Christmas Music Postlude - Part Two

Besides categorizing the Christmas songs into some kind of demented holiday ten best (as I did yesterday), I thought it might be interesting to go to the other end of the spectrum and make note of some of the original songs of the holiday season. Some of these have been covered by other artists, but not frequently. So here's my list of songs of that kind that the holiday season would be lesser without:

• A Holly Jolly Christmas - Burl Ives
• Boogie Woogie Santa Claus - Jimmy Dorsey
• Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - U2
• Christmas Everyday - The Temptations
• Christmas Wrapping - The Waitresses
• Dig That Crazy Santa Claus - Ralph Marterie
• Do They Know It's Christmas? - Band Aid
• Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer - Elmo & Patsy
• Green Christmas - Barenaked Ladies
• Happy Xmas (War Is Over) - John Lennon
• Home for the Holidays - Perry Como
• It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year - Johnny Mathis
• Last Christmas - Wham!
• Little Jack Frost Get Lost - Frankie Carle
• Mambo Santa Mambo - The Enchanters
• Merry Christmas, Baby - Kenny Burrell
• Merry Christmas Polka - The Andrews Sisters
• Oi to the World - No Doubt
• Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee
• Santa Bring My Baby Back - Elvis Presley
• Shake Hands with Santa Claus - Louis Prima
• Snowfall - Glenn Miller
• The Bell That Couldn't Jingle - Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass
• The Christmas Blues - Dean Martin
• The Man with the Bag - Kay Starr
• The Merriest - June Christy
• The Nutcracker Suite - Les Brown
• Wonderful Christmastime - Paul McCartney

Frank Sinatra gets special mention with two songs: Mistletoe and Holly and The Christmas Waltz. And an extra special mention must be made of the great Louis Armstrong with Christmas in New Orleans, Christmas Night in Harlem, Cool Yule, and 'Zat You, Santa Claus?

Christmas Music Postlude - Part One

Well, Christmas is over. 2006 is over. Even my five-year-old is teasing me about still listening to Christmas music. But that doesn't stop him from singing along with Jingle Bells, so go figure. But I am actually starting to delete Christmas music from my MP3 player, as I save them to disc. So, here's my Christmas music wrap-up for this year...

I got up to 400 Christmas songs on my MP3 player. Jingle Bells still holds the #1 spot with 22 different versions. There is a two-way tie for second place with White Christmas and The Christmas Song at 18 versions each. Winter Wonderland is #3 with 17 versions, and at #4 is Silent Night with 12 versions. There is another two-way tie at #5 with Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas with 11 versions each. Sleigh Ride and Santa Claus is Comin' to Town are tied at #6 with 9 versions each. Yet another two-way tie at #7: Blue Christmas and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with 8 versions each. At #8 is What Are You Doing New Year's Eve with 7 versions. Tied for ninth place is God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and Deck the Halls with 6 versions each. And with five versions each coming in at tenth place are: Carol of the Bells, Here Comes Santa Claus, I'll Be Home for Christmas, Jingle Bell Rock, O Holy Night, Santa Baby, Silver Bells, and We Three Kings.

No Child Left Behind (NCLB)

No Child Left Behind is coming up for reauthorization in 2007. I encourage you to go to this website: A Petition Calling for the Dismantling of the No Child Left Behind Act. It has some information on why it's a bad law. Even if you choose not to sign the petition, which is open to all U.S. citizens, please read the information so that you can be informed about some of the problems wrong with this legislation.

Basically, each state sets its own standards for curriculum, what is taught in schools at various grades, and the criteria for becoming a teacher. NCLB is an attempt to standardize that for all fifty states. It has functioned poorly. In my opinion, it has been disastrous for public education in this country. There are many problems with public education, to be sure, but NCLB is not the solution. I encourage you to sign the petition. Thank you.

Vegan Peppermint Ice Cream

I previously posted a Vegan Pumpkin Ice Cream recipe that I am now only moderately happy with, but I promise that you'll like this one.

3 cups plain Silk creamer
1/3 cup oil
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp xanthum gum
2 tsp peppermint extract
1/2 cup sandwich-type cookies, crushed (4 Candy Cane Joe-Joe's)

In a blender or food processor, combine all ingredients except the cookies. Pour into ice cream maker and freeze according to its instructions. During the last five minutes, add the crushed cookies.

