How-To's Day: A St. Nick's Day Treat

Hello peoples!  Yes, I have been a very bad blogger, but Christmas is coming and I have much crafting and baking to do.  Speaking of which, did you know that today is the Feast of St. Nicholas?  St. Nick's Day is a mid-Advent celebration with a very simple tradition: the night before, all the kids in the house put a slipper or sock outside their bedroom door, and in the morning "St. Nicholas" will leave them some kind of treat in it.  It's a lot of fun, particularly for the little kids!

Now I realize that it's a little late to start this tradition this year, but it's never too late to bake treats!  What we have for you today is a cookie recipe that was sent to us in an email so many years ago, I don't even know who it came from.  These are not St. Nick's day cookies, necessarily, but they are delicious and they have a story all their own.  So without further ado:
___________________________________________________________________________
Sweet Revenge
I had just finished a salad at Neiman-Marcus Cafe in Dallas and 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."  Well I said, "Would you let me buy the recipe?"  With a cute smile, she said, "Yes."  I asked how much, and she responded, "Only two fifty!"  "It's a great deal!" I said with approval, "just add it to my tab."  Thirty days later, I received my VISA statement from Neiman-Marcus and it was $285.  I looked again and I remembered I had only spent $9.95 for the two salads and about $20 for a scarf.  As I glanced at the bottom of the statement, it said, "Cookie Recipe - $250"  That's 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 possible 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."  I explained to her the criminal statutes which governed fraud in Texas, I threatened to refer them to the Better Business Bureau and the State's Attorney General for engaging in fraud.  I was basically told, "Do what you want, we don't give a darn, and we're not refunding your money."  I waited, thinking of how I could get even, or even try and get any of my money back.  So I just said, "Okay, you folks got my $250, and I'm now going to have $250 worth of fun."  I told her that I was going to see to it that every cookie lover in the world with an email account has a $250 cookie recipe from Neiman-Marcus... for free.  She replied, "I wish you wouldn't do this."  I said, "Well, you should have thought of that before you ripped me off," and slammed down the phone on her.
So here it is!  Please, please, please pass it on to everyone you can possibly think of.  I paid $250 for this... I don't want Neiman-Marcus to ever make another penny off this recipe...


Neiman-Marcus Cookies:
(Recipe may be halved)


Ingredients:
2 cups butter
4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups sugar
5 cups blended oatmeal
24 oz. chocolate chips
2 cups brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
18 oz. chocolate bar, grated
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)


Directions:
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, grated chocolate, and nuts.  roll into balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees.  Let the cookies rest on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack, otherwise they will fall apart.


Makes approximately 120 cookies.
___________________________________________________________________________

The original author is unknown, but I salute this person wholeheartedly.  Just a quick note: if you have gluten allergies to deal with, these cookies are easily adapted.  Simply swap the wheat flour 1 for 1 with Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Gluten Free Baking Mix, or something equivalent.  Nobody will be able to tell the difference!

Happy Feast of St. Nicholas!

Cranberry Sauce Revamped!

Ugh.  I missed How-To's Day again...  Yesterday was just one of those off days.  You know how it is: when you've got a headache most of the day, you can't seem to get anything done, and you zone out while watching Die Hard with the guys.  One of those days...

Thankfully, though, I'm back on an even(-ish) keel: I have coffee in hand and I'm good to go.

___________________________________________________________________________

Thanksgiving is only a couple weeks away, and I'm sure you're all working on your shopping and menu planning for that.  Just don't forget the cranberry sauce!

I'm not sure where this came from, but at some point in time somebody came up with the idea that cranberry mash was the perfect item to serve with Thanksgiving dinner, and it has inexplicably become an American tradition.  Now you can just open a can of cranberry sauce, plop it in a bowl and set it on the table without a second thought.

There are very few things that my family believes are acceptable to eat directly from the can, and cranberry sauce isn't one of them.  Instead, we make a cran-apple Jello mold that is utterly delicious and works well whether you have turkey or ham for your holiday meal.  I'd like to say that we came up with this idea ourselves, but that would be dishonest.  Mamasita found the recipe on a can of Musselman's applesauce I don't know how many years ago.  We've made it for as long as I can remember, and I honestly can't imagine Thanksgiving dinner (or Christmas, for that matter) without cran-apple Jello.  It's super easy and really popular with the kids; I highly recommend that you try it!  

Cran-Apple Mold

Ingredients:

2 packages (3 oz. each) cherry flavored gelatin

1 cup boiling water

1 can (16 oz.) whole cