stirring constantly with whisk or wooden spoon. Cook over low heat until sauce thickens and flour taste is gone. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Let cool.

CHRISTY’S INDUSTRIAL-STRENGTH BROWNIES (Adapted from “Maida Heatter’s Book of Great American Desserts”)

Butter

1 1/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter

3 cups sugar

7 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 teaspoon almond extract

4 1/2 cups walnut halves

Turn 13x9 inch pan upside down; center 18-inch length of foil (shiny side down) over pan; press down sides and corners of foil to shape to pan; remove foil, turn pan right-side up and gently press foil into place with potholder or folded towel. Melt small piece butter. With crumpled wax paper, spread butter all over foil.

Sift together cocoa, flour and salt into large bowl of electric mixer.

Melt unsalted butter in 3-quart heavy saucepan over low heat. Remove pan from heat. With heavy wooden spatula stir in sugar, then eggs 2 or 3 at time. Stir in vanilla and almond extracts. Add butter mixture to sifted dry ingredients all at once. Beat on low speed, scraping bowl as necessary with rubber spatula, until ingredients are completely mixed. Remove bowl from mixer and stir in nuts.

Turn mixture into prepared pan and bake on middle rack of 350-degree oven 50 to 60 minutes until wood pick gently inserted in middle comes out with a bit of chocolate clinging to it.

Cool in pan at room temperature. When bottom of pan is not completely cool, cover pan with length of wax paper and with flat baking sheet or board. Turn pan and sheet or board over, then remove pan and slowly peel off foil.

Leave cake upside down and transfer to refrigerator overnight or to freezer few hours.

Cover chilled cake with baking sheet or board and turn it over, leaving cake right side up. Remove sheet or board and wax paper from top of cake.

Use ruler and wood picks to mark cake into quarters. With long, strong, sharp knife or long and finely serrated knife, cut cake into quarters (cutting once in 1 direction and then once in opposite direction). Next, cut each quarter in half, cutting from 1 long side to opposite long side, making 8 pieces. (If cake is not cold enough to be cut perfectly, stop cutting, chill cake longer and then continue to cut.) Finally, cut each piece into 3 bars.

Wrap brownies individually in plastic wrap or wax paper or foil. Makes 24 extra-large brownies.

Each serving contains about:

397 calories; 72 mg sodium; 93 mg cholesterol; 27 grams fat; 37 grams carbohydrates; 7 grams protein; 1.3 grams fiber.