Living
THE DAVIS ENTERPRISE
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2022 A9
Swing into spring with a special dessert Special to The Enterprise It’s tough to top the joy of a spring morning spent celebrating with family, enjoying a delicious brunch or snacking on sweet treats. With warmer weather and bright sunshine comes plenty of opportunities to enjoy favorite recipes. Celebrating the season with eggs can bring loved ones together in the kitchen and beyond, from crafting classic desserts to serving up new delights. Plus, the versatility of eggs allows for nearly countless creations. Boiled, scrambled, poached, baked and any other way you like them, eggs can be your kitchen superhero. As a natural source of vitamins and minerals, they’re a delicious protein powerhouse with just 70 calories per large egg. Make the celebration truly memorable with the power of eggs in a sweet dessert like these Meringue Nests with Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream and Strawberries, a perfect option for topping off a brunch feast or an afternoon meal. Find more spring recipe ideas and ways to celebrate the season at https://www.incredibleegg. org/?utm_source=family features&utm_ medium=referral&utm_
campaign. — Family Features
Meringue Nests with Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream and Strawberries Recipe courtesy of the American Egg Board and Sam Adler (@frostingandfettucine) Prep time: 15 minutes Total time: 6 hours Servings: 6 Meringue Nests: 1¼ cups granulated sugar 6 large eggs 1 teaspoon cream of tartar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 teaspoons cornstarch Garnish: 1 cup heavy whipping cream 1 teaspoon granulated sugar ½ teaspoon vanilla extract (or 1 vanilla bean, scraped) ½ pint fresh strawberries, sliced To make meringue nests: Preheat oven to 200 degrees. On parchment paper-lined baking sheet, spread sugar evenly and bake 5-7 minutes to slightly heat. Remove sugar from oven then increase oven temperature to 225 degrees. Carefully separate egg whites from yolks completely. In bowl of hand or stand mixer fitted with whip attachment, whisk egg whites on medium-low speed
Family Features photo
Meringue Nests with Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream and Strawberries. until foamy about 1 minute. Slowly add sugar 2-3 tablespoons at a time and mix on medium speed 2 minutes between each addition. Sugar needs completely mixed into egg whites to ensure success. Continue mixing on medium until mixed through and meringue does not feel gritty. Add cream of tartar, vanilla
extract and cornstarch. Increase to high speed and beat until stiff peaks form. On two parchment paper-lined baking sheets, pipe or spread meringue with spoon into six 4-inch circular “nests.” Bake 1 hour, 15 minutes then turn off oven and let meringues cool without opening oven for at least 4 hours or overnight. The
USDA recommends egg dishes be cooked to 160 degrees. To make garnish: When ready to serve, in clean mixing bowl fitted with whip attachment, whip heavy whipping cream on medium speed. Slowly add sugar and vanilla. Continue mixing on high speed 2-3 minutes until stiff peaks form.
Fog eater plus wine drinker; an inspired pairing
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hanks to COVID-induced restlessness, we’d been itching for some out-ofDavis time, so we reverted to the relatively easy and familiar solution — Mendocino Village, where river meets ocean, where headlands and surf wax dramatic, where one can so easily forget that all is wrong with the world. It’s not quite the get-away of yore, since we’re still not comfortable inside a restaurant, for example. But food and drink possibilities are abundant if the weather’s fine — lots of café gardens and balconies, and porches. On this trip, though, the weather wasn’t fine, but we still managed to find a new favorite place — Fog Eater Café, a tiny bar/restaurant tucked away on a side street with a menu of natural wine and light vegetarian fare — and a pleasant, sheltered patio. We ordered the Happy Hour red wine special; unlike most HH specials, this one was definitely, well, special. We sipped it slowly, enjoying its bright strawberry and apple freshness and enjoying as well the complementary boiled peanuts (a new experience for me — quite good) and the calm and charming outdoor space. If the skies hadn’t opened up and soaked our little paradise, we would have ordered second glasses of our treat. If you’re worried that I’m going to go on and on about a wine that you have to drive to Mendo to taste, rest easy. The Davis Co-op just got it in — it’s the Broc Cellars Amore Blendo,
a food-friendly (even to boiled peanuts) blend of sangiovese, montepulciano, sauvignon blanc, dolcetto and trebbiano. The grapes are from various organic vineyards in Mendocino County and, like all Broc wines, this blend is made with minimal intervention. I’ve written about Broc numerous times but I can’t stop because, well, I’m beginning to think that Chris Brockway can’t make a bad wine. And I love the winery space on Fifth Street in Berkeley: “We are a ‘low wattage’ winery in the sense that we have very little modern equipment. Grapes are pitchforked whole-cluster into the fermenters, fermentation is allowed to happen spontaneously, all wines are basket pressed, with little/no sulphur used in our wines until bottling. True asphalt winemaking, in an urban winery.” Visit if you can; if not, do check out the Broc selection at the Co-op. The Amore Blendo is $25, the “Love” series somewhat less expensive. New releases arrive frequently. The four hour drive home two days later whetted our appetites for another delicious dinner. Anticipating this need, I had in the fridge a red sauce with wild
mushrooms and smoked trout, so all I had to do was boil the linguine and choose a bottle. We don’t drink much merlot, having been discouraged decades ago by the fruit bombs with fake oak that dominated the market and that were ridiculed roundly in “Sideways,” a film that purportedly dampened the merlot market considerably. But Hobo’s Kenny Likitprakong has a new merlot release with a colorful new Camp label (designed by Jesse LeDoux) signifying the recent organic certification of various vineyards that Kenny uses. And I love Kenny’s wines, so how could I resist when I found it on the Co-op shelves? This bottle I can attest has very little in common with the derided “Sidways” wines. Kenny: “Though still a recent release, we are down to the last 54 bottles of the Camp Merlot. I guess the Sideways phenomena is finally over.” And that’s a good thing. This lovely wine has plenty of fruit, yes, but it’s dry and lively with just a wisp of oak and clocks in at 12.9% alcohol—definitely not a fruit bomb. It’s actually a merlot blend — 88% merlot from the Morrison Vineyard in Sonoma Valley and 12% cabernet from Lolonis Vineyard in Redwood Valley. It worked perfectly with the strong flavors of smoked trout and tomato and does seem to me a wine that will partner well with any number of dishes, including vegetables and meats from your summer grill ($18). That Saturday, I bought an enormous bunch of organic
spinach that I sauteed with fresh shallots and garlic scapes (all from Farmers Market). Even thoroughly cooked there was a lot of it, which got added to breakfast omelets and grain bowls during the week. Its final appearance was as the generous topper on a Friday night pizza. Okay, spinach pizza, sort of mundane — what, I thought, can I jazz it up with?