I've been making vegan ice creams for a little while now, but it was one of those synchronicity things that got me to this point. I found a great recipe in The Voluptuous Vegan by Myra Kornfeld. It was for a peanut butter banana ice cream. The author provided a recipe that included heating the ingredients and using arrowroot powder as a thickener. She also provided an alternative method that did not require heating and used xanthum gum. Around this same time, I bought some Mudslinger's Freestyle vegan ice cream. Reading the ingredients, I noticed the use of xanthum and/or guar gum. Then because it was designated a Blog of Note, I visited A Vegan Ice Cream Paradise. Which made me intrigued about making soy ice cream with a soy creamer rather than silken tofu.

So, I picked up some Bob's Red Mill xanthum gum; I quit using silken tofu in my ice creams, and replaced it with Silk creamer. This is the best vegan ice cream I've made so far; I'm really pleased with the texture of it, it stays creamy and doesn't get so icy, and the flavor is fantastic.

Christmas Music Interlude #2

Last weekend, I added more Christmas songs to my MP3 player. I am now up to 333 songs. Jingle Bells is still #1 with 20 versions; I included Lionel Hampton's Swingle Jingle this time. At #2 again is Winter Wonderland with 16 different versions. Tied at #3 is White Christmas and The Christmas Song with 15 versions each. Rising up to #4 is Silent Night, with 11 versions, including Enya's Oiche Chiun. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas is at #5 with 10 versions. There is a three-way tie for 6th place with 9 versions each of Sleigh Ride, Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, and Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Joining the list at #7 is Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer with 8 versions. Blue Christmas is still #8 with 7 versions. And there is anothe tie for 9th place with What Are You Doing New Year's Eve and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen with 6 versions each.

Italian Stuffing

Here is the Italian stuffing recipe from my mother-in-law:

1 lb. hamburger
1 package Jimmie Dean
1 large onion, diced
2 cups Minute Rice
6 eggs
3/4 cup parmesan cheese
Lawrey's seasoning salt

Cook rice. Cook hamburger, sausage, and onion; after cooked, drain. Mix all ingredients in pan and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

I don't know how authentically Italian this is, but it is one dish my wife loves and we have incorporated it into our holiday meals. This year, I attempted a vegan version of it:

1 package (12 oz.) Smart Ground "hamburger crumbles"
1 14 oz. package Gimme Lean sausage
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
2 cups Minute Rice - brown
1 1/2 cups silken tofu
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup plain soymilk
1 cup vegan parmesan
Lawry's seasoning salt, to taste

Brown the sausage with the onion and garlic; add hamburger to warm through. Cook rice while you're browning the sausage. In a food processor or blender, combine silken tofu, nutritional yeast, and soymilk until smooth. Mix all ingredients in pan and bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

I'll probably still play with this, but I was really trying to duplicate the recipe as faithfully as I could and make it vegan.

Lawry's seasoning salt consists of salt, sugar, paprika, turmeric, onion, and garlic. I may replace it with my own homemade seasoning mix of those spices in the future.

Vegan Thanksgiving Wrap-Up

So, here's what we had for Thanksgiving this year:

Of course, we had the Unturkey by Now & Zen. Sadly, it now appears that they have gone out of business. Someone over at Vegan Represent first told me the news, and Now & Zen's website is now gone.

I made three different stuffings this year. First, I veganized my mother-in-law's italian stuffing. I also made the Wild Mushroom Stuffing from Robin Robertson's Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker. I also made Giada De Laurentiis' Ciabatta Stuffing, again veganized.

For our vegetable side dishes, I made Sweet Cinnamon-Maple Glazed Baby Carrots from Nava Atlas' Vegetarian Family Cookbook. I also made Brussels sprouts from Rachael Ray's recipe.

You also have to have mashed potatoes, so I cooked up some yukon golds. And we also opted to use Rachael Ray's recipe for Smashed Sweet Potatoes this year rather than baked sweet potatoes.

My mom usually makes macaroni and cheese, but this year, I made a vegan version so I could have some too. I used a cheezy sauce adapted from the Joanne Stepaniank's UnCheese Cookbook. To that, we added some vegan cheese, topped it all with some bread crumbs and baked the whole thing for twenty minutes at 350 degrees.

To top it all off, I made sweet potato pie. I'm still working on this recipe; when I get it down to my satisfaction, I'll post it.

