On Monday, March 22 at 8PM at the Old Stone House, Louise Crawford and Michele Madigan Somerville present POETS FOR HAITI, an entertaining and inspiring benefit designed to raise funds for relief efforts in Haiti.

Poets/performers Sharon Mesmer, Joanna Sit, Wanda Phipps, Roy Nathanson, Bill Evans, Ellen Ferguson, Christopher Stackhouse and more will read at   the Old Stone House in Washington Park in Park Slope (Fifth Avenue and Third Street). Donation $10. for Doctors Without Borders.

Call for submissions at Insight Magazine: Creative Times

House collection at Bard College: CasaCara

Unexpected encounter with John Lewis & Modern Jazz Quartet: Do the Math

Through the sea of steps: Water Over Rocks (Rabbi Andy Bachman)

Monk creates nce-secret concentric diagram at Berkeley Carroll: Brooklyn Paper

The Passage by Justin Cronin: The Written Nerd

Assortment: Brooklynometry

Erica at Fucked in Park Slope seems to be as happy as Baller can be because FIPS writer, Allison, was ousted from Park Slope Parents. This evening she posted the following:

(Allison) joins an elite group of BREEDERS who somehow managed to avoid becoming totallyfuckingannoying zombie parents by holding on to some modicum of their former fun/cool lives, and/or maintained the ability to express original, non-helicopter parental thoughts from time to time (BR-ALLER-n. a BREEDER who’s proven themselves to be cool enough that, despite their tendencies to procreate, can still maintain the basic principles of a BALLER attitude and lifestyle).

This whole thing has officially gotten to be very silly and it’s time to move on to other voices, other rooms.

On Thursday the Advisory Board of Park Slope Parents (PSP) announced that a PSP member was removed from the group. An email went out to all members explaining why.

A PSP member named Allison, who writes for the blog Fucked in Park Slope and Babble, a popular parenting website, began a thread last week with the subject “Politically-Incorrect Parenting.”

According to the Advisory Board, all contributions to the thread were approved but one — and that was a response from Allison. The PSP moderators deemed her response “too mean-spirited to post.” Specifically, they objected to the fact that she referred to another member, in jest, as a “borderline child abuser” because she gave her child an unusual name.

PSP moderators asked Allison to revise her post and she did though she was, according to the moderators, reluctant to remove the borderline child abuser line.

She also informed them that she was working on an article about bad parenting for Babble.  In keeping with PSP policy and guidelines, they asked her to re-submit her post through the Journalist Request Process, which is clearly outlined on the PSP website.

“Journalists are welcome to post to PSP to get material or interviews, but they need to go through our Journalist Request Process if they are posting for an article, so that our members know the purpose of the posting. We feel that it is important that our members are informed when their message may be used for journalistic endeavors and this was a case that warranted a “journalist” heading.”

The following is PSP’s reason for requesting that Allison pitch the article as a Journalist Request and an explanation of why she is being removed from the PSP list serve:

Begin Message ================================

“I’m sorry we were unable to get back to you as quickly as you would have liked. We have been discussing your response to R’s rejection of your last post. In that response you indicated that your reason for posting was to pitch a story for ____ about `bad parenting’ and that your idea has now been accepted and you will be writing that story.

This disclosure caused some consternation among our Advisory Board. As you know, when journalists want to use PSP to get material for a story, we require that they go through the Journalist Request Process, so that our members can choose whether to participate or not. When you posted as if you were just interested in people’s ideas on what constitutes bad parenting, without mentioning that you were doing so to “finesse a pitch,” some members participated who might have chosen otherwise had they known what your intentions were. Now that you are indeed writing a story on the topic, it’s even more important that you be frank with our membership about the reason you’re posting.

So at this point we cannot accept more posts from you without disclosing your plans to the list. I’ll append the journalist request procedure after my signature, in case you don’t have it handy. If you wish to continue using PSP for research for this story, please follow this procedure. We’ll try to respond to your request in a timely manner.

