Banana Bread

It's been awhile since we made any Banana Bread but this evening Becky put one together and I can't wait to have some for breakfast tomorrow morning.

Mexican Food Leftovers

Tonight for dinner we had some of the leftovers we brought home from La Fiesta Cantina last night. We added some rice we had leftover from the a couple of days ago and also a fresh salad. It was a nice meal.

Somebody's Fool - A Novel

Somebody's Fool - Richard Russo, 2025. Today I finished reading this third book in his North Bath series which takes place in that town in Upstate New York. I enjoyed the book a lot like I did the books of his that I've read but this one also kind of weirded me out with his descriptions of the characters and their relationships with each other. It was also odd the way the characters from the previous books in the series reemerged again years later. 

The first book of the series, Nobody's Fool, was written in 1993 and I read it in 1994. The second book, Everybody's Fool, was written in 2016 and I read it in 2017. And now here I am reading Somebody's Fool which was written in 2025. So each book came out about 10 years apart. 

Overall this is the ninth Richard Russo novel I've read and the first in almost ten years. I wrote about Russo in my Authors List series here. There are still a lot more of his books that I would like to read but right now I'm starting another John Banville novel... Venetian Vespers that was just published a few months ago.

Broadside - Kitchen Listening

The Best of Broadside 1962-1988: Anthems of the American Underground from the Pages of Broadside Magazine and released from the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. 

Today is No Kings Day and a great time to listen to the 5 disc compilation box set released in 2000. The album runs about five and a half hours of contemporary folk music of it's time with much of it very topical development of an American social consciousness in popular music.

This is a great collection of music and an awesome listening experience. Here is a breakdown of the album on Discogs and a little history of Broadside Magazine.

Dinner at La Fiesta Cantina

Tonight Becky and I had a wonderful dinner at a fabulous Mexican restaurant on Allen Street... La Fiesta Cantina. Both the food and the service was great. The restaurant itself was very interesting and welcoming. This was our first time in this particular restaurant but a number of years ago we had been there once when it was another Mexican restaurant called Don Tequila. Was not impressed. For many years we went to the K Gallagher restaurant in that location.

We had two dinners that we shared. Two Chimichangas filled with shredded chicken with rice, beans and a delicious salad. The other main dish was Tex-Mex Quesadilla with steak, grilled onions, corn and black beans along with an order of fries. These dinners were spectacular. 

I also had a couple of Modelo Especial Mexican Lager. It's been a long time since I had one of these on tap. 

Mark Twain - The Authors List

Mark Twain. The Authors List with 8 books I've read. Two of them I read in my early teens... guest which ones. Yep, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Then I read them again as an adult along with a few other ones. In the late 80's and early 90's I was interested in Mark Twain again. 

I especially liked his non-fiction autobiographical travel memoirs. He was a very interesting writer and I really liked that he was writing of his time and travels through the Old West and along the Mississippi River.

I particularly loved his autobiography which was more of a dictated collection of reminiscences, anecdotes and ruminations near the end of his life rather than a traditional written memoir.

Mark Twain books that I've read:

• The Prince and the Pauper, 1881 - Jan 1988
• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, 1889 - Jul 1989
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 1876 - Aug 1991
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1884 - Oct 1991
• Life On The Mississippi, 1883 - Jan 1992
• Roughing It, 1872 - Jun 1993
• The Innocents Abroad, Or, the New Pilgrim's Progress, 1886 - Aug 1993
• The Autobiography of Mark Twain, 1910 - Nov 1993

Cream of Chicken Soup

We had some left over chicken from the past couple of nights so Becky made some cream of chicken soup tonight. It was delicious especially with some smoked paprika liberally springled on it. We had some of that wonderful French peasant bread too.

A nice meal for those last cold days of the season.

Margaret Atwood - The Authors List

Margaret Atwood. On the Authors List with 8 books I read. The first one was her probably most well known novel... The Handmaid's Tale which I read in early 1987. I would read several more of her novels over the years and I would always be fascinated with her take on the dystopian world that we have heading into. It was also interesting reading her Canadian perspective.

It seems that America is heading closer and closer to her distorted maga vision unless we put an end to it now.

I liked her books that were an interesting science fiction social dystopian but she is much more than that. Apparently she has written 18 novels, 18 books of poetry, 11 non-fiction books, 9 collections of short stories, 8 children's books and a couple of graphic novels. She's won lots of awards too.

Margaret Atwood books I've read:

• The Handmaid's Tale, 1985 - Feb 1987
• Cat's Eye, 1988 - Jan 1989
• Alias Grace, 1996 - Mar 1997
• Oryx and Crake, 2003 - Oct 2003
• The Year of the Flood, 2009 - Feb 2010
• MaddAddam, 2013 - Nov 2013
• The Heart Goes Last, 2015 - Dec 2015
• The Testaments, 2019 - Apr 2020

Goldmund Quartet

This evening we went down to Kleinhans Music Hall for another chamber music concert. This is the second to last one of the season. The performance tonight was with the Goldmund Quartet, a Munich based German quartet. They have been touring recently with pianist Gloria Chien who performed with them for the second part of the concert.

It was a wonderful concert tonight and you could feel the Bavarian influence throughout the show. They started out with a piece by Franz Schubert who wrote it at the age of 16. Amazing. Then they performed a piece by Mieczyslaw Weinberg who is described as a Jewish Polish Russian. He had a very intense life between the Germans and the Soviets. His music was very intense.

After the break the quartet and the pianist performed an incredible piano quintet piece by Amy Beach an early 20th century modernist composer.

An interesting note to this performance was the substitution of the lead violinist. Apparently the regular violinist for the quartet had to leave the tour and a substitute was added. The violin player filling in is the husband of the guest pianist. The violinist was very good.

Chicken Tacos & Rice

Becky used some of the leftover chicken from last night and made very tasty Chicken Tacos and Rice for dinner tonight. We really enjoyed this wonderful meal.