Neiman Marcus Knockoffs: A cookie even my Grandpa would love

Last week my dad sent me a mysterious email containing a Neiman Marcus cookie recipe his secretary said cost a woman $250! Now, with a quick Google search I discovered that this urban legend stems from a mischarge of $250 instead of $2.50 on a woman's credit card for purchase of the top secret cookie recipe. Although Neiman Marcus officially stated this was only a myth, they quickly published a public recipe for their cookies.

My dreams of a cookie so good it would be worth $250 sounds like a wonderful cookie to me, so I have to admit I was somewhat disappointed. Luckily, I would say my take on Neiman Marcus' delights could be worth more than that in tastebud satisfaction.

Before I give my recipe, I want to take the time for you to get to know me better. When I cook, I am generally pretty willy-nilly. I like to just go go go and I often will add things at the incorrect time or put in 4 times as much as I should. Another tendency that related to this recipe is due to the terribly located grocery stores in Athens, Ga. If inspiration strikes I will use whatever I have in my apartment and hope for the best. Somehow this usually works and helps me use up extras in my pantry. Here's what I came up with, and let me tell you, you can't just eat one!

Neiman-Marcus Cookies: An Adaptation
My version is halved, but now I regret that decision.

1 cup butter
1 cup mini chocolate chips (Do what you feel! Just add as much chocolate as you like)
2 cups flour
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 Toblerone Bar (grated)
2 1/2 cups blended oatmeal
2 eggs
1 tsp. Baking powder
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 1/2 cups chopped toasted almonds

Prep:
Using a blender, blend oatmeal to a fine powder. Grate the Toblerone bar using a traditional cheese grater. If you purchased raw almonds, toast the almonds at 350 degrees on a baking sheet for 12 minutes. Then, chop the almonds into small chunks.









1.Cream the butter and all three sugars in a mixing bowl
2.Add eggs and vanilla
3.Mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder and baking soda
4.Add chocolate chips, Toblerone shreds and chopped nuts
5.Roll into balls and place two inches apart on a baking sheet
6.Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees.















If you are interested in the Neiman Marcus original it's here.

I, Killer of Blenders

A few months back, I discovered the amazing food that is fall squashes. I can attribute this new love to the Athens Farmers Market and the Pumpkin Nook, a great online collection of pumpkin related recipes. So, one Saturday morning, after selecting my perfect locally-grown pumpkin I found this delightful recipe for Curried Pumpkin Soup. I roasted the pumpkin, which is actually incredibly simple and well worth the absence of canned pumpkin puree in your life, and I prepared all my ingredients.

Now, I don't know about you, but for me there is near nothing more agonizing than placing a mixture into the blender only to hear the hum of the motor, the smell of burning plastic and to watch ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAPPEN. Well, my roommates and I were having a similar crisis at this moment, the smell of pumpkin delighting our noses and singing to us the temptation to use a utensil to hurry along the process. Now my roommate Emily sticks a knife into the blender mashes everything around and it seems to help. I think, good, it's working. So then I try.

Suddenly, the knife has shot through the plastic blender to remain jammed half in and half out the container and a hunk of plastic has launched over to just about strike my roommate Molly. All in all, a disaster worthy of any mother's worst nightmare, a mistake akin to running with scissors or gluing your fingers together with super glue.

Luckily, the Curried Pumpkin Soup was absolutely incredible.

Fast forward two months and here I stand facing our new blender equipped with a food processor ready to attempt my first pesto. I got the recipe from my new seasonal and local cooking book "Harvest Eating" by Keith Snow. In this neat cookbook for the sustainably minded, each recipe is marked with a symbol to indicate the proper season for the ingredients. This winter delight is a Kale Almond Pesto, challenging the misconception that pesto can only be basil and pine nuts.

