Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo: the local movement

For my first Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo installment, I'd like to discuss something very dear to my heart: the local movement. I don't mean local foods, although that's also very popular: I mean local businesses. It's not news to anyone that small businesses have it tough these days. Chain restaurants and giant superstores make it hard for a small, family-owned business to survive, especially in the United States.

But not in Buffalo!

In Buffalo, local restaurants have the edge. A few years ago, just a few blocks away from my house, Elmwood Tacos and Subs was so popular that it actually put a Burger King out of business. The majority of restaurants in the city are locally owned and keep money in the local economy (as you can see from the poster above). 

Money! In the local economy! Y'all realize what this means. The citizens of Buffalo are doing their bit to help the city, one sandwich at a time. 

Browned butter brownies for friends and enemies

Hello, my lovely friends! Tonight, I'd like to share with you one of my favorite recipes: browned butter brownies. They are legendary and browning butter, while time-intensive, is a useful and delicious social skill.  For a very helpful step-by-step tutorial, click here.

Potential uses for these brownies: 

1. If you have a mortal enemy and are looking to bump them off in a kindly fashion,
2. If you need to butter someone up before asking them for a large sum of money (oh snap that just happened),
3. If you're trying to seduce a foodie,
4. If you're trying to seduce someone who has a mouth and likes to put food inside it,
5. If you need a present for a teacher or friend,
6. NOMS.

Brown butter browniesModified from Alice Medrich, published in Bon Appetit, Feb. 2011Makes 16 brownies

• INGREDIENTS
• 2½ sticks of unsalted butter (Don’t freak out! You’ll only really use half of it.)

• 1 cup sugar

• ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (you’d be amazed at how much difference there is in cocoa powders; get a good quality one)

• ¼ teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 2 teaspoons water

• 2 large eggs, cold

• 1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

• 1 cup walnuts, lightly toasted

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 325 F.

1. Line an 8×8-inch baking pan with aluminum foil, pressing it into the corners of the pan and leaving a couple inches of overhang. (You’re going to use this to lift the brownies out later. Genius! This is what you get for using recipes written by real professionals.) Rub a little butter over the foil to grease it.

1. Melt and brown butter, as described above.

1. While the butter is still in the early stages of cooking, combine the sugar, cocoa and salt in a fairly heatproof bowl.

1. Have a second heatproof cup or bowl ready. When the milk solids are beautifully browned, either pour or scoop out ½ cup (8 tablespoons) of the butter into that cup, being careful to keep all the browned bits with you in the pan. Then all at once dump the butter from the pan into the bowl with the cocoa mixture. Scrape in all the browned bits stuck to the pan, unless they’re burnt. Add the vanilla and water, and stir to blend. It will come together like rough concrete. The mixture should be fairly hot; let cool for 5 minutes. (You get to keep the extra butter for other uses; store in fridge.)

1. Beat in one of the eggs vigorously. It will look horrible. The butter will probably separate out of the cocoa/sugar mass, and it will start to make you very sad. About now, you will be cursing. Beat in the second egg, though, and watch it all come back together. Egg saves the day!

1. When your mixture looks shiny and uniform, add the flour and stir until blended. The recipe continues: “Beat vigorously 60 strokes.” And seriously, they’re not kidding. As you work it, the gluten will develop in the flour and make it firmer and tougher. Just take a breath, hold on and crank it.

1. Stir in the nuts, and scrape the batter into the baking pan. Bake 25 minutes, or until a toothpick in the center comes out not quite clean (there should be a few moist crumbs sticking to it). Cool the pan on a rack, then lift the brownies out with the foil. Cut into four strips, and quarter those to make 16 brownies.

Pictures to follow. 

Moving forward

It's been a while since my last post, because my Kinesiology final took up all of my spare time and thought. I was working stage crew for the grad students' spring event Tuesday through Thursday, and I kept my notes and Sci Fi textbook (Trail Guide to the Body, the perfect textbook for any anatomy student)with me the whole time. I used my little squeeze flashlight to study during breaks.

Working stage crew was very fun; I was in charge of sound and got to play with projections too, which was interesting. Dance Production is required for my major, and I was surprised by how much fun I had. I've never been terribly tech-savvy, but now I know how to use a sound board, and thanks to Jazz Ensemble, I know how to set one up too. I've been filing this information under "Technology," a file which was previously close to empty. Plus I got a little tiny crew bear!

I only had my Kinesiology final to take, and since it wasn't done through the registrar, I took it on Friday so I could go home today. My parents should be here in about an hour, and I'm sitting in my packed-up room on my stripped bed and trying really hard not to muse over the past year. As Emily (not my sister) so aptly put it, "You can't live you life looking backwards, or you'll fall over and trip," so I'm trying to keep moving forward. I still have two assignments left: a Sci Fi final that's half done and my Comp manifesto, in which I have to describe my beliefs as a choreographer using any medium other than dance. Then next weekend we're taking Caroline to Baltimore, so I'd better get used to moving boxes.

