Sold out.

Well, we all knew it was going to happen. Pandora.com has gone commercial. The new minimized player function has ads in it (no problem for me, I assure you). However, what bugs me is that their new licensing agreement with funders prohibits users from skipping more than a few songs per hour. WHAT?! I guess the reason this doesn't make sense to me is that certain songs will be played, whether I want to hear them or not. Which kinda defeats the whole purpose of Pandora to start with - i.e. connecting you with artists they think you will like. All of a sudden, they don't care as much what artists you like anymore. Rather, it's a pay-to-play deal. Ick.

Logged a good 18 miles last week. I didn't run as much at the beginning of this week. One of my feet had some weird cramp in it, so I spent time on the bike at the gym rather than pounding it out on the asphalt. My 5-miler on Saturday went well; I'm able to run more and more of it. Right now, it's only the hills that are killing me!

Oooh - I finally got a decent recipe for a DELISH goat cheese salad that I had years ago at a little French resturant in Edinburgh, Scotland. (I know. Weird, isn't it?) The restaurant was called Cafe Rouge, and this salad is a pretty close approximation of what I had there. The recipe is courtesy of Barefoot Contessa. (Ina Garten NEVER lets me down!):

Salad with Warm Goat Cheese
Yield: 6 servings

1 (11-ounce) log plain or herbed Montrachet
2 extra-large egg whites, beaten with 1 tablespoon water
Fresh white bread crumbs
Enough mixed salad greens for 6 servings
Olive oil and unsalted butter, for frying

For the dressing:
2 tablespoons good cider vinegar
2 tablespoons good Champagne vinegar
Pinch sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 extra-large egg yolk
1 cup good olive oil

Slice the Montrachet into 12 (1/2-inch-thick) slices. (The easiest way to slice goat cheese is to use a length of dental floss.) Dip each slice into the beaten egg whites, then the bread crumbs, being sure the cheese is thoroughly coated. Place the slices on a rack and chill them for at least 15 minutes.

For the dressing, place the vinegars, sugar, salt, pepper, and egg yolk in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and blend for 1 minute. With the motor running, slowly pour the olive oil through the feed tube until the vinaigrette is thickened. Season, to taste.

Toss the salad greens with enough dressing to moisten, then divide them among 6 plates.
Melt 1 tablespoon oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a saute pan over medium-high heat until just under smoking. Cook the goat cheese rounds quickly on both sides until browned on the outside but not melted inside. Top each salad with 2 warm rounds and serve.

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