The Buffalo Sabres recalled Mark Mancari on Saturday. Mancari was the Portland Pirates leading scoring with 62 points (22g, 40a) in 61 games and was a plus-14.
He recall comes as a result of an injury suffered by Drew Stafford, in which, Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff said in the Buffalo News, “He’s not doing very [...]

An interactive kiosk designed to record personal narratives is open at the Frank E. Merriweather Jr. Library, 1324 Jefferson Ave. at East Utica Street and at least one person came to the opening with something to contribute.

BRO Submission By: Christa Glennie Seychew

Last week three area chefs got together to present a Nose-to-Tail dinner as a fundraiser for the chef-friendly non-profit organization, the Field & Fork Network. 

Nose-to-Tail dinners have seen a rise in popularity over the last few years as they not only generally make use of the increasingly popular heritage breeds, but also require the chefs to be innovative and economical in their use of the animal--all to the benefit of the dinner guest.

A heritage breed animal, as described by SustainableTable.org, is a traditional livestock breed  raised by farmers in the past, before the drastic reduction of breed variety caused by the move toward industrial agriculture. (They cite this example: Within the past 15 years, 190 breeds of farm animals have gone extinct worldwide, and there are currently 1,500 others at risk of becoming extinct. In the past five years alone, 60 breeds of cattle, goats, pigs, horses and poultry have become extinct.)  A good friend of mine once told me that her favorite thing about heritage breed animals is that the best way to preserve the breed is to eat them; and she's right!

Here in Western New York we are lucky to have a number of farmers committed to raising heritage breeds of all sorts: cattle, chickens, ducks, rabbits and sheep.  At the center of Monday's dinner was a fine, heritage breed Gloucestershire Old Spot hog raised on the pristine pasture of T-Meadow farms in Lockport, NY.  T-Meadow raises a few heritage breeds, but the Old Spot is the belle of the ball.  The most interesting thing about this breed may be that they are a foraging animal that eats grass, and the variety of its diet leads to a rich, flavorful meat.

I was fortunate to take two groups of food enthusiasts out to T-Meadow last fall on a farm tour, and was truly impressed by the health of the animals, the cleanliness of the farm and the good life these animals live.  Before we met, Rich Tilyou, the farmer, shipped most of his pigs to a farmer closer to New York, whose customers include The Big Apple's best chefs.  Tilyou has a steady business there, but has recently been able to increase his business by selling to chefs here in Buffalo.  Deliveries have been made to Curly's, Carmelo's, The Stillwater and Bistro Europa with more to come.  "Damn this pig is gorgeous," messaged Chef Steven Gedra, owner of Bistro Europa, the host restaurant and organizer of the event. "I can't get over it. I thought Berkshires were money. They can't hold a candle to an Old Spot."  Tilyou can be credited as one of the few farmers trying to save the Old Spot--he sends breeder pigs all over the country to those looking to help bolster this breed, which just a few years ago, was down to less than fifty animals living in the United States.

Gedra and his chef friends, Carmelo Raimondi of Carmelo's and Bruce Wieszala, a recent transfer to The Stillwater, prepared the feast, a nine course ode to the amazing hog, and a warm and heartfelt show of appreciation for the Field & Fork Network.  To my knowledge, no other Western New York restaurant has publicly undertaken such a feat, and I was very proud to be a part of the event.  The menu was pork-centric, as it should be, and although the food was top notch, guests were encouraged to enjoy themselves in more casual fashion.  Both red and white wine were served from old-fashioned juice glasses, the napkins were small kitchen hand towels, and Pork Slap beer, made by Butternuts, a New York State brewery, was served by the can.

The sold out dinner was a great success, and local smoker, Joe Kennedy of Spar's, helped by smoking some of the cuts, while farmer Daniel Oles, a Field & Fork Network board member and owner of Promised Land CSA provided carrots, cabbage, onions, potatoes and other root vegetables from his personal root cellar.  We've included the menu below, and you can see from this slideshow how much fun was had by all.  Supporting local farmers and the restaurants that purchase from them is a fundamental way to not only improve our local economy, but to insure that Western New York's future generations have access to local, farm fresh food.  Every year our region loses more farmland to development and more farmers to retirement.  It is so important that we find a way to bolster the agricultural side of our region. As city dwellers, this can most easily be done my looking for local food in our supermarkets, by shopping at farmers markets and by frequenting restaurants dedicated to sourcing local ingredients and wines.

