yield: Makes 8 servings

A spring herb butter makes the lamb fresh and lively. Be sure to reserve 1/4 cup of the butter for flavoring the Garland of Spring Vegetables. 

Ingredients

Herb butter:

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

3 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon

3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint

4 teaspoons tarragon vinegar

2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
For lamb:

1 6 1/2-pound leg of lamb with bone, well trimmed

1 tablespoon 1-inch-long very thin strips orange peel (orange part only)

2 tablespoons olive oil

Coarse kosher salt

2 cups dry red wine

1 1/3 cups low-salt chicken broth

2 teaspoons finely grated orange peel

Fresh tarragon and mint sprigs (for garnish)

Preparation

For herb butter:
Stir butter, tarragon, mint, tarragon vinegar, and 2 teaspoons coarse salt in medium bowl until well blended. Transfer 1/4 cup herb butter to small bowl and reserve for vegetables. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover both bowls and chill. Bring medium bowl of herb butter to room temperature before using.  

For lamb:
Using small sharp knife, make 1-inch-deep slits all over lamb. Insert 3 or 4 orange peel strips into each slit. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Enclose lamb in plastic wrap and chill.

Position rack in bottom third of oven and preheat to 450°F. Heat oil in very large skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle lamb with coarse salt and pepper. Add lamb to skillet; cook until brown on all sides, about 8 minutes. Transfer to roasting pan. Brush with 2 tablespoons herb butter. Roast lamb 15 minutes. Brush again with 2 tablespoons herb butter.

Reduce temperature to 350°F. Continue to roast lamb until thermometer inserted into thickest part registers 135°F to 140°F for medium-rare, about 55 minutes. Transfer lamb to platter; reserve pan. Tent lamb loosely with foil; let rest 30 minutes.

Spoon fat off any juices in roasting pan. Place pan over 2 burners on high heat. Add wine and broth and bring to boil, whisking to scrape up browned bits. Boil until sauce is reduced to 2 cups, about 5 minutes. Whisk in remaining herb butter and grated orange peel. Season sauce to taste with coarse salt and pepper.

Spoon vegetables around lamb on platter; garnish with fresh herb sprigs. Serve with sauce.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Roast-Leg-of-Lamb-with-Tarragon-Mint-Butter-352043#ixzz0hzmDfY7b

The mouse, called the Tactile Explorer, replaces the standard clicking buttons of a regular mouse with two, four by four pin pads.  When the cursor is passed over text or the outline of a picture, the two pin pads create either Braille letters or a segment of the outline for the user to follow.  As the user continually drags the mouse across text, the letters pop up against the user’s fingers, enabling them to read them in Braille.  For example, if you moved the cursor over the word “magazine,” when it touched the M, a Braille M would pop up on the left pin pad.  As you moved the cursor to the right, a Braille A would pop up on the right pin pad.  As you continue to move the cursor, the A would shift to the left pin pad and the G would pop up on the right and so on, until the end of the word “magazine.”

Text is not its only trick, though.  It also allows the user to feel graphics with the same pin pads that produced Braille text.  In a demonstration, it was shown that someone could move the cursor over a map and experience what the shape of India is.  No other peripheral exists with this kind of technology.

This new mouse has some serious potential as a teaching aid for children and also as a tool for regular computer users.  What’s also beneficial is that it can be taken anywhere and used on any computer as long as the software is installed.

While the mouse is still in the final stages of its testing, the company, Techshare, hopes that they will be able to release this model to the public in the second half of this year.

To read the original article, please go to http://inclusiveplanet.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/tactile-explorer/

If you visit the homepage of his site, you’ll be able to read, “My name is Mike Hansen.  On March 1 I will begin to hike the 2174 mile Appalachian Trail solo.  I happen to be blind.”

Mike says he is doing this to make a statement about the “independence and confidence of the visually impaired.”  He is upset that nearly 80% of all visually impaired people are unemployed, a number created by the US Department of Labor.  That number represents employment figures across all fields and positions.  This forces those with a visual impairment to rely on systems like welfare and social security.  Aside from the financial cost, though, he cites the psychological issues that stem from such rampant unemployment.  Depression and isolation, among others, wear terribly on people who are living life with a visual disability.

He says that with technology, he has learned to operate a computer just as well as a sighted person and with the advent of personal GPS, he can navigate the city he lives in very easily.  With future technologies becoming more accessible and less expensive, and as the potential for the blind and visually impaired to operate the same as sighted employees, there is hope that the number of unemployed will drop.  However, it’s the stigma that is placed on the visually impaired that adds another layer of difficulty.

By making the long and, at times, dangerous trek along the Appalachian Trail, Mike is hoping to shatter that stigma and encourage everybody, sighted or not, that the blind community is as independent and strong as anyone else.

Mike will make his trip alone, with only a cane and a GPS to guide him on his way.  When he is able to access the internet at stops along the way, he will update his blog and inform the world of his progress.  He is anticipating that this trip will take him anywhere from six to eight months to complete.