Christmas Music Interlude #1

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I officially began my Christmas music binge. I loaded 235 songs onto my MP3 player. Jingle Bells comes in at #1 with 14 different versions, #2 is Winter Wonderland with 11 versions, #3 is a tie between White Christmas and The Christmas Song, with 10 versions each, #4 is Let it Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! with 9 versions, #5 is another tie between Sleigh Ride and Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, with 8 versions each, #6 is Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas with 7 different versions, #7 is Silent Night, #8 is the last tie with What Are You Doing New Year's Eve? and Blue Christmas, with 5 versions each.

Sadly Waiting

I thought it was time I posted the poem whose title I borrowed for this blog. A couple of years ago I taught a poetry lesson, the sestina, and had my students write poems in this style. After that we worked with Susan Sibbet, through California Poets in the Schools. She came in once a week for eight weeks or so and taught poetry writing to my students. I have worked with Susan for several years and each year I ask her back because I love how she brings out another side of my students that as their regular classroom teacher I don't always see. Well, every few years, the poets, like Susan, are able to nominate poems to be published in their yearly anthology. Well, that year, one of the poems she submitted was Matthew's poem, Sadly Waiting for Recess, and it was published in that year's anthology. This gives you some idea of what kind of person Susan Sibbet is. She chose a poem to submit from a lesson that she did not teach; I took it as a high compliment and a sign of her generous nature, that, and the quality of Matthew's poem.

To find a review of Susan's latest book, No Easy Light, you my go to Verse or to NewPages. You can also find more information about her and her book at Sixteen Rivers Press.

Sadly Waiting for Recess

Recess is ages away,
when will it be recess?
I wait and I wait.
Walking in circles.
Just waiting for recess to come.
Now I just want to smash clocks

Circles remind me of clocks.
I really just can't wait!
To get outside running huge circles.
Please let recess come!
Now I need to get away.
Come, recess!

I need to fast-forward time so I don't need to wait
Clocks need to be faster so recess can come.
We all need recess.
Why do I hate clocks
Is it because I want time to go away
The teacher is yelling at me because I'm walking in circles.

Why wait?
I could just sneak to recess.
Who cares about clocks.
We don't need to learn shapes that look like circles.
Let recess come!
I wish I could fly away.

Who am I kidding? I must wait
If I need to get away
The decorations look like clocks
They're all in shapes like circles
I must go to all my classes before they come
Look, it's almost recess!

5 minutes before recess!
I almost can go away!
I LOVE YOU CIRCLES!
COME, RECESS, COME!
No more waiting!
Goodbye clocks.

by Matthew Lau

Last ACR Picture

Just for fun: Can you see the spider?

More from Audubon Canyon Ranch

Here is another picture from Audubon Canyon Ranch. I just like this one. I think it's framed really well. I like all the colors, layers, and textures in this photo. I like pictures of nature as my screensaver; I find them relaxing and pleasant to look at. Hope you like it too.

Audubon Canyon Ranch

A week or three ago I took my class on a field trip to Audubon Canyon Ranch. It was the best field trip I've ever been on as a teacher. I took my digital camera and took quite a few pictures. I decided to share some of them here.

I like this one because of the moss hanging from the trees. It has a very southern feel, and yet it's on the coast of northern California. 

Battle Cranberry

I am such a food geek. I have been looking forward to (and am now watching - 9:24 p.m.) Iron Chef America with Giada De Laurentiis and Bobby Flay versus Rachael Ray and Mario Batali.

I really wish the Food Network had a vegetarian and/or vegan show, but that doesn't stop me from watching all the time and picking up cooking tips.

Election Day

I voted yesterday. Did you?

I still don't know all the election results. I know some things went the way I wanted and others did not. Oh well... our democratic republic in action.

I vote in every election. And because I am a teacher, I make sure I talk it up with my students. Especially since I teach fifth graders, who study American history. We teach them the basics of our government as established by the founding fathers. I want them to see that voting is living history, and that when they are of age, they will be able to vote. Too many don't take the right to vote seriously, and I want to do what I can to make sure my students won't be like that when they're adults.

Vegan Pumpkin Ice Cream

Here's my recipe for vegan pumpkin ice cream. It's that time of year!

Ingredients:
2 cups silken tofu
1/2 cup soymilk
1/2 cup oil (canola)
3/4 cup dry sweetener (sugar)
1/4 cup maple syrup

1 can pumpkin (15 oz.)
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cloves

1) Process the tofu, soymilk, oil, and sweeteners in a food processor until smooth. 2) Add the pumpkin and spices. Continue to process until well-mixed. 3) Pour ingredients into your ice cream maker, following its directions for freezing. (Mine takes 25 minutes). 4) Enjoy.