Also, please remember that when you joined Park Slope Parents you agreed to abide by our posting standards. This includes not forwarding or copying PSP posts without the permission of the people who wrote them. If you want to use any of the messages that have been posted so far in this thread, or any that you get in response to a journalist request, make sure you get the explicit permission of the posters before quoting them.”

End Message ================================

As of today the poster has not chosen to repost her revised message through our journalist request policy. Instead, the poster chose to reproduce messages from PSP members to a blog . As such she has violated the agreement she signed onto when joining PSP – to respect the privacy of the list and not forward or post messages (even private messages) to blogs without the permission of the people who wrote the message.

Park Slope Parents attempts in all ways possible to provide a safe space to talk about parenting issues and feels strongly that our members’ posts are not to be fodder for blogs. She is therefore no longer a member of our list.

For your information we are including links to both our
Joining Agreement <http://tinyurl.com/yhn7ryv>
and
Journalist Request Policy <http://tinyurl.com/yjhyttb>

Allison had this to say about Park Slope Parents response to this morning’s OTBKB piece:

Puhleeze. PSP didn’t invite or encourage me to continue the discussion. They  closed it down because I had supposedly raised the issue under false pretenses, after turning it down twice before because it supposedly demeaned the dialogue or was too snarky.

Sounds like research for the Babble article wasn’t the first reason PSP moderators turned Allison down, which they are now claiming.

To make sure, Alison went back and looked at the emails and found that she mentioned the article research to the very first moderator. The Babble article wasn’t mentioned until later as the reason to prevent her response. And she’s got the email to prove it:

I wasn’t sure what was posted to the group and what came directly to me. My email has been overtaken with a sea of replies. Most are from closeted parents asking me out for drinks and wanting to form a bad mommy group, some were hilariously droll ( I don’t usually buy into the Park Slope Sanctimommy thing, but parents here are outdoing themselves – was I this humorless when my kids were little?

I guess it may take awhile to get your body back,but even longer to get back your sense of humor…) , and some were just so ridonculously self-righteous they begged a response.

So I can’t do a no-name roundup of all the vituperation and closeted mean mommy responses?

And, btw, I was just trying to finesse a pitch for a babble article on the best in “bad” parenting, old-school ideas that are finding favor again. Who knew I was going to set off today’s tempest in a teapot.

This is getting to be a real “she said, she said” thing and I feel like I’m in the middle. And I’m not sure it’s worth all this discussion. However…

The issue seems to be: was Allison’s “detachment parenting” post a ploy to get quotes for an article in Babble or, as she claims, a sincere attempt to  think out loud about different styles of parenting???

His name is Maxo Etienne and he’s missing. His family is worried sick. If you have seen him please get in touch with the 78th precinct (see information below). Apparently, he left home on Monday, March 15th to take a short walk around 3:00PM (EST).

He was last seen near his home on 12th Street and 5th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn. He is a 60-years-old, Haitian-American, black male, around 5″3, with a shaved head. wearing a Grey t-shirt, black or dark blue jacket with white stripes on the sleeves and black sweat pants.

Any info please contact the 78th Precinct at 718-636-6411.

I got this response from Park Slope Parents about my post “Censorship at Park Slope Parents?”

We were surprised and disheartened to see this blog post since we had not been contacted to find out if it was accurate.  It is not.

We have not prevented Allison from posting on this topic.  We have required that she do so through our Journalist Request process, once she disclosed to us that she had posted to PSP on the topic of “bad parenting” as part of a pitch for an article she was hoping to write.  She also disclosed that the pitch has now been accepted and she wishes to continue the discussion because of that.

The moderators and Advisory Board thought that it was best that Allison inform members that she was requesting information not solely for her own parenting interest, but for her business interests as a writer. Some members who participated in the thread with the understanding that it was solely an intramural discussion of what constitutes bad parenting might have chosen otherwise if they’d known that Allison is writing an article on the topic and using PSP to, as she told us in her email, “finesse a pitch” for that article.

Once she disclosed out that she had posted for journalist purposes, we asked her to post through our “Journalist Process,” so members could decide for themselves whether they wanted to engage in her journalistic endeavor.  We also reminded her that, whether or not she chooses to continue the thread, she must not use any quotes from the thread without getting explicit permission from the posters.

As of yet, she has not amended her PSP post in such a way that it makes her intentions clear.  Is this censorship? We don’t think so. We are still open to Allison continuing this thread openly, as a journalist.

Finally, OTBKB compliments some good characteristics of PSP. These characteristics exist BECAUSE of the moderation We do have standards for conducting discussions which we enforce and that everyone agrees to abide by when they join. To equate enforcing these with censorship is to trivialize censorship and free speech. If Allison had been up front about her intentions from the start, this wouldn’t be an issue.

Park Slope Parents, that incredibly useful list-serve for parents in Park Slope, has been appropriately lauded and applauded for all the good that it does. But it’s also been lampooned and treated with snarky gloves in various magazines, blogs and newspapers.

Sure, there’s lots to make fun of: Parents obsessing over teething, tantrums and teats.

But there’s lots to love. The open way that parents share their questions, advice, resources, support and information. Indeed, it has become such a necessary part of parenting life in Park Slope, it makes you wonder how parents did it before.

Okay, so maybe they used the telephone or talked to each other in the streets and school yards.

But the Internet and PSP has made Park Slope an even more cohesive and open community than ever. And it’s a win-win for parents and children.

That’s why I was concerned when I heard that PSP, in an effort to moderate the level of discourse, decided NOT to publish one mother’s post. Okay, so that mother was Allison, who writes for Fucked in Park Slope and Babble.com. But still.

It all started with this:

Politically-Incorrect Parenting Posted by: “Allison” Thu Mar 11, 2010 9:52 am (PST)

So, I’m curious to know if I’m the only aspiring detachment parent in this neighborhood. Have you gone back to old-school ways? Because I don’t know if I can get through another 12 years of over-parenting with my sanity intact and I doubt my kids would be better off if I did. So, show my your bad parenting, please. I’ll get you started… I yell, i’m mean, i punish, i say no, i’m inconsistent, i’m tired and often lazy, i cave, i have no desire to get on the rug and play… You?

Needless to say: along with some supportive emails sent directly to Allison’s email address, a  slew of mostly negative reactions showed up on Park Slope Parents. This response went to Allison’s email:

Yikes.. you do not want to get down on the floor and play with your kiddos.. you yell and are mean. Maybe you should let your kiddos come to my house. I will play and cuddle and tickle, sing and dance and treat them like children should be treated… with love and respect. Don’t get me wrong, i do discipline when needed in the form of time out or i try to divert their attention to something more constructive. But i do not yell and am not mean. I would not call what you are doing “old school”.. i call it wrong and sad and i feel sorry for you and your children. But to each their own i guess.

If you are being sarcastic with your post i do not find it funny at all. Maybe you need to see a therapist or just go to the park or museum with your children and see how wonderful they are!

Wow.. this post made me so mad i want to wake up my sweet babies from their nap and give them big hugs and kisses!!!

And so it began.

As you can imagine, Alison was itching to write a response and she did and hurried it over to PSP. But guess what happened? The powers-that-be at PSP wouldn’t let her do it. And that doesn’t seem right, especially since she’d been roasted and toasted on the site. Here’s an excerpt from Allison’s post that was rejected by PSP.

When I finally got home yesterday (after dodging attachment folks who wanted to string me up by their slings at 321 pickup), I had over two dozen emails from the gamut of park slope parents in my mailbox.I’ve been asked to form a bad mommy club (sorry, I’m not much for clubs that would have me, either), go out for drinks with a pregnant woman (after the baby’s born!), head to my nearest support group/therapist, put my “kiddos” up for adoption since I’m such a crappy mother.

I was applauded and excoriated by a roughly 3/1 margin (applause from closeted mean mamas 3, haters 1). I WISH I could show you all the emails because some were truly, if unwittingly, brilliant.

