James Dean, a man who could really brood.

I just finished watching East of Eden, a fairly decent rendition of the classic work by Steinbeck. James Dean is Cal, the dark, tormented son of Adam Trask. I thought as a film it was definitely entertaining--of course, any time I see James Dean I'm entertained--but I was disappointed at how much of the story the movie left out. I think the entire movie was based on the last 3 chapters of the book, and it's a pretty thick book. Afterwards, my mom and sister Deborah and I had a long discussion about it. I once again confirmed my English-nerdiness by getting all excited about our discussion of Biblical allusions within the book. Oh well--I suppose it's good that an English-nerd becomes an English teacher. You gotta love what you do in order to do it well.

Lately I've been on a baking spree. I seem to go in these spurts, and I think that applies to pretty much everything in my life. I'll read like crazy for a few weeks and then have to take a break for awhile. I'll watch movies every night for a few weeks and then decide I never want to watch TV again. I'll date a guy and feel like I'm falling in love and then after a few weeks, I'll realize the whole relationship is pointless. Right now, I'm baking. I got a wonderful cookbook, The King Arthur Flour Baking Companion, for my birthday, and I've been making all different kinds of bread. The other day, I made some plain ol' white bread, and today I advanced to Brioche, a sweet yeast bread from France. I've also got sourdough starter fermenting up here by the computer where the temperature is nice and ripe (the kitchen is really too chilly for breadmaking--the bread won't rise very quickly unless I've got the oven on). I'm hoping to turn that into Rosemary Olive Oil Sourdough bread sometime next week. I also made chicken enchiladas and peach cobbler the other night. The only problem with baking and cooking is that a person has an end result to deal with. I really don't want to eat all the bread I'm baking. I enjoy the process more than the product, I think. So, feel free to stop by if you're in the neighborhood and pick up some bread. I'm giving it away for free.