Good News

I've been working on my other blogs, one is part of my vocation and the other purely as an avocation, and "Sadly Waiting for Recess" has been sadly neglected. One, I had a really hard summer. I've been procrastinating writing about it because I've been living it, and reliving it in writing just hasn't been sounding like a good idea to me. Two, I've been rethinking this whole blog in the first place. But I think I've decided to keep posting things from time to time. Three, I've been doing a lot of writing in my journal at home. So my writing lately has been of a much more personal nature and not something that I'm willing to share.

I always check out the Blogs of Note and this post on All Things Biodiesel caught my eye, as I work in San Francisco.

Eating Vegan in Las Vegas

My wife and I went to Vegas for my 40th birthday. I was more concerned about eating vegan and eating well (and by well I mean healthily) in Las Vegas this time than I think I was four years ago, the last time we went.

I did get some tips and hints from a couple of on-line veg*n forums. I also stumbled across Surviving as a Vegetarian in Las Vegas.

A couple of places I would definitely recommend, and they both happen to be in the Alladin. One is the Spice Market Buffet. It's one of the best buffets on the stip, especially for vegetarians. They have a Mediterranean station with pita, falafels, hummus, baba ghanoush, dolmas, and tabouli. There was also an Asian station that had a stir-fried vegetables dish, including baby bok choy and lots of broccoli, and a spicy eggplant dish that wasn't really that spicy, though the eggplant was excellently prepared, considering that it's a buffet. Of course, there's always salad, and the American station did have asparagus and mushrooms that were quite nice.

I would also recommend P.F. Chang's. Apparently, this is a chain restaurant. I was not familiar with it before because there is not one in the San Francisco Bay Area that I'm aware of. Anyway... the food is excellent and there are many vegan options. There were nine vegetarian entrees, so plenty to choose from. We ordered the Coconut-Curry Vegetables, the Garlic Snap Peas, and the Vegetarian Ma Po Tofu. We also ordered Chang's Vegetarian Lettuce Wraps and the Vegetable Dumplings for appetizers. Our waiter was excellent (his name was John) and quickly picked up on my being vegetarian. He pointed out that the soy sauce was not vegan because of the sugar, and he brought us brown rice even though we didn't request it. The Lettuce Wraps were my favorite, and the Ma Po Tofu was nice and spicy.

We also ate at the Taqueria Canonita in the Venetian. It has an excellent location at the end of the canal, where the gondoliers turn the gondolas around for the return trip and belt out some Italian song for all the onlookers. We went there because the last time we went they had these excellent tofu tacos. Sadly, the tofu tacos are now gone. Yes, I did complain to the waiter. But I was able to get three tacos filled with mushrooms; it was an option on the menu, and they were quite tasty. But I was still disappointed about not having the tofu tacos.

We had a bad experience with the buffet at Paris. My wife really wanted to go there for breakfast because she heard it was really good. We got up a little late that morning (we had been up till 3 a.m. - but that's another story) and arrived around 10:30. After waiting in line for over half an hour, we were finally seated. Oh, did I mention the jackhammer? They were doing some renovation, and yes, some guy was actually using a jackhammer. Okay, so I was hungry, a little hungover, and irritated by the jackhammer. I wanted to leave but stuck it out because I knew Kelley really wanted to eat there. Because of the renovation there weren't as many seats available; no one wanted to sit too close to all that noise, which you really couldn't escape anywhere in the buffet. So, at 11:00 they begin switching over from breakfast to lunch. Kelley's waiting in line for eggs, which she really wanted, when the guy serving the eggs says that the lady two or three people ahead of her in line would be the last one getting eggs; she was not happy. They had already pulled the oatmeal and the other hot cereal (I don't remember what it was) and replaced them with soups, neither of which was vegetarian. So, a word of caution buffet eaters: pay attention to the times for breakfast and lunch, because they might change it on you while you're waiting in line.

We had breakfast our last day there at the Big Kitchen Buffet at Bally's, where we were staying. It was quite good. I had grits, which I love, and Kelley was able to finally get her eggs. Unlike many of the other buffets we've eaten at, including at the Luxor, Excalibur, Alladin, and Paris, the buffet at Bally's has natural light pouring in from the windows. No, there wasn't really any view to speak of, but it was pleasant to eat in natural light, while the other buffets are all enclosed or underground. And the food and service was good.