Nose-to-Tail
March 1st, 2010

Hors d'ouvres
Carmelo's Pork Rinds
cheese powder & pimenton

Pork Candy Wrappers
fermented black bean sauce

First Course
Lardo Pizzetta
apple,mint, Fontina

Second Course
Spicy pork Spring Rolls
crispy ear, red pepper caramel

Third Course
Coppa di Testa
mostarda fruit & housemade mustard

Fourth Course
Offally Good Soup
cauliflower veloute, offally good dumplings

Fifth Course
Dueling breakfasts
Grand Slam
belly, potato hash, truffle, tempura fried poached egg
Bacon-cheddar Biscuit, Sausage Gravy

Sixth Course
Herb-crusted Stuffed Loin
tea-steeped apricots & prunes, almonds, pistachio-carrot purée

Seventh Course
BBQ Plate
smoked shoulder & ribs, sweet, mustard, and vinegar sauces, collards, Navajo fry bread

Eighth Course
Porchetta
apple-rosemary purée, mustard greens

Ninth Course
Waffles & Smoky Bacon/Maple Ice Cream
candied bacon tuile

Author's Note: In the interest of full disclosure, as the author of this story I should note that I am the co-founder of Field & Fork Network, and was delightfully surprised when my friends and network members, Chef Gedra, Chef Wisezala and Chef Raimondi, approached me with the offer to host this dinner for our organization.  Great thanks should be heaped upon all who came and all who made effort as this event was a warm and wonderful evening celebrating the great talent that exists here in Western New York, from the farm to the table.

Field & Fork Network

Sustainable Table:

T-Meadow Farm:

Gloucestershire Old Spot

farm tour:

Chef Steven Gedra, owner of Bistro Europa:

FeedYourSoul

Curly's:

Carmelo's:

The Stillwater:

Spar's

Promised Land CSA

I spoke to Christian Gaddis and although the Buffalo Bills haven’t announced it, the team has tendered the offensive lineman as an exclusive rights free agent.
Gaddis has been a member of the Bills on and off since 2007 when he was signed as an undrafted free agent out of Villanova. He’s also spent time in [...]

I’m going out on a limb here and predicting that in your office pools or various message board contests, few if any had the Buffalo Bills making their first free agent target Wade Smith.  In fact, don’t be embarrassed if you’ve never heard of him at all, many haven’t.
As fans spent the majority of opening [...]

Niagara takes on Iona in the MAAC Quarterfinals on Saturday night to begin its quest for the Purple Eagles’ third title in six seasons. Head coach Joe Mihalich owns a 15-9 record in the MAAC Tournament and has reached the MAAC Finals five times in the last eight seasons. The Purple Eagle mentor led Niagara [...]

While searching for more ways to turn recycled newspaper into seed-starting pots, I stumbled across an article about ways to ReUse old phone books (you can also use phone book pages to make pots for seed starting). I thought this was very interesting, especially considering our office got two of them last summer (since the building is a double), and we barely used either one. The ease with which one can search the internet for a business’s phone number has made these print directories almost obsolete.

Less than 16% of Americans recycle their old phone books. Become one to recycle! You can also call your local phone company and see if they have an opt-out program. OR, here are some ways to REUSE:

1. Make a booster seat for your child. Most of us probably remember sitting on a phone book to reach the dining room table better. Go a step further and cover the phone book with some cotton batting and a fabric remnant to make it even more comfortable.
2. Use them, sheet by sheet, as an alternative to paper towels. Clean windows and mirrors.
3. Next time your kid needs to papier mache something, use pages from your old phone books.
4. Crumple the pages into balls to use as packaging filler for delicate objects.
5. Shred the pages up and COMPOST them!!
6. Use one as a kneeling pad for when you’re working in the garden.
7. Use stacks of the pages (10 pages thick or so) to kill the grass where you want a new garden bed. Simply lay the stacks of pages over the grass (overlapping them a bit), wet them down, and cover them with mulch, shredded leaves, or straw. In a few weeks, the grass will be dead and you have a new garden bed!

Are you in the mood to celebrate a chapter of local cultural history in Buffalo? Be sure to attend the 4th annual Dyngus Day Parade on April 5 at 5pm. The parade will march through Buffalo's historic Polonia district, with over 100 parade entrants and 40,000 onlookers expected to be there. Social groups, bands, dancers, and other performers will participate in this festival that celebrates Easter Sunday and the end of Lent.

This area of Buffalo includes typical locations for Dyngus Day celebrations such as Polonia Hall, the Buffalo Central Terminal, St. Stanislaus Church, and the Adam Mickewicz Library and Dramatic Circle. The group sponsoring the event, Dyngus Day Buffalo, is also responsible for coordinating more than 25 specific city sites where the holiday is celebrated. According to them, events such as these have made Buffalo the world's Dyngus Day capital.