Better post to come later, and keep an eye out for a feature coming soon: Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo, a feature in which I post things I love about my hometown (with pictures)! I'll be taking the old bike up and down the town to prove to Alice that Buffalo is not the hellhole that I may have accidentally indicated it was.

Swag

I got an A on a Sci Fi quiz this week! When I looked down at my grade, I started doing a sauntering kind of victory dance down the long hallway in Mendenhall: head-banging, shaking my shoulders, and muttering "I know my stuff!" Sure I may have looked slightly insane, but I think I earned it.

Veganing, the Next Generation

I've been feeling really gross for almost a week now. (Physically, that is. We aren't going to continue with the loss of confidence thing from the previous post.) My brain is fuzzy and I can't focus, my mouth feels like an old sock, and I--I--
I've lost interest in food.

I know, it's shocking.

Today in Sci Fi my professor mentioned listening to your gut and being aware of what you're eating and how you're feeling, and I had an epiphany.

I'm going vegan for a few days. Just until my body clears itself up and gets organized. I can't afford to have fuzzy brain during finals, and even one meal without cheese or meat made me feel a little better. I wish I had a blender, because I've been daydreaming about smoothies all day today, but we make do with what we have.

So. Today for lunch I had a big ol' salad. It wasn't vegan because I put hard-boiled eggs in, but I didn't have any meat or cheese, and I think I'm on the road to slightly better.

UPDATE: Yeah I'm not going vegan. But I won't be eating meat for a few days. So... wooo.

Insecure Monday

I mentioned this towards the end of my last post, and I want to discuss it now. I'm trying to find my place at Smith and figure out who I am and what I'm good for and all that jazz, but while I definitely feel like a Smithie, I don't feel like a dance major. Technically I'm still undeclared, but come on now. I love my classes and my professors, and I want to take all the dance classes ever, but something isn't right. 

As for the ESS minor, forget about that. I belong in that department about as much as I belong on the athletics fields. When I tell people that I'm an ESS minor, I feel like I'm lying to them. 

And here's why. 

I have this idea that each department has a particular type of person that is best suited for that particular area of study. I realize that I'm stereotyping, but writing out this post is just intended for me to organize my thoughts. If I offend anyone, I apologize. 

To resume. The dance department, interesting and wonderful though the classes may be, is full of people who think things about dance that really don't resonate with me. I'm sure I could steer myself towards more conscientious behavior while in class, but I am taking Musical Theater Dance. It's sometimes hard to ponder the head-tail connection while I'm pretending to be a showgirl. God knows that's hard enough for me. 

I keep thinking that I'm trying to be at least four different people at different points throughout my day. In Comp and Sci Fi, I'm trying to be analytical and deep about not only dance but movement. In Kinesiology, I'm trying not to make an ass of myself. (At this point that's really the best I can strive for.) In Jazz, I'm just really uncomfortable with awkward movements that I don't feel feminine enough to execute properly. In French class, I feel like I'm missing something, but more often, a lot of things; not the right style, attitude, not talkative enough, not confident enough, not understanding enough of what my professor is saying. 

This is especially weird because I think of myself as a relatively self-assured person. My classes have just been making me hella insecure about life lately, and I'd like to know what gives. 

Why I will never be an athlete

I told Caroline that I wouldn't join crew because it's a cult, but that's only one relatively insignificant reason. Clearly I don't have a big problem with cults: I'm a dance major.

Here's the real reason. I don't mind working out, and I actually kind of enjoy it if I'm not too distracted, but my workouts have to be on my own terms (because I am a baby). If someone forces me into doing something difficult and I'm not 100% on board, within minutes I'll start contemplating murder.

Take the time I went to spinning with my two sisters. Caroline was very into spinning and talked me into joining her. Figuring I was out of shape and needed to get ready for dance in the spring semester, I agreed. My thoughts:

AT FIRST:

"This isn't too bad. I can do this."

TEN MINUTES LATER:

"The Allman Brothers? Who in their right mind listens to jam bands while working out? Or, you know, ever?"

FIVE MINUTES AFTER THAT:

"Dear God this is hard. I just want to stop, but I can't, or Caroline would judge me!"

TWENTY MINUTES IN:

"I AM GOING TO MURDER EVERYONE. THE ALLMAN BROTHERS, THIS SPINNING INSTRUCTOR, AND ESPECIALLY CAROLINE!!!!"

Sorry, Caroline.

That was pretty much how it went down in Kinesiology today. It was another day with exercises that are hard for me to do in a neutral way, like jump and land on one foot. After hearing that instruction, I did a saute and landed with my right foot in coupe. My partner didn't say anything for awhile, then she said, "I think you're missing the point of this exercise."

NO! I was doing the exercise properly, because life is better in turnout. You can balance better, jump higher, and lift your leg higher, too. I do not understand why people refuse to make their lives exponentially easier. If you did all exercises in turnout, THEY WOULD ALL BE EASIER!

Ahem.

I've been mulling over Kinesiology and the Dance Department and my place at Smith for a while now, but that's a story for a later date. I just wanted to share that I am not an athletic person, and I have just realized that I never will be. If you were entertaining the possibility of me starting a pole-vaulting career, now's the time to give up that hope.