Summer Reading List

So, I decided that one of my summer projects would be to get lots of reading done. It's really hard for me to get much reading done when I'm working, so I always try to read as many books as I can over the summer. Last weekend, I went through my bookshelves and made a list of all the books I've started and haven't finished yet. I decided I should probably read those first. Here goes...

I'm reading several self-help books, including two by Phillip C. McGraw (Dr. Phil): Self Matters and The Ultimate Weight Solution. I'm also reading Self-Esteem by Matthew McKay and Patrick Fanning, Never Good Enough by Monica Ramirez Basco, Overcoming Anger by Carol D. Jones, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey, and Life's Greatest Lessons by Hal Urban. I recently finished Undoing Depression by Richard O'Connor, and I have two other books on depression that I haven't started yet, but that I hope to get to this summer: I Don't Want to Talk About It by Terrence Real and Breaking the Patterns of Depression by Michael D. Yapko.

I don't read as much fiction these days, but have been reading quite a few history books: Band of Brothers by Stephen E. Ambrose, Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis, The Great War and Modern Memory by Paul Fussell, and An Intimate History of Humanity by Theodore Zeldin. After I finish Ambrose's book, I'll watch the mini-series; I still haven't seen all the episodes even though I own it on DVD. And then I'll probably start his book on Lewis and Clark, Undaunted Courage, that two of my uncles highly recommended to me.

I also have an interest in eastern religions, so I'm reading The Tao of Inner Peace by Diane Dreher, The Dhammapada, translated by Eknath Easwaran, and The Te of Piglet by Benjamin Hoff, the sequel to The Tao of Pooh.

I'm usually reading something that has to do with teaching, and now is no exception with The Conspiracy of Ignorance by Martin L. Gross and The Excellent 11 by Ron Clark.

I'm also usually reading something on fatherhood or parenting, and currently I'm reading Father Courage by Elizabeth Brown Levine and Zen and the Art of Fatherhood by Steven Lewis.

My interests in music, notably jazz, are fulfilled by West Coast Jazz by Ted Gioia and The Masters of Bebop by Ira Gitler.

Besides flipping through my various vegan cookbooks, I'm also reading a couple of related books, Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating by Erik Marcus and How to Read a French Fry by Russ Parsons.

And with my father being sick with terminal cancer, I'm reading FatherLoss by Neit Chethik.

I actually am reading two fiction books, The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien and Dreamcatcher by Stephen King. And after reading Dan Brown's books, I'm making my way through two books edited by Dan Burstein, Secrets of the Code and Secrets of Angels & Demons.

And, finally, down to the last three, which are all kind of off by themselves: Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg, The Sudoku Code by Francis Heaney & Frank Longo, and Touching the Void by Joe Simpson.

I'm not sure exactly what this list of books says about me, other than delineating my interests and showing what's going on with me at this time in my life. It also seems a little anal retentive that I'm trying to finish all these books that I've already started before staring any new ones, but then I clearly haven't been very successful in that, because I seem to be always putting aside some book and picking up a new one that interests me.

School's Out

I'm back after a long absence. The last day of school was Thursday, June 15. It was just so crazy those last few weeks of school, that I didn't have the time or energy to post anything, but now that I'm off for the summer, I will try to post something every weekday. Weekends, as always, are family time, and I try to stay off the computer.

I had a really bad attitude the last two weeks of school. As a teacher, you just get tired. It's almost as bad as new parent tired. Going to work was exhausting. I wasn't sleeping well. We were spending more and more time practicing for the fifth grade promotion ceremony, and I was spending less and less time actually teaching. I love teaching! If I could just teach, and not do any of the administrative stuff (report cards - yuck!) I would be a happy man. It's a little sad as the school year winds down, but I wasn't feeling that this year. I was feeling very out of sorts - resentful of all the time I was putting into the promotion ceremony. Parents just assume that we're going to put it on, but I don't really see it as my job. I would really like the parents to ask me and my fellow fifth grade teacher to put so much time, energy, and enthusiasm into it, but they didn't and I felt very taken for granted. I was hired to teach, not prepare students for a one-hour promotion ceremony. The time we put into it does not seem justified by how quickly it's over. And it's really for the parents, not for the students, and certainly not for me. I'm so stressed by the whole process, that it's not enjoyable for me, and doesn't provide any type of closure of the school year for me.

So, anyway, I'm really glad it's over. Now it's time for me to recharge my batteries and get myself sorted out again. And at some point, probably in July, it will dawn on me that I have to go back to work soon, and that I should start thinking about the new school year. But for now, I'm going to relax and work on myself (more about that later).