The traditionally Polish-American holiday falls on the Monday after Easter each year, and celebrates the end of the Lenten season and the restrictions that it places on Christians. Buffalonians have celebrated Dyngus Day since the first Polish immigrants arrived in the 1870s, but the Chopin's Singing Society held the first modern, organized Dyngus Day celebration 49 years ago. The tradition has been going strong ever since.

Bernadette Pawlak, the parade organizer for the Dyngus Day parade, also organized last year's event. She has high hopes for this festival that Buffalonians look forward to all year round.

"What we initially believed would be a small, roughly thrown-together celebration is growing into a major event," Pawlak reflected. "Although Dyngus Day is traditionally a celebration of Polish pride, we are encouraging the parade participants to become a tribute to Buffalo's diverse heritage."

According to Pawlak, this year's parade will consist of three separate divisions of entrants. For the first time in its four year history, the parade's organizers will give out themed awards to participants. She said that as the parade grows each year, so do the amount of people who come out to watch the performers pass by, as well as the hopes for a bigger and better parade and holiday celebration in general each year.

"We find that people of all nationalities come from across Western New York, Southern Ontario, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Often individuals take time off from work and their busy schedules just to attend. It is quickly becoming that popular," Pawlak said. "My ultimate goal is to make Dyngus Day in Buffalo the equivalent to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. One would go to New Orleans before lent and Buffalo after!"

If you or your group would like to appear in the parade, be sure to fill out an application form anytime before 5pm on April 1, 2010. If you have any further questions about the parade, its history, or anything else about it, contact Bernadette Pawlak by phone (716) 812-3342 or by email.

Here’s something that’s completely obvious: social media has totally changed the way we interact with others.

But now, here’s something that might not be so obvious: social media has changed our friendships – how we start them, how we maintain them, and even what we consider a friendship.

When you’re in pre-school and kindergarten, you choose your friends based on who is nice and shares their toys with you (and, if you believe in cooties, you avoid the opposite sex). If you meet a friend outside of school, it’s usually in a playgroup or activity arranged by your parents.

In grammar school and high school, you start finding friends with similar interests, both in school and at after-school activities. Generally these friends all live in your school district or at least your town, so the friends you make are at least partially based on your location. The field is even more narrowed if you consider that, based on where your school is and if it is public or private, or based on the activity you’re involved in, the friends you make may be from a certain class or socio-economic group, or of a particular race or background.

In college, though, there’s a whole world of new friendships opened. You can meet people from different places and completely different backgrounds than yourself. You won’t become friends with everyone, but you will encounter these different people in class, activities and social situations, some more often than others.

Social media, at least message boards and sites like Twitter, is a virtual college – it considerably expands your pool of potential friends and acquaintances, even more, in fact, than college does. It’s perfectly acceptable to “follow” or converse with people you do not know, because they have something to say that is interesting or relevant to your hobbies and interests, career or life.

(Due to some crazy, unspoken rules, however, most people would tell you that doing the same thing on Facebook is just plain creepy. You don’t friend those you don’t know, for the most part, but exceptions do occur. We could do an entire piece on social media etiquette because of this stuff.)

But social media doesn’t just alter how we start friendships. Once we have these virtual and real-life friendships, social media also affects how we keep them.

If you’re connected on Facebook and Twitter, if you have Skype, a cell phone, and an IM screen name, there’s virtually no way to feel disconnected from a friend, no matter how far away they are. Even if you catch up via a nightly or weekly phone call, doing so is completely different than it would have been 10 years ago. By the time that call comes, you’ll already know most of what’s going on thanks to social media or texting.

In fact, due to the nature of social media, we sometimes refer to people we’ve only talked on online as friends, only to then find ourselves fishing for an explanation of how and why we consider these people friends although we’ve never actually met because others think it’s strange.

I do find the whole online friendship thing a little odd, but that doesn’t mean I don’t do it. I’ve never met the other writers on this site because I don’t live in Boston, but I know that if I were to meet them, we’d probably soon be talking like we’ve known each other forever – because of social media.

And just because I find it odd doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate it. Twitter allows me to find funny and interesting information and share it with other people, like I would in a conversation. Skype makes it so much easier to keep in touch with a friend in China. And Facebook and IM allowed me to keep in touch while I was away at school without running up a huge cell phone bill.

That’s not to say we don’t appreciate the importance of real-world interaction. We really do. No matter how a friendship begins, it cannot develop through instant messages and Twitter updates alone.

But I’m grateful that social media makes it all a little bit easier.