I hope that you’ll join me in encouraging Mike as he sets out on his journey.  To visit his site, go to http://www.hansonatcampaign.com/index.html.  The direct link to his blog is http://blindhiker.wordpress.com/.

Good luck, Mike.  Stay safe out there.

Research shows that eating chicken can decrease the risk of AMD by as much as 57%.  Conversely, a diet heavy in beef, pork, and lamb is shown to actually increase your chances.  Saffron has been shown to have high amounts of beta-carotene that the body converts to vitamin A.  People who consume foods with higher amounts of beta-carotene have been known to have better night vision.  Studies done on animals also show that saffron actually helps regulate fatty acids in the retina and reduce the risk of AMD, as well.

A very basic food group that you can concentrate on is leafy green vegetables, which are known to contain beta-carotene and vitamin C.  Vitamin C has been shown to slow the progress of cataracts once the eye has begun to cloud over.

The next group of foods offer a high amount of lutein.  Lutein is believed to protect the retina from light-based oxidation and may actually reverse the effects of macular degeneration in its early stages.  These foods include pumpkins, yams, squash, sweet potatoes, apricots and citrus fruits, peppers, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts.

The next two foods contain high amounts of vitamin E and zinc.  Zinc helps strengthen the immune system and also aids in the formation of antioxidant enzymes in the eye.  Research also shows that vitamin E helps reduce the risk of developing cataracts.  Sardines and other oily fish, as well as nuts, fall into this category. 

Add olive oil to that list and there are plenty of foods that you can incorporate into your diet to reduce the development of many vision inhibiting diseases. 

My mother always said, “Eat well and you’ll be well.”  I always thought it was it was just her being a mom and trying to get me to eat my vegetables.  It turns out that she might have known more than I thought. 

To read the original article, please go to http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/162323/Superfoods-that-can-help-to-safeguard-vision

George Whitesides, a chemistry professor at Harvard, developed the chip to diagnose diseases like HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, hepatitis, and gastroenteritis.  The chip works by placing a single drop of blood on one side.  The paper is saturated with a water-repellent comic book ink that transports the blood into different channels on the paper that make it look like branches on a tree.  At the end of each channel, there are several layers of treated paper that react with the blood to produce diagnostic colors.  In many ways, it’s similar to a home pregnancy test. 

The advantage of the paper chip, aside from its low cost, is that it has the ability to diagnose multiple diseases at once, which saves time and allows the doctors to begin treatment much quicker.  Whitesides also sees these chips being used in conjunction with mobile phones, which are beginning to be used in much greater numbers in developing countries.  With a mobile phone and a paper chip, a doctor could visit someone in a remote village, send a picture of the paper chip to a central diagnostic office, and find out the results in a matter of minutes.  They’re also working on specific applications for cell phones that would be able to tell a person what the diagnosis is even if a doctor is not around.

Current medical diagnostic tests are expensive and widely unavailable in poorer developing countries.  With a simple and inexpensive tool like this, Mr. Whitesides may have given the poorest parts of the world a very easy solution for diagnosing their most popular diseases.  With better tools comes better health and hopefully a severe drop-off of the amount of people whose diseases go untreated for far too long.

To read the original article, please go to http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/02/25/whitesides.chip/index.html?hpt=C1

Progress may soon be on the horizon though, because under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, businesses in the province have been given two years to start training all employees to properly deal with anyone with a disability. If they don’t, they could face hefty fines.

To read the original article, please go to http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2010/03/10/subway-blindman.html

To read the original article, please go to http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=386241

One year later, I attended a transitional school before kindergarten called Pre Primary School.  It was during this year that I met a new teacher from services for the blind named Barbara, who would inevitably stay with me for years to come.  Barbara came to see me several times each week and we worked on various projects.  For these projects, Barbara brought me into another classroom where we worked together without the other students.  We met for about an hour or two each time she came to see me.  I don’t remember exactly what we did during this year, but I know that I was stubborn and refused to do anything that she asked.

When I entered kindergarten the following year, Barbara again visited and we began to work on activities related to our daily classroom work.  Barbara and I got along much better during this year and I began to realize that she was more than just a teacher because she worked closely with the classroom teacher and my family to make sure that everything was working well for me at school.

When I was in first grade and we were learning to read, we’d read small books containing short stories and lots of pictures.  One day I saw Barbara copying the text from the book onto masking tape with a thick, black pen.  She did this to assure that I could see the letters and learn to read the words.  There was also an aid in the classroom who would copy all of the assignments from the chalkboard for me.  She would focus on assisting me with spelling and math.  To do this, she would write on large index cards with a thick, black pen.