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any years ago, sitting at an outdoor table of a little wine bar in La Jolla, we ordered glasses of a J. Brix wine and loved it. I hadn’t had a J. Brix release since, so I was excited when Co-op wine buyer, Sterling, pointed out the 2021 J. Brix Counoise (Coucou) on the Co-op shelves. Counoise? Why not? And it turned out to be an inspired choice for that pizza. J. Brix, the project of a husband-wife team, Jody Brix Towe and Emily Towe, is based in San Diego, not far from that wine bar. They contract with a few, carefully chosen, organically farmed vineyards and make the wine in their garage. These particular grapes come from an obscure San Diego county vineyard, Rancho Guejito, counoise being a blending grape in Southern Rhone wines. Just 350 cases were made of this vibrant, bursting-with-cherry wine with a tiny hint of oak (3½ months in barrels). Unfiltered, almost translucent, it looks as beautiful as it tastes. Coucou is a casual French greeting, and it seems appropriate for this light-but-zesty,
earthy wine. It needs a little chill, especially if you’re drinking it on a warm June day. (By the way, Broc Cellars has a Koukou, same casual idea, and also a terrific wine, also available at the Co-op.) At $25 Coucou’s a bit of a splurge but worth it for its sheer fun and conviviality in these unfun and un-convivial days. Although our Mendo excursion involved only three nights away from Davis, its sea-induced joy seemed to infuse the entire week—as a good getaway should. How lucky to be close to such inspiring coast. Lucky, too, to have similarly inspiring food and wine right in our own backyard—if only we could have brought back the rain to water it. Follow-up: I finally got to taste the wine-infused ice cream that The Good Scoop made in collaboration with Amy at the Pip — Cardamom Grenache and Chocolate Hazelnut Mourvedre. Both are delicious — subtle, nottoo-sweet, smooth, surprising, and refreshing. Take an afternoon ice cream break and try them for yourself. While you’re there, pick up a bottle of the lovely, sophisticated, flavorful Italian white called Grillo-iole. It’s not a grillo but a rebolla gialla and perfect for summer meals. Unless your “meal” consists of two scoops of ice cream. — Susana Leonardi is a Davis resident; reach her at vinosusana @gmail.com. Comment on this column at www.davisenter prise.com.
Davis Chinese Association hands out annual scholarships Enterprise staff The Davis Chinese Association is proud to announce its 2022 scholarship recipients. Since 2005, the Davis Chinese Association has awarded over $70,000 in meritbased scholarships to graduating seniors from Davis Senior High School. The recipients submitted their application including an essay about growing up as a Chinese American in the United States. This year’s recipients are: May Wang — Davis Chinese Association Scholarship, Andrew Wong – Ronald F. Soohoo Memorial Scholarship, Jason Guo — Shang Fa Yang Memorial Scholarship, Claire (Xiao Jing) Liu Hays – Ying Yung Tsao and Annie Tsao Van Memorial Scholarsihp, and Jason Ma – Leslie and Gregory Chin Memorial
Name droppers Scholarship. The Davis Chinese Association was formed in 1965 and continues to welcome everyone with an interest in sharing Chinese culture. In 2004, the Davis Chinese Association raised more than $20,000 for a Scholarship Endowment Fund and began awarding scholarships annually since 2005. For more information on the Davis Chinese Association, check out http://groups.dcn.org/ dca or davis.chinese.association@gmail.com. ———— On Saturday, May 14, Ahmed Alhejaili of Davis, who majored in chemistry and business, earned a bachelor’s degree at Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s 153rd Commencement. Nearly 1,200
undergraduate degrees were awarded during the university’s 153rd commencement ceremony. This undergraduate ceremony marked the first time the entire class and their family and friends were able to gather together for an in-person ceremony since 2019. In her final commencement exercises before stepping down to become the Director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, President Laurie Leshin presided over both celebrations, along with Board of Trustees chairman William Fitzgerald ‘83. In her remarks, Leshin celebrated the Class of 2022 and all they have accomplished during their time at WPI, including how they weathered the challenges of the pandemic. “While it would be unfair to describe the second half of your time at
WPI as anything short of extraordinarily challenging, as always, I am so heartened by how this community came together to meet every moment,” she said. The keynote address was given by Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, who was awarded an honorary degree. She praised the members of the Class of 2022 for navigating the uncertainties of the pandemic and implored them to continue embracing the many shades of gray they first encountered due to COVID-19, and are likely to continue to face in their professional lives. WPI, based in Worcester, Mass., a global leader
in project-based learning, is a distinctive, top-tier technological university founded in 1865 on the principle that students learn most effectively by applying the theory learned in the classroom to
the practice of solving realworld problems. — Do you know of someone who has won an award or accomplished something noteworthy? Email it to newsroom@davisenter prise.net.
