May 6, 2008

Well, the Broad Street Race was miserable. Everyone else had fun; the fact that I did not was entirely my fault for:
• A) Not training properly
• B) Ignoring my memories of the previous Broad Street Races I’ve run and how much allergies slay me this time of year. And this year my allergies are worse than any previous year


I suppose my memories would be a little less negative if I hadn’t been struck by a migraine later that afternoon and spent the next 12 hours whimpering in misery and flirting with the idea of calling emergency services to relieve the agony.

The migraine is also my fault; my two known triggers are interrupted sleep and dehydration. With allergies, I haven’t been sleeping well, and the allergy medication I took before the race dries me out and I didn’t drink enough during the race. It’s been a good 5 years since I’ve made that mistake before – hopefully it will be even longer before I do again.

Anyway, I’ve recovered and used the lovely beets and beet greens I got at the Farmer’s market (I love, love, LOVE beet greens) to make a beet risotto that was fantastic, though not quite as good as the beet salad Nat and Tim introduced me to. This was a recipe I got from Gourmet via www.epicurious.com and the original recipe can be found at the link.


But the recipe I used was modified in the following ways:
• I roasted the beets ahead of time (peak allergy season, I am not running the risk of under-cooked beets)
• I took the advice of the other users of the recipe and added the greens late to minimize their cooking time
• I used Prima-donna* instead of Parmesan, as that’s the hard cheese that I had on hand.

I had not been anticipating at all how BRILLIANTLY the end result would be colored. Very Christmasy

*Prima Donna is a mild cow's milk cheese made in the style of a Dutch Gouda. As compared to a four- or six-year Gouda, Prima Donna has a distinctly softer, subtler flavor. It has an ivory rind with slight rose blush; bright, crunchy texture; and sweet, nutty flavor with a distinct caramel aftertaste. Pair Prima Donna with bigger reds such as Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, or Zinfandel.