(Originally published on The Next Great Generation)

Buffalo learned on Friday night that it will be the fifth seed in the 2010 First Energy Mid-American Conference Tournament and will host 12-seeded Toledo on Sunday afternoon at 2:00 pm at Alumni Arena.
With Kent State defeating Akron on Friday night, the Bulls lost the tiebreaker with Miami (OH), who also finished 9-7 in conference [...]

In an interview with Matt Spina of The Buffalo News a few weeks back, Erie County Executive Chris Collins said, “I believe in recognizing the importance of promoting personal accountability and personal responsibility”

Evidently, this statement only applies to the poor, the unemployed and those who dare cast a shadow upon the path of his royal highness of Clarence as he enters the Rath Building each day.  It certainly does not seem to apply to his Sheriff, his County Attorney nor does it seem to apply to him.

We’re going on nearly two years of disturbing problems in our Erie County jails, specifically at the Erie County Holding Center.  With three suicides in four months, and past reports of prisoners being beaten, raped, denied basic medical care and medication, escapes, poor security, mismanagement, and the denial of basic hygienic products, the county prisons are a sordid embarrassment.

The Department of Justice has taken the remarkable step of suing Erie County for access to our mini-Guantanamo Bay in order to investigate these issues after being stonewalled by the County Executive, County Attorney and Sheriff during the past year.  Collins has attempted to turn this into a federalism issue, saying that the DOJ lacks jurisdiction in our local jails.  Erie County Attorney Cheryl Green claims that if the DOJ are allowed to enter the facilities they will begin a “fishing expedition” that will most likely result in Erie County being forced to provide medical care for inmates that far outweighs the benefits that the county employees themselves receive, which is a strawman.

Since December, five inmates have attempted suicide with three ultimately taking their own life.

The DOJ contends in their court filing that the “suicide rate at the Erie County Holding Center is almost five times the national average for local jails”.  Green contends the DOJ is using flawed methodology, a claim the DOJ dismisses.

If this County Executive demanded the same level of personal accountability of his staff as he does the working poor of Erie County, he would demand a wide ranging investigation into the problems in our jails, demand the resignation of  Green and force Sheriff Tim Howard to open his doors to experts and investigators.

Instead, we get dismissive references to coddling criminals and inferences that the Department of Justice has some sort of hidden agenda and is a creeping entity of a monolithic federal government.

“I would have to ask the general public, who do you trust more, the federal government, the state government or your local government?” Tim Howard said. “And I think most people I talk to say they have most trust in their local government.”

What has this Sheriff done to earn the trust of the local populace?  Did he earn our trust by ignoring recommendations to secure his facilities which led to Ralph “Bucky” Phillips’ escape from an Erie County jail? After his escape, Phillips shot three state troopers, ultimately killing State Trooper Joseph Longobardo. The Phillips manhunt also cost the state millions of dollars.  In a state investigation following Phillips’ escape, it was found that the Sheriff “willfully operated the Alden Correctional Facility in an unsafe manner”.

Did Sheriff Howard earn our trust when a clerk in the Sheriff’s office mistakenly released rapist Rasheed Milton only to have him rape again while he was on the loose?

Did he earn our trust in 2007 when Robert Henchen died of pneumonia caused by starvation and dehydration while in Erie County custody?

This is a matter of public safety and of our community integrity.  Will we let these abuses continue or will we have the courage to demand action?

People are dying on your watch, Mr. Collins.  It’s time to stand up and be accountable. Or is accountability just for the less fortunate?

Nearly $2 million in real estate traded hands along S. Elmwood Avenue on Friday.  The Corn Exchange Building, 100 S. Elmwood Avenue at the corner of W. Huron Mohawk Street, was purchased after being for sale for several years.  The circa-1910, four-story structure is vacant and had been used as an office building in recent years.  100 South Elmwood LLC paid $500,000 for the structure. 

What the entity has in mind for the building is unknown.  It is ideally located for any use, located across from City Hall, the new Federal Courthouse and Mark Croce's mixed-use proposal.  The building has 32,000 sq.ft. of space. 

Meanwhile at the Avant, a 3,105 sq.ft. condo on the 15th floor sold for $1.365 million.  It squeaks by a $1.32 million penthouse purchased in the Pasquale as Buffalo's most expensive condominium.  The three-bedroom, 3.5 bath Avant unit was purchased under the 'Linden Oak Revocable Trust' name.  It is not the most expensive residence in the building.  A 16th floor, 3,766 sq.ft. unit with a $1.73 million base price has yet to close.

Governor David Paterson meets with his administration in New York City. Josh Robin has more on what the Governor had to say to reporters in New York City.

The U. S. Justice Department has bolstered its legal papers by citing this week's suicide in the Holding Center as further reason why a judge should let a suicide-prevention expert into the Erie County jails.