In fact, I apparently touched off some sort of culture war I didn’t even realize was going on in our bucolic almost suburb. I’m just waiting for us to be preserved in print once again in Gawker or the Times for the humorless priggish mombies they’ll no doubt be calling us by the end of the day. Has anybody trademarked “Park Slope” yet, by the way?…

…So, my original query, which I obviously didn’t articulate as earnestly as I might have but which is actually a legitimate line of inquiry, was whether all the hand-holding and tush-wiping and vigilant, ever-patient, unconditional love is actually all that good in the long run for our kids. And whether it’s sustainable for most parents.

I am kind of appalled and fascinated by the response. Why are people who are purportedly so loving and caring, responding in such a judgmental way to another point of view? Why such intensity and hostility? I mean, the whole tenor is too close for comfort to the crowd picketing Planned Parenthood. The longer I’m a parent, the less I feel like I know.

My goal as a parent is to teach my kids to ask good questions, not to think they have all the answers. It’s to help them be self-reliant, to be good citizens and friends, to have fun and play (but not necessarily exclusively with ME).

The moderators didn’t post the above after three requests citing the fact that she’s writing an article for Babble about “non-attachment parenting.”

Is that censorship or just PSP being picky about what they do and don’t want on their site. Or is that the same thing?

I get that PSP is sick and tired of being ripped off and savaged by the media (who lurk around the site and steal quotes for their snarkathons).

But it does aim to be an open, democratic community. That’s what makes it interesting, informative, fun, provocative and always a true reflection of the parenting zeitgeist of the Slope.

If it starts to become a censorship machine, it will really become a parody of itself by not allowing quirky, funny, contrary, and sometimes downright silly things hang out to dry.

Let it go, Park Slope Parents. Join the democracy that is the Internet. Things don’t need to be quite so squeaky clean all the time. Keep your sense of humor and your commitment to openness at all costs.

Everything will work out just fine.

This afternoon my sister and I happened upon a new eatery called Sun in Bloom (SIB) on that wonderful stretch of Bergen Street, which includes Babeland, Bark, Lulu Lemon and Bergen Street Comics.

Once in the attractive light-filled restaurant I had the sensation that I was in Santa Monica. I can’t explain why. Maybe it was the way the sun illuminated the room, the attractive customers in work-out clothing and the simple eco decor.

When we sat down at one of the communal tables, I noticed that an actual Park Slope celebrity was there, too.

At the counter we ordered something called the Macro-Inspired Journey Bowl with steamed collard greens, mushroom, chick peas, sauerkraut and  sesame ginger sauce. Other items on the menu include Make Your Own Miso (choice of five ingredients), the SIB Ruben with tempeh “corned beef” and SIB’s  live burger with cabbage, fresh tomatoes, crunchy caramelized onions and famous live ranch dressing called the Bloom Burger.

Wow.

While we waited for our food, the owner, Ame Follett asked “Would you like to get on line,” to which I replied, “No, thanks, I’ve already ordered.”

“I meant do you want to use the Wifi?” she said cheerfully and gave me their WiFi password. Doh.

The Journey Bowl was beautifully served and absolutely delicious. I especially loved the combination of chick peas, sauerkraut and the savory sesame ginger sauce.

Follett, a longtime yoga teacher and holistic lifestyle coach, explained that the food served at Sun in Bloom is raw, living food. I wasn’t sure what that meant.

“Living foods are sprouted and soaked; there’s a life force energy infused in the food. For instance, you can eat raw almonds but I prefer an almond that has been  soaked. There’s a lot that happens in food, enzymatic shifts,” she told me. “If you soak beans in combu they become a digestible food product.”

Follet want to bring freshness to the table as a way to nourish this community. “We take out anything that is not nourishing. I am passionate about nourishment. Nourishment comes on so many levels. Emotionally, physically, through our food and how we treat each other,” she tells me.

Follett’s philosophy informs the service as well. “I tell everyone who works here to create a personal connection with the customers. Getting to know each other translates into the food, how you’re going to sit with food, enjoy the food and nourish yourself.”

I told Follett about my California vision when I walked into her restaurant and she smiled.