Kale Almond Pesto

1 1/2 lbs kale This may be deceptive...I bought about this amount in poundage, but the recipe qualifies that this should amount to about 2 cups cooked which my cooked kale did not cook down that much
1/2 cup almonds, toasted
2 tbsp chopped shallots
1 garlic clove, chopped I used two because I loooove garlic
4 tbsp grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese I used a different variation of parmesan but it seemed to work fine
Salt
Ground black pepper
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1. Toast raw almonds in the oven at 350 degrees on a baking sheet for about 10-15 minutes
2. Bring a couple cups of water to a boil in the bottom of a stove top steamer. Place the kale in the steamer, cover, and steam for about 10 minutes. Then, run the kale under cold water to stop the cooking process. Let it drain and set aside.
3. Place the cooked kale, almonds, shallots, garlic, cheese, salt and pepper in the bowl of a food processor. As guided by other online recipes, you might add a bit of lemon juice and crushed red pepper, which I found to improve the slightly bitter taste.
4. Pulse several times to combine then drizzle in the olive oil Again with the making this seem so much easier than it ever is...I need a professional blender!
5. Adjust seasoning to taste

I enjoyed my pesto on spaghetti but it would also be good on grilled meat or pizza. I also found that this recipe improves with a night in the fridge.


Now back to my blender story. So I'm processing my pesto, a piece of kale at a time and it's taking far longer than the anticipated 10 minute time to complete the recipe. I am much wiser this time around and I unplug the blender before I venture to mash around the mixture with a wooden spoon. However, I manage to destroy another blender anyhow. Well I guess destroy is overstating, but it can be said truthfully, that in the final stretches - the last pieces of kale and the drizzling of olive oil - that my processor simply quits. The burning smell and the whirring, but no evident movement of the blades can be seen. I try many times and all I get is a few globs of pesto on my floor, not the most appetizing globular form, and various parts of processor strewn about. Eventually I simply gave up, removed the remaining unchopped kale and stirred in the olive oil by hand. Although this worked fairly okay, I still am eternally at war with the so-called "labor saving tool" that is the blender.

The Way to an Italian's Heart

I dedicate my first entry to Stephanie, a friend whose love life might just need a simple Italian Sausage and Pepper Ziti recipe.

* 1 pound hot Italian sausage
* 2 tbsp olive oil
* 3 cloves garlic finely chopped
* 1 green bell pepper and 1 red bell pepper cut into 1/2 inch slices
* 1/2 tsp salt
* 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
* 2 28oz. cans Italian peeled tomatoes drained and finely chopped (Get them
pre-chopped unless you want a huge tomato-juicy mess all over your counter!)
* 1/2 cup dry red wine (I used a cheap Pinot Noir. Red Zinfandel is a good pasta wine too.)
* 2 tsp. paprika
* 1 pound ziti
* 1 1/4 cups Mozzarella cheese shredded (I suggest using more cheese or saving this entire portion for the top of the casserole to prevent the noodles from hardening in the oven. Same goes for the Ricotta cheese.)
* 1/4 cup Ricotta cheese


1. Cut your peppers into chunks after removing the guts, i.e. seeds and stem. The exact size matters less than the attempt to make each roughly the same size, nearing 1/2 inch.







2. Chop up 3 cloves of garlic. If you are like me and you constantly have the dregs of tiny cloves to use, this might mean 5 or 6 "cloves."



3. Start cooking your whole sausages on medium-high heat in a deep skillet.

Be sure to prick them with a fork as they cook in order to release the juices. You should also turn the sausages to prevent burning on one side. Achieving a nice outer browning should take about 10 minutes. They WON'T be cooked all the way through at this point! Remove them from the skillet to allow slight cooling.




4. Add 1 tbsp of the olive oil and all the garlic to the skillet and cook, stirring, until golden, for about 1 minute on medium low heat.





5. Stir in the green and red bell peppers, salt and crushed red pepper and cook until the bell peppers just begin to soften. This will take about 10 minutes.

6. In between stirring the pepper mixture to prevent burning, cut your sausage into roughly 1/2 inch chunks. They will cook most evenly if the chunks are held to similar thicknesses. At this time, you should also cook the ziti in boiling water according to the instructions on the box.

7. Add the sausage slices, tomatoes, red wine and paprika to the skillet and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 15 minutes.

8. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375.


9. And toss the cooked ziti noodles in the remaining 1 tbsp. of olive oil.

10. Now you're ready to layer the ingredients into a 9x13in. Pyrex baking dish. Begin with about half the sausage and pepper mixture. Next add half the ziti noodles. Repeat. Lastly, top the dish with the mozzarella and small chunks of ricotta cheese, being careful to cover the noodles as thoroughly as possibly.


11. Place the dish in the oven for 20 minutes.


12. Invite your man over, pour the remaining red wine and light some candles. Just 12 easy steps al cuore.