(Click on photo to view a larger image.)
Some years ago (in 1995 to be exact), I came across a story about a woman who inadvertently bought a Neiman-Marcus cookie recipe for $250 and was giving it away free on the internet to protest Neiman-Marcus' refusal to refund her money. I have absolutely no idea whether or not this story is true but I saved that recipe nevertheless. This week, after nearly 18 years, I decided to try out that recipe in order to put my new KitchenAid mixer to the test. I made a few minor changes like eliminating the nuts and the entire Hershey bar, as well as adding some raisins, but otherwise I followed the recipe. The one other modification I made was to reduce the quantities. The original recipe makes about 112 cookies which was waaaay too much for my family (or so I thought), so I quartered it and made about 3 dozen.
In retrospect, I should have halved the recipe, or maybe even gone whole hog and made the originally intended 112 cookies. I say this because my children and, quite surprisingly, my husband were eating them hand over fist. (Okay, I'll confess...I had quite a few myself.) They turned out really well. The first three dozen lasted less than 24 hours, much to the dismay of my husband who promptly declared I was to make more as soon as possible because they were delicious. Then, again quite surprisingly, he gave me a hug and a kiss. Hey, I'm no fool. If I'm gonna get paid off in hugs and kisses then I'm gonna bake. This morning I did just that and whipped up another forty cookies. The photo above was taken a couple of hours after they were baked and you can see that there are quite a few less than 40 cookies on that plate. As of this writing, about 14 hours later, there are only eight left and when I pass the cookie jar on my way to bed...let's just say I predict a sweet midnight snack in my immediate future.
If you're in the market for hugs and kisses, not to mention the undying affection of your children and their visiting friends, give these cookies a try. Below is the original recipe I found on the internet those many years ago. I can't vouch for whether they are actually attributed to Neiman-Marcus but I can vouch for their delicious-ness. Enjoy!
NEIMAN-MARCUS COOKIES (Recipe may be quartered or halved)
2 cups (4 sticks) butter
24 oz. chocolate chips
4 cups flour
2 cups brown sugar
2 tsp. soda
1 tsp.
salt
2 cups
sugar
1 8 oz. Hershey
Bar grated (I eliminated this)
5 cups blended oatmeal
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla
Optional: 3 cups chopped nuts (your choice) (I added raisins instead. Soak them for about 15 minutes or more and drain before adding to the dough.)
Measure oatmeal, and blend in a blender to a fine powder. Cream the butter and
both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla, mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt,
baking powder, and soda. Add chocolate chips, Hershey Bar, and nuts. Roll into
balls, and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet
Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 112 cookies.
Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva
Today I had the kind of morning that so easily demonstrates how everything is connected. It started out in the kitchen and ended up on my craft table. It began with me doing something I don't normally do...I made breakfast. Not only did I make breakfast, I made something I've never made from scratch...waffles. Big, fat, hot and fluffy waffles. The recipe called for four eggs and, for some unexplained reason, I had the overwhelming desire to blow the eggs. No, I'm not referring to some obscene act performed on dairy products. (Admit it, that's what you were thinking, wasn't it?) I'm talking about removing the egg's contents by blowing it out of tiny holes, thereby leaving the shells intact. Sure, cracking them would have been so much more expedient but blowing them is so much more... work! Besides, it's the only way to get the main material for a making a decorated egg. After all, Easter is only a few months away.
To blow an egg you have to make two tiny pinholes on either end of tyhe egg. This can be accomplished with a thick, sharp needle or, in my case, a teasing needle I retrieved from my old college dissection kit. Place the point of the needle on one end of your egg and carefully wiggle it around while applying gentle yet steady pressure on it until it begins to break through the shell. Once pierced, insert the needle as far into the shell as possible then remove it. Repeat this on the other side. Once both sides are pierced, using a slender hors doeuvre skewer (NOT a shish kebab skewer -- too big), insert it into a pinhole and SLOWLY AND CAREFULLY turn it around as if it were a drill. Eventually the hole will widen slightly and allow the skewer to enter the shell. Use the skewer to pierce repeatedly inside the egg and break the yolk. Repeat with the other pin hole. Place your lips on one of the pinholes and blow hard to expel the liquid egg into a receptacle.
Now the inside of the shells must be rinsed to remove any residue or they will begin to smell bad. Take a small amount of water in your mouth, hold the egg above your face slightly and bring one of the pinholes down to your mouth, the other one facing upwards. Push the water from your mouth up into the shell and fill it about halfway. Cover the two holes with your fingers, shake vigorously then blow the water out. Voila! You now have a clean, empty egg shell and the beginnings of a great omelette. As I said before, I used those eggs for making waffles. Wonderfully fragrant, light and airy waffles that were warm and delicious. Mmmm, yum.
Here in New York City the devastating after effects of Hurricane Sandy are being felt in many ways, big and small. There is no one who has not been affected in some way. One of the most inconvenient consequences of the storm is the total upheaval of the transit system. Lower Manhattan subway stations are underwater, and buses are operating on an limited basis. Motorists without fuel are faced with either gas stations that have no gas, those that have gas but not the power with which to pump it, or the likelihood of waiting on an impossibly long line at one of the few stations that have gas available for sale. My husband had the foresight to fill our car with gas before the storm hit so we have thankfully been able to avoid this enormous headache for the present time.
The more difficult part was keeping her from chewing off the bandages. At first she was muzzled which promptly turns her into a floor mat as she throws herself flat on the floor in a gesture of total defeat. It is truly a pitiful sight. Then we borrowed a plastic dog cone from my sister who had used it on her own dog. Problem was that my dog is medium sized and my sister's dog is BIG. Needless to say we had to do a little gerry-rigging to get it to stay on her (gotta love those binder clips). She was no less pitiful but at least she wasn't muzzled. She should be fine in a day or two. We've just got to get her through the night without chewing off her bandages.
Poor baby.
My computer has a bunch of different external drives: two CD/DVD drives, a personal backup drive, several memory card drives, not to mention a couple of internal drives. Each drive has a different name -- C drive, D drive, L drive, etc.. This makes for a versatile computer. It also makes for one that can make you a little nuts when you're trying to figure out which drive is which on your directory tree.
So, remember that small chest of drawers I started stripping over a month ago? (Click here to read that post.) Well, after numerous interruptions I finally finished it and I'm rather pleased with the way it came out. Full disclosure here -- I am NOT a furniture refinisher so my experience and skills in this particular area are lacking. Nevertheless, I have never let not knowing how to do something stop me from doing it if it was something I really wanted to do. In this way I have learned that I can do anything I set my mind to. Just understand that I may not do it very well.
Back to the chest of drawers. It's old, with chipped corners and questionable construction but I really like its clean, simple lines and it's a perfect piece upon which to practice my burgeoning refinishing skills. Above left you can see a before photo taken when I began to strip off the varnish. Below left you see what the chest looks like today, stained, stenciled and ready for a new life housing cardstock in my crafts workshop. The colors are a departure for me inasmuch as I prefer natural wood tones for furniture but I figured as long as this was going to be a creative learning experience I was going for broke.