“I had the inspiration for this place a few years ago in a restaurant in San Francisco called Cafe Gratitude. I wanted to create a loving compassionate space that invites people to experience living food in an accessible way.”

At the time she was thinking of moving to California. But Brooklyn is where Follett feels most at home. Born and raised in Rhinebeck, NY, she lived in Boulder, Colorado for ten years but always enjoyed visiting friends in Park Slope.

Follett has big plans for the restaurant, including holistic workshops and weekly community dinners. Starting soon on Sunday nights, she’ll take reservations for a special 6PM dinner seating. She’s already serving weekend brunch. And in the two months since she’s been open, there are more than a few regulars, who, she says, eat at Sun in Bloom 3-4 times a week.

Reflecting on her decision to open a living food restaurant, Follett says. “I feel like I’m living a whole new life running, owning and operating a restaurant. By myself. I haven’t slept in two and a half months but my spirit is fueled with energy.”

SIB is open 7 days a week starting at 9AM. 460 Bergen Street in Park Slope.

I just got this important note from an OTBKB reader. Earlier today I noticed many flyers about this missing man in the south Slope.

My very dear friend is looking for her father, who has been missing since March 15th. He suffers from dementia, is diabetic, and has high blood pressure – all of which he needs his medicine for. His name is Maxo Etienne, and he has been listed as missing on the following web site: http://missingpatient.com/page.php?id=618

He lives on 12th street in Park Slope, Brooklyn. We are just trying to get his picture out in as many places as possible.

Just a reminder that I’ll have a daily recap of the goings on at the SXSW Music Festival all this week at Now I’ve Heard Everything.  Posted so far: anticipation Monday and travel Tuesday (but I did get to see four bands last night).   Today’s score as of 4pm: eight bands and the official SXSW shows haven’t even started yet.

–Eliot Wagner

The Brooklyn St. Patrick’s Day Parade will kick off Sunday, March 21st in Park Slope. The parade begins at 1PM at 15th Street and 7th Avenue, goes down to Union Street and turns right ending at Prospect Park and Union.

Here is the schedule for the day:

9AM Pre-Parade Mass
Holy Name Church
245 Prospect Park West (between Windsor Pl & Prospect Ave)

12 Noon Parade Assembly Point: Prospect Park West & 14th St

12:45PM “Re-Dedication Ceremony” to the Heroes & Victims of 9/11 – WTC
At Prospect Park West & 15th Street, before Parade “step-off”

1PM Parade Route
Down 15th St to 7th Ave
Along 7th Ave to Union St
Up Union St to Prospect Park West

Brought to you by the Feldman Family from their local weather tower.

What to eat on St. Patricks Day: Serious Eats

Dinner at Bocca Luppo: Eat It: The Brooklyn Food Blog

Dine in Brooklyn Begins: All About Fifth

Dine in Brooklyn in Clinton Hill: Clinton Hill Blog

Does this pregnancy make me look fat? Momasphere

The Brooklyn Brunch Chronicles/Le Barricou: Free Williamsburg

Homemade focaccia with tomato, basil and rosemary: A Kitchen in Brooklyn

Review of Nigerian restaurant in Clinton Hill: Clinton Hill Foodie

City restaurants required to post cleanliness grades: NY Times

Taking the bake out of bake sales: NY Times

The owner of the bodega right next to the Cortelyou Road Q Station won $3 million dollars in the NY State Lottery. Wow. Here from the New York Lottery press release. I found this on Ditmas Park Blog. Thanks Liena.

Yemen-born Abdo Ashariki has owned the Cortelyou Deli & Grocery on Cortelyou Rd. in Brooklyn for three years. The father of 10 children who range in age from 4 to 39 said he liked to watch his customers scratch and win prizes on the New York Lottery tickets he sold to them. “But why,” he asked, “should they have all the fun?” That’s why Ashariki said he usually bought one or two tickets for himself each day, a habit that paid off handsomely on February 20, 2010 when Ashariki purchased a $10 Money ticket that turned out to be a $3,000,000 winner.

