E-mails are once again circulating about the woman who had lunch at Neiman Marcus with her daughter, ordered their cookies for dessert, asked for the recipe, and was charged $250.00 (the story goes that the waitress said "two-fifty", which she interpreted as $2.50). She subsequently disputed the charge and N-M stuck to their guns, since she already had the recipe. Her revenge was to circulate the recipe all over the internet. So the story goes............ I baked the cookies this week and they are pretty delicious. I do remember trying the recipe a few years back (whenever the last e-mail blast worked it's way to my computer and I don't remember being impressed). This time, I was happy with the cookies, so I have listed the recipe below including my personal tweaks and tips at no extra charge to KPK bloggers. LOL. BTW, if you're comparing this recipe to an e-mail that you received, please note, this is one-half of the e-mailed recipe AND I re-organized the ingredients in order of use, AND re-organized the directions according to ease of preparation, making it, in general, a much easier to follow, nicer, neater, baker-friendly package for KPK bloggers. You're welcome.
Urban Myth NM Cookie Recipe
with KPK Tweaks
Hey, Titles are Important
2 sticks of butter (I used one each, salted and unsalted)
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt (table salt)
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 1/2 cups oatmeal (regular old-fashioned)
12 ounces chocolate chips (I used half semi-sweet, half bittersweet)
3 to 4 ounce Hershey bar, grated (I used two 1.55 oz. bars)
2 cups coarsely chopped nuts (I used pecans but I love them all)
Preheat the oven to 375. Cream the butter and the sugars in an electric mixer. Toss the oatmeal into your blender and blend a bit until it's ground. In a seperate bowl, mix together the dry ingredients . . . flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and the blended oatmeal. Add the eggs and vanilla to the creamed mixture. Then, add the dry ingredients and mix slowly on low speed until just combined. Don't overmix. Stir in the chocolate chips, grated chocolate and the nuts. I used an ice cream scoop to make consistently sized cookies, but you can use heaping rounded tablespoonfuls of cookie dough, also. The e-mailed recipe calls for rolling the dough into balls. We all know that's a P-I-T-A. I scooped the dough onto parchment paper lined baking sheets and popped them into the oven for almost exactly 12 minutes. The original recipe indicates 10 minutes. You may want to set your timer for 10 minutes and keep checking until they're lightly browned. I guess 10 minutes would be just right if the cookies are a little on the small side. Smaller, shorter. Bigger, longer. LOL.
Curious and skeptical of the legend, I needed to do a little investigating. With one lightning fast Google search, the REAL recipe popped up in the number one position of the search, stomping out the myth forever. The recipe is completely different than the e-mailed recipe listed below!!!!! Here's a link for your ease and information: THE REAL DEAL. Click, read, bake and report back to the KPK. I would love to hear about your success with either recipe. I must now go bake the REAL NM chocolate chip cookies and provide you with an update to this story!
Make someone happy today with homemade cookies from your passion kitchen. They'll be more impressed that you made them than they would be if you bought them from NM for $24.00......17.75 ounces in an exclusive NM tin. Not sure if the tin is included in the 17.75, LOL.Nothing Chocolate, Nothing Gained
Talk soon,
Katie
number of pomegranate martinis and fruit-filled glasses of homemade red sangria. Now, that's what I call multi-tasking. Actually, I was amazed at how cool it was to show someone how I wanted something done, for example, how I wanted the peppers sliced for the grill . . . and a mere five minutes later, it was DONE! The power of numbers! I am really amazed at how fast things get done with extra helping hands! I think I need a party crew every night. There's nothing more beautiful than everyone working together for fun and entertainment with a lot of laughs along the way. It was really a fun night and my new favorite party concept. Talk about no pressure on the hostess. It was an "all hands on deck" night. Thank you to all of the willing and efficient party guests who made "Girls BBQ" a really great event! At left, check out Stephanie's avocado love, as evidenced by the traces of green, smack dab on each boob in the pic. At right, Gianna demonstrates her snapping skills. Ladies, light up those grills!
Fried artichoke hearts ala Vito DePalma. This method is still being fine-tuned for greatness to achieve the identical final product as my maternal grandfather, Vito. Emily is coaching me in artichoke handling and etiquette (or is that eat-i-quette)?
Recent adventures also included fried scallops and cod, ruby grapefruit salad, mushroom risotto, plus an outrageously delicious Steakhouse Night with pan-fried filets and homemade onion rings.
During the last hour of cooking, I boiled halved red potatoes, carrots, parsnips and turnips until tender. After draining, I tossed them with olive oil, butter,s & p, and fresh, chopped flat leaf parsley. I also boiled an additional head of cabbage
Check out these beautiful potatoes! Warm potatoes really benefit from a little champagne vinegar, olive oil and country dijon mustard in this lovely and lively salad. When all was said and done, this colorful variety of blue, yellow, red and white potatoes were combined with haricot verts (thin, young green beans), sweet onions, cherry tomatoes, finely chopped radicchio and romaine, a few warm, soft-boiled eggs and a scrumptious, French style, champagne vinaigrette. A peasant style feast of a salad! If you're not already into mustard vinaigrettes, try whisking a teaspoon or so of dijon mustard into your next oil and vinegar dressing. Add a little s & p and you will be thrilled with the result! A little dijon adds freshness and tanginess to your oil and vinegar. Try it. I even drizzle some directly into the salad bowl when I'm in a rush and toss it all together with the salad greens, olive oil, vinegar, salt & pepper. More mustard, more zip.
Beans, beans, magical fruit, the more you eat . . . (when I was a kid, I thought it went "Beans, beans, musical fruit, the more you eat . . . " Anyway, I love to make a huge pot of minnestrone style soup that is packed with beans 
and vegetables and tons of flavor. So, last Thursday, it was dark and creepy outside, pouring rain for hours. I spent the entire day in my closet, organizing jewelry and various junk. A dreaded project. I never got dressed and soon realized that I would not be leaving the house or abandoning my project. I knew I would be cooking "off the shelf". I started late in the afternoon with a bag of Trader Joe's 17-bean and barley mix. Yes, I finally came out of the closet. I quick-soaked the dried beans by covering them with cold water, bringing them to a boil, and then soaking them for an hour or two. Yes, just read the directions on the bag. LOL. From that point, it was a refrigerator and pantry expedition for all things soup. I had a lot to work with and I was happy to be in Katie's Passion Kitchen, rather than Katie's Closet. I had half a bag of baby purple onions, one parsnip, a bunch of celery, a bag of carrots, a pound of bacon (thanks to Mark), plus some cute little pasta rings (Anelletti) (HOLD IT! I just thought of a name for this soup: Fioretti Anelletti Minnestretti ~ LOL ~ whatdya think?). OK. So, I sauteed a few strips of bacon, finely chopped) in some olive oil and added onions, parsnip, celery, carrots, crushed red pepper flakes and finely chopped garlic. Can you smell that? Then, I added the beans which had been soaked, then drained and rinsed. To that, I added chicken broth, canned whole tomatoes (crushed by hand) with their juice, some water, a few bay leaves and some salt, pepper & cayenne pepper. This soup simmered for a couple of hours with the lid ajar. (Q: When is a lid not a lid? A: When it's ajar). Some of the beans do take a LONG time to soften up. Some actually stay firm but it's a good firm. Once the flavors began to develop and the beans became tender (while I was back in the closet), I added a small head of savoy cabbage (finely sliced and chopped). After that began to cook a bit, I added a few yello
