The Heiress, Cookie Diet.

I thoroughly enjoyed the play yesterday. I had forgotten a lot of what happened, the details that is, however, in the elopement scene, the dialogue came back to me. Catherine, was played very well if not the same as I would have played it, that is not surprising of course. But it was very well done. I gather they had trouble selling tickets though and have been giving some away. People are too used to musicals and comedies from the Drayton Festival group. I hope they will be doing more of this kind of straight play. I just learned that the original book was published in 1880, I knew it was called The House on Washington Square, I did not know it was written by Henry James. This is a poster from the 1949 movie. My friend enjoyed the play too and from the comments coming from the audience and from the standing ovation, I think everyone else enjoyed it as well. On GMA this morning I heard about a diet called The Cookie Diet, apparently you eat six specially developed cookies at any time during the day when you feel hungry, then for dinner you eat a 500 calorie meal of protein and vegetables. People were praising it on the programme although some doctors were criticising it. If you would like to read the article click here, the inventor, Dr. Siegels, says in 30 years he has never had anyone suffer any problems with his diet. One young lady had been on the programme for 2 years without any adverse affects and was a size 0? I would have thought that was too thin. The cookies are available from a lot of US pharmacies and it costs something like $250 a month. I must admit, I would have a go at it if the cookies were available here. One thing Dr. Siegels said "if the weight loss isn't fast, people lose interest and go off it" that is very true. The last time I was on Weight Watchers it took me a year to lose 18 lbs and that just wasn't good enough. Bowling this afternoon, I will be able to boast about my 311 game to the group. One guy in particular with whom I have a friendly competition; we are always joking about our scores. I trust he will be suitably impressed *g*. Eating Well are doing a promotion on apples at the moment and this is the soup recipe they gave. I thought it sounded good. I like soups with cabbage and lots of other vegetables so I think this will be on our table before very long. Sweet & Sour Beef-Cabbage Soup From EatingWell: September/October 2009 This wholesome sweet-and-sour soup combines beef, caraway seeds, sweet paprika and cabbage—ingredients that star in a number of German dishes. It is particularly nice served with crusty rye bread. For an even heartier soup, add diced cooked potatoes along with the cabbage. 6 servings Ingredients * 1 tablespoon canola oil * 1 pound lean (90% or leaner) ground beef * 1 1/2 teaspoons caraway seeds * 1 teaspoon dried thyme * 2 1/2 cups frozen bell pepper and onion mix, thawed, chopped * 1 medium Golden Delicious or other sweet-tart cooking apple, unpeeled, diced * 6 cups reduced-sodium beef broth * 1 15-ounce can crushed or diced tomatoes * 1 1/2 tablespoons honey * 1 tablespoon paprika, preferably Hungarian sweet * 3 cups coarsely chopped Savoy, or green cabbage * 1-2 tablespoons cider vinegar * 1/4 teaspoon salt * Freshly ground pepper to taste Preparation 1. Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add beef, caraway seeds and thyme and cook, stirring and breaking up the beef with a spoon, until it is mostly browned, about 4 minutes. Stir in pepper-onion mix and apple; cook, stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes more. 2. Stir in broth, tomatoes, honey and paprika and adjust the heat so the mixture boils gently. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes to blend the flavors. Stir in cabbage and cook just until barely tender, 3 to 4 minutes more. Season with vinegar to taste, salt and pepper. Have a great day.