Ashariki said he never dreamed of winning a jackpot prize and is still having trouble deciding what to do with his $3,000,000 windfall. “I have not slept in 72 hours,” he said on February 22, 2010 when claiming his winning ticket at the Lottery’s Customer Service Center in Manhattan. “My future is up in the air. This is a very exciting and unpredictable time for me and my family.”

Ashariki said he did plan to continue working. As for any immediate plans for the money, the former merchant marine said he could now start looking for a new home for his large family. “I would really like to buy two homes – one here and one in Yemen so that I can visit my family there more often.”

As with most instant games, the top prize on the Money ticket is paid in 20 annual installments. Ashariki will receive his $3,000,000 prize as 20 annual payments of $150,000 each before taxes. His annual net check will total $93,573.

In 2007 Dexter Taylor started a digital film school called Brooklyn Movie Labs. He wanted to teach people the five elements of digital filmmaking:lighting, sound, camera ops, cinematography, and post production.

Three years and one Great Recession later they’re still around they somehow managed to open up a new teaching and shooting space in Bed-Stuy.

Good work, Dexter.

“Now I’m kind of walking the highways and byways of the blogosphere trying to spread the gospel of light, sound, space, time, and the 35mm,” Dexter writes in a recent email.

Glad to oblige. Definitely sounds worth checking out if you’re interested in digital filmmaking and podcasting.

Late night treats at The Costello Plan: Ditmas Park Blog

North 7th Street Bloomblight: NY Shitty

Stalled construction site collapses during “March Madness” storm: Sheepshead Bites

Marine Park devastated in storm: Gerritsen Beach

Adult sailing lessons: Gerristsen Beach

Second fatal shooting: The Local

Mugging on Minna and Dahill: Kensington Prospect

Key Food opens: Bay Ridge Blog

Umbrella graveyard: I Love Franklin Avenue

Daniel Meeter, the pastor at Old First Church, and Rabbi Andy Bachman of Congregation Beth Elohim, sat down for an interview with the Brooklyn Paper’s Gersh Kuntzman. Here in an excerpt the two men of the cloth discuss intolerance:

GK: So where does intolerance come from?

DM: It comes from fear. Many people fear that God will not come through for us. Or they fear that God won’t protect us. They fear someone who is dirty or someone who makes them feel dirty. Even squirrels have fear. You can’t get rid of it. You have to deal with fear. The question is how we deal with it. Do you project it or do you work your way through it?

GK: But God does not protect us.

DM: He doesn’t protect us from being humans. He does not go around protecting us from having bodies. We don’t see God as a constant interventionist. A lot of people want that from their gods, like Zeus of old.

AB: An analogy that I like is watching parents at the tot lot in Prospect Park. At 6-18 months, a parent is stooped over every step so the child doesn’t hurt himself. And at a certain point, the child says, whether in gibberish or English, “Leave me alone.” A mature adult understands that the ultimate test of the covenant relationship with God is that we have to take control at some point. God could not stop 9-11 or the Holocaust. Humans treat each other in an abominably poor way. People say, “Where was God?”

Here’s an excerpt from Pardon Me for Asking about last night’s unity vigil against hate crimes in Carroll Gardens. Oh, and she’s got video.

A very large crowd gathered on Luquer Street on Monday evening, in a show of unity against intolerance in Carroll Gardens. In solidarity, the community had gotten together for a candle light vigil to show support for a 22-year old victim, who had been viciously attached by five thugs as he was walking on Luquer Street near Hamilton Avenue. The attachers had yelled anti-gay slurs at him.

Many of our elected officials showed up to speak. There was also an impressive police presence from the 76th Precinct. Captain Corey and members of the precinct’s Community Affairs unit were there.

By Paula Bernstein

Two nights after throwing my first-ever dinner party, I was lucky enough to attend a dinner party at Park Slope’s Melt Restaurant.

Of course, I paid $50 for the privilege of attending this dinner party, but it was well worth the money. Hosted by momasphere.com, an organization that creates innovative events and programs for moms of all ages, the intimate evening began with an informal cooking class.

The event was billed as “How to Prepare a Restaurant-Class Dinner for Four for Under $20!” but the real draw was Melt’s executive chef, New Zealand born and bred celebrity “Top Chef” contender Mark Simmons, who is not only charming and informative (and talented), but also quite easy on the eyes. Simmons wasn’t the only New Zealand import of the night. The wine of choice was Savee Sea Pinot Noir Marlborough from New Zealand (2008).

Once we had settled in at the bar with a glass of wine, Simmons wowed the group of eight moms with his recipe for Beer and Honey Braised Lamb Shank with truffled polenta and charred asparagus.

“It’s all about trying to create a meal for your friends and family without breaking the budget,” said Simmons, who noted that the lamb shanks cost about $3.50/lb.

Simmons invited the ladies to join him in Melt’s cozy kitchen so he could show us how the pros work.

The secret to Simmons’ recipe is the mix of fresh spices, including lavender flower which he grows in his backyard, green cardamon, coriander seed, cumin seed and white pepper corn.

“If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, you should run out and get one,” said Simmons. “People say variety is the spice of life, but I say freshly roasted ground spices are the spice of life.”

His other tip: buy lamb and other meat products at Los Paisanos, a small butchery at 162 Smith Street.

After seasoning the shanks with the spice mix and salt, Simmons dusted them with flour and then braised them (for non-cooks: braising means cooking in liquid with a cover).

“I like braising a lot because it imparts flavor into meat,” said Simmons, who likened the dish to an orchestra. “The spices are the percussion.”

Luckily for us, Simmons had prepped the meal in advance so we didn’t have to wait three hours for the lamb to be ready to eat.

We began the meal with a tantalizing amuse bouche of marinated baby beets with house made lavender-infused ricotta.

We oohed and ahhed at the delicately flavored grits and the tasty charred asparagus.

The lamb was so tender it fell easily off the bone. The group was collectively skeptical that we could pull off such a culinary masterpiece on our own at home.

“All my kids want to eat are frozen waffles,” said one mom.

“You should challenge yourself in the kitchen regularly,” said Simmons and we all nodded at the notion.

Of course, he’s right, but it’s easier said than done.

“No offense, Mark, but I will never be trying this at home,” said one mom of two young tots.

To be honest, I don’t think I’ll be cooking up lamb shanks anytime soon either, but it’s a nice idea.

“So what do you cook when you get home?” I asked him.

“Sometimes after I’ve been cooking all day, I want a break from the kitchen. My wife understands,” said Simmons.

“Any last questions for me?” he asked the group.

“Can we have your home phone number?” one mom asked and we all broke up laughing.

If you want to try some of Simmons’ cooking, keep in mind that Melt is participating in Brooklyn’s Restaurant Week a.k.a. “Dine in Brooklyn,” which starts today and runs through March 25.  In fact, Melt is extending the $25.00 dinner prix fixe promotion til March 31st. The menu will change weekly, so if you want you can try something new each week.

From McBrooklyn:

At 8 p.m. Sunday evening more than 1,000 homes in Brooklyn were still without power in the aftermath of Saturday’s nor’easter. Con Edison has been busy all day — more than 10,000 were without power Sunday morning. The map above was produced by Con Ed’s Storm Center. Each colorful little group of triangles represents multiple outages.

Customers are urged to call Con Edison immediately to report any outages at 1-800-75-CONED (1-800-752-6633).

No place for hate crime in our neighborhood: Pardon Me for Asking

Atlantic Yards a job creation engine?: Atlantic Yards Report

Upstart could bring Hip-Hop to the Hill: City Limits

How to bring healthy food to underserved nabes: City Limits

Hannah Senesh drops controversial plan to expand into garden: McBrooklyn

Over the Brooklyn Bridge for a free Tibet: McBrooklyn

Albany reform group led by Koch: City Room

Yoga license rebellion may soon claim victory: NY Times

Embracing NY Law by Leon Freilich: NY Times

Councilman Levin says no to Domino Sugar project in Williamsburg: Brooklyn Paper