The Neiman-Marcus Cookie

This is a good story. You may have received this in your email at some time, but I just got it the other day and thought I should try the recipe and share the story.

Here is the email I received:


"A little background: Neiman-Marcus, if you don't know already, is a Very expensive store; i.e., they sell your typical $8.00 T-shirt for $50.00. Let's let them have it! THIS IS A TRUE STORY! My daughter and I had just finished a salad at a Neiman-Marcus Cafe in Dallas , and we decided to have a small dessert. Because both of us are such cookie lovers, we decided to try the "Neiman-Marcus cookie." It was so excellent that I asked if they would give me the recipe, and the waitress said with a small frown, "I'm afraid not, but you can buy the recipe." Well, I asked how much, and she responded, "Only two fifty. It's a great deal!" I agreed to that, and told her to just add it to my tab. Thirty days later, I received my VISA statement, and the Neiman-Marcus charge was $285.00! I looked again, and I remembered I had only spent $9.95 for two salads and about $20.00 for a scarf. As I glanced at the bottom of the statement, it said, "Cookie Recipe-$250.00". That was outrageous! I called Neiman's Accounting Department and told them the waitress said it was "two fifty", which clearly does not mean "two hundred and fifty dollars" by any reasonable interpretation of the phrase. Neiman-Marcus refused to budge. They would not refund my money because, according to them, "What the waitress told you is not our problem. You have already seen the recipe. We absolutely will not refund your money at this point." I explained to the Accounting Department lady the criminal statutes which govern fraud in the state of Texas I threatened to report them to the Better Business Bureau and the Texas Attorney General's office for engaging in fraud. I was basically told, "Do what you want. Don't bother thinking of how you can get even, and don't bother trying to get any of your money back." I just said, Okay, you folks got my $250, and now I'm going to have $250 worth of fun." I told her that I was going to see to it that every cookie lover in the United States with an e-mail account has a $250 cookie recipe from Neiman-Marcus..for free. She replied, "I wish you wouldn't do this." I said, "Well, perhaps you should have thought of that before you ripped me off!" and slammed down the phone. So here it is! Please, please, please pass it on to everyone you can possibly think of. I paid $250 for this, and I don't want Neiman-Marcus to EVER make another penny off of this recipe!"

I tried the recipe last night.... and it made a nice and very sweet crunchy cookie. I would alter the recipe by adding some big juicy raisins or some other chewy item to give a different texture. I would even omit the "Hershey Bar" as it really isn't needed.

Recipe

2C Butter
24oz Chocolate Chips
4C Flour
2C Brown Sugar
2C Sugar
2tsp Baking Soda
2tsp Baking Powder
1tsp Salt
1 8oz Hershey Bar Grated
5C Blended Oats
4 Eggs
2tsp Vanilla
3C Nuts(your choice)

*Blend Oatmeal in food processor until fine
*Cream Butter and Sugars, add Eggs and Vanilla
*Mix Flour, Oatmeal, Salt, Soda, Powder and add
to Butter mixture
*Add in the Chocolate, Hershey Bar, and Nuts
*Bake at 375 for 10 min

You will probably need to half this recipe to prepare
it in an average kitchen mixer.

Canned Tomatoes

Roma tomatoes where on sale at the Italian market the other day. We elbowed our way through all the Babas to get our share of these ripened gems. We we had so many in the kitchen to use up, we thought about making some basic tomato sauce to use for pasta and other meals. Wash them up well, cut into chunks and cook them down with a bit of oil to half the quantity... this was about two hours. I put some in the fridge to use up tomorrow and the rest I tossed into a sterilized jar to seal up and hide away until I need it!

Banana Bread

This is definitely the best Banana Bread I have ever tasted, and I can't take any credit for the recipe at all.


Eugene had some ripened bananas at work and brought them home with the intention of making a simple banana loaf. After some searching he found a nice recipe and began to put all the ingredients together..... a little bit of substituting and adjustments began when he ran out of some ingredients, and made up for it with others. The end product is pretty great.. the inside is dense and moist without being too wet like some become, and the exterior is chewy and crisp when it is first out of the oven. After its been wrapped up to gift to friends and coworkers it does become less chewy, but no less tasty. I've actually had several people urging me to post this recipe quickly so they could try it themselves. I really wanted to try the adjusted version again just to see if the end result was reproducible... and it was!

Recipe

3C Flour
1tsp Baking Soda
3/4tsp Salt
3 Eggs
2C Sugar
1C+4Tbsp Vegetable Oil
1/4C Melted Butter
1Tbsp Vanilla
3 Bananas
1C Dessicated Coconut
1C Chopped Pecans
1/2C Milk


*Mix flour, baking soda, and salt.
*Beat eggs, sugar, melted butter, and oil.
*Add flour mixture
*Mix in vanilla, banana, coconut, nuts and milk
*Do not over mix
*Divide batter between two floured pans and
bake at 350 until tester comes out clean
(90 min in my oven)

Eugene prefers this recipe with 2Tbsp of Vanilla, and I like
it with just one..... you can arm wrestle yourself over
how much to put in!

Chocolate Almond Croissants

I found a few Croissant recipes and decided to go with this dough because it was fast and easy. The filling was changed to make it yummier and chocolaty. The result was O.K. The finished dough was a lot like the pre-made stuff you get in the grocery store... These are pretty pedestrian pastries.... I think I wouldn't make this again.... unless I had to make something really quick. However, you could put something savory in them, and I'm sure kids would love these.

Recipe

Dough

1/4 oz Yeast
1/4C Water 105 deg.
4C Flour
1/4C Sugar
1tsp Salt
1C Butter cold
1/4C Milk 110 deg.
3 Egg Yolks

Filling

1/2C Almond Paste
1 Egg White
1/4C Confectioners Sugar
2tsp Cocoa Powder


*dissolve yeast in warm water
*combine flour, sugar, and salt. cut in butter
*add milk and egg yolks to yeast mixture
*mix drys with egg/yeast mixture
*cover and refrigerate over night

*Beat filling ingredients until smooth
*divide dough in half and roll out into 2 rounds
*cut each round into 8 wedges
*put some filling in each and roll it up!
*let them rise for one hour

*brush with egg whites and sprinkle with almonds
*bake at 350 for 15-20 min