At the end of each school year, Barbara, my teacher, the principal and my parents had a meeting to go over all of the goals that had been set for that year.  They discussed these goals, decided whether or not I had accomplished them and set new goals for the next school year.  Barbara made a point at these meetings to meet the teacher that had been chosen for me for the following year.   She worked with the teacher to get copies of the text books so that she could have them put into large print for me, to assure that these books were ready by the time the next school year began.

When it was time for me to enter middle school and then high school, Barbara brought me into the school a few days before school began.  We obtained a copy of my class schedule, she wrote it into large print and we went through the schedule together to make sure I understood it and we practiced walking around the building, going from class to class just as I would once the school year began.  She also made it a point to teach me how to type.  She did this by connecting me with a typing teacher who visited me twice each week.  The typing teacher brought me a new, electric type writer and two large print typing books.  Once I had learned to type, Barbara got me a computer with word processing software and a modem.  I put this computer in my room where I used it to type school reports and check daily weather data.

When I was sixteen years old, Melanie, my other aid when Barbara was unavailable, signed me up to participate in a summer work program and I worked at our local public library for eight weeks.  This was my first summer job and I began to learn the responsibilities that I would later need once I graduated from college and entered the work force.  I recall the day that Melanie informed me that she had signed me up for the program.  I asked her why she had signed me up before asking me if I wanted to participate.  She said, “If I had given you the choice to sign up, you would have said no, so I signed you up anyway because I feel that you need this experience.”

Barbara became a great friend and inspiration to me.  She taught me to be my own advocate.  She taught me how to do banking, how to build self confidence and how to have fun.  When I was six years old, she brought me to the clock museum.  While we were at the museum, she brought me around, showed me all the clocks and taught me how to wind various clocks in the museum.  Each year, before Christmas, my family and I invited Barbara to our home where we shared holiday cookies and treats.  On my birthdays, Barbara took me out to dinner and we always enjoyed the food and she taught me a new game, usually something that my peers were playing at the time.

When I entered college, the Board of Education and Services for the Blind moved my case over to adult services.  I was assigned a vocational counselor and could no longer utilize the services from Barbara, Melanie or children’s services.  The new counselor got me a cassette recorder, designed to play text books that were recorded onto four track cassettes, and set me up to obtain my text books on cassette.  She also completed the necessary paperwork to ensure that I had money set aside each semester for my books and reader services.  The reader service was set up in such a way that I was allotted one hundred twenty hours each semester for people to read my text books to me.  I was able to pick the students who would read for me and I was allowed to use these students to read books, important documents and exams for me.  This arrangement worked out very well.  Typically, I would ask students that took the same classes with me to read for me.  This worked well for the other students because they also had to read the books to be prepared for each class. I later graduated from Western Connecticut State University in 1996 with my Bachelor’s degree in Communications.

My blindness has most certainly not slowed me down nor hampered me in setting and achieving a few pretty good life goals.  I received training for a dog guide from the Seeing Eye in New Jersey right out of high school, just before I moved into my first apartment and started classes at the local community college.  I was so excited to be the first in my family to attend college and receive an Associates Degree in Business Management from J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College.  The process was challenging and I can admit that walking to school in all sorts of weather almost kept me home from classes, but my dog Posie and I were never late to class.

I later moved from Richmond, Virginia to Virginia Beach and found a part-time job with the Virginia Beach Police Department, Special Operations, where my duties were answering phones, transcribing auto fatality and boating fatality reports, interviews and recorded transcripts for the Hostage Negotiators.  I worked for the police department for 17 years and moved back to our family farm with my husband after he retired twenty years with the Navy.

I currently work from home, a wonderful log cabin, managing Dogwood Farm and my growing farm fresh egg business.  I am active in our NFB of Virginia Richmond local chapter.  I also make hand knitted and crocheted items for the Webb of Hope, a charity directed through the Red Cross.  Best of all, I wrap the wonderful aspects of life into one glorious package I like to call “Hands on Living.”  This concept is what I would like to share with the Matilda Ziegler Magazine readers.  There are tips, tricks, and techniques in everyday living and no matter what’s happening here on the farm, we always seem to end up in the kitchen, around the table and sharing our day with each other and that is what I’m hoping to do with you as well.

I hope you had a great weekend.  I’ve got a couple pieces of exciting news to share with you.  To start, we’ve finally received a contract from Newsline.  It will be returned to them this week and hopefully the magazine will be available starting the week after.  If things are delayed a little bit, it may not be available until the week of March 29, but I am excited to finally give you a much more defined timeline.

I also want to welcome a new feature writer to the magazine.  Her name is Susan Roe and her introduction will follow this letter.

As I mentioned last week, we created a new events section of the magazine that is currently only available on the website due to its size.  Instead of offering a smaller version of that section in the email edition, I’m going to send it to you as a supplement either this afternoon or tomorrow.  It will come to you as the magazine normally does.  Again, if anyone has something that they would like to see added to the events section, please let me know.

I hope everybody has a great week!  Take care, and thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

Ross Hammond, Editor