It’s the same old adage of which came first, the chicken or the egg! Earlier this month I heard a tale from a friend of a friend.
Friend: My friend and her mom went to have lunch at Neiman-Marcus and they decided to have the “Neiman-Marcus Cookie” for dessert. The cookie was so good that my friend’s mom asked the waitress if she could have the recipe….
Waitress: I’m sorry, but we can’t give you the recipe.
Friend’s Mom: Can I buy the recipe?
Waitress: Yes, you can buy it.
Friend’s Mom: How much is it?
Waitress: “Two fifty.”
Friend’s Mom: All right, put it on my tab.
A few weeks later the friend’s mom gets her credit card statement from Neiman-Marcus and the bill is $285.00. She looks at the items listed and sees “Cookie Recipe - $250.00″ The mother calls the store….
Mother: ….when the waitress said “two fifty” I thought she meant $2.50 and not $250.00! I’ll send you back your recipe and I want you to take this charge off my bill.
Billing Dept: I’m sorry, but you’ve already seen the recipe and so the bill has to stand the way it is.
Mother: You mean you’re not going to take this off?!
Billing Dept: I’m afraid we can’t.
Mother: All right! If that’s the way you want it! I paid for this recipe and now I’m going to pass it on to everyone I know, and people I don’t know, for free!
A few days later, I received an e-mail with the recipe!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Neiman-Marcus Cookies
2 cups 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)
5 cups blended oatmeal
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla
3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)
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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I went to the Neiman-Marcus website and they refute the story as a myth. What’s interesting is they have a different recipe on their site than what is circulating! Could Neiman-Marcus be trying to convince people that their recipe is correct when in fact the recipe above is the true one?!
If it were winter I would probably try both recipes to see which tasted the best (even though I don’t care for chocolate!), but baking when it’s warm and summer is almost upon us is not my cup of tea!
Maya Muses: So which came first, the story or the recipe? As far as Neiman-Marcus is concerned, the myth came first and then they posted the recipe! Apparently this story and others similar to it have been making the rounds since the 1940’s first with a Red Velvet Cake recipe from the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and later with Mrs. Fields cookies and now Neiman-Marcus.
All this talk about cookies and cake is making me hungry!
