Lamb

With the Anne Arundel County school system facing a staggering $384 million price tag over the next five years to build and renovate schools to house increasing enrollment, a county councilwoman thinks it's time to give year-round schools a look.Maureen Lamb, an Annapolis Democrat who once served on the school board, has introduced a resolution that would take up Gov. William Donald Schaefer's challenge to create a year-round schooling pilot program.Mr. Schaefer said he wanted at least one of Maryland's 24 school systems to volunteer to institute the schedule, as early as next fall if possible.

In the spring when ewes are lambingand the rains do watchful standCome the days of gentle warmingLonger light on softer land.-- From "A Symphony for the Sheep" by C. M. Millen Like many families around the state, Cynthia and Ned Murray and any of their four children, assorted in-laws, two granddaughters and sprinkling of family friends who are free will gather at Mary's Meadows in Glyndon Sunday for a traditional Easter dinner featuring leg of lamb.But...

When Bethesda-based photographer Amy Lamb began exhibiting her elegant, meticulously crafted images of flowers more than a decade ago, the digital technology that made the pictures possible was just emerging as a vital new creative tool. Lamb, a former National Institutes of Health scientist whose specialty was molecular biology, took up the camera seriously after taking a beginning photography course at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, where one of her assignments was to photograph an orchid show in the museum's botanical gardens.

This Sunday, the Greek Orthodox community will celebrate its Easter with roast lamb, starches, vegetables, spinach pies, traditional breads, cheese and olives. But before the feast comes magiritsa. Roughly translated, magiritsa (also spelled mayeritsa) means "little cook" or "little food" prepared to mark the end of the 40-day Lenten period, when many Greeks observe some form of fast. They consume this egg-lemon soup with lamb to slowly introduce meat into the stomach. Typically, the Greek Easter service takes place Saturday night and the magiritsa is eaten afterward, sometimes as late as 2 a.m. "Lamb is the most important meat in Greece and, in fact, in most Christian cultures in the Mediterranean because Christ is the lamb of God," says Clifford A. Wright, a food historian and author of A Mediterranean Feast, which traces the origins of the region's cuisines.

LATROBE, PA. -- John and Sukey Jamison never dreamed their names would grace the Rolodexes of the nation's superstar chefs. All they wanted was an old farmhouse to fix up. But the house came with 65 acres. Soon enough, a half-dozen sheep seemed like a good idea. That was back in 1976. Today, Jamison lamb, raised in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains, turns up on the menus of the country's most chichi restaurants, among them Charlie Trotter's and Everest in Chicago; Daniel, Felidia and Le Bernardin in New York; Renoir at the Mirage in Las Vegas; La Toque in Napa Valley, Calif.

Today is the one day each year when, supposedly, everyone becomes Irish. In an effort to celebrate with food and drink, delis add cabbage to corned beef and rye, and bakeries smear cream cheese on green bagels. And you might even find your all-American neighborhood bar serves green beer or red wine from bottles labeled Chateau McCarthy.Even the Irish themselves sometimes have trouble deciding what's the best meal to serve on St. Patrick's Day, although most cooks who plan to do a bit of celebrating opt for one-pot meals like Beef and Guinness, or Bacon and Cabbage, both of which leave lots of time for partying once the vegetables have been peeled.

Nothing against ham, but the main reason those pre-baked sliced porkers keep popping up on holiday dining tables is convenience. Sure, they're tasty. But what if you're burned out on the Holiday Ham? Is there another shortcut to Easter dinner?Try lamb. Not the traditional roasted leg of lamb, which demands lengthy cooking, oven monitoring and complicated carving. We're talking either no-fuss, butterflied leg of lamb or lamb chops.These cuts take a fraction of the time to prepare, yet they're every bit as flavorful, particularly when grilled.

WASHINGTON - In his 22 years on television in this mecca of self-promotion, Brian Lamb has not once uttered his own name. In his hour-long interview show "Booknotes" each week, Lamb appears on camera for about four minutes. His guest gets the other 56. And when Capitol Hill's gossipy social season rolls around, Lamb is not among the Congressmen, Cabinet secretaries and celebrity journalists who gather to drop names and rub elbows. If you're wondering how anyone could possibly run a TV network this way in an environment so conducive to bluster over substance, then you just don't understand Lamb or C-Span, the cable network he founded in 1979.

Editor's note: In this season of movies about talking toys and family members that are mice, an overlooked playmate tells her true story. It's about a lamb ... and her beef.My name is Lambie. In our house, we don't say stuffed animal. You stuff mushrooms -- not friends. When strangers see me, they always say, "You look very loved." In other words, I look as though I've been hit by a truck.Anyway, here's my beef. I've seen a few of these holiday movies. (Frankly, I wouldn't mind seeing a few R-rated movies, but I always have to tag along with my 7-year-old, Hannah.

While visiting a remote Turkish village several years ago, I learned to make an amazing, nearly effortless casserole - what the Turks call guvec. The recipe called for thick chunks of lamb layered with eggplant, tomatoes, potatoes and bay leaves, all in a deep clay pot. We sealed it tight and carried it down to the village baker's wood oven, where it stewed gently all afternoon.It was a dish I'd nearly forgotten when our editor-in-chief suggested that I develop some slow-cooker recipes.I have to admit that my response was a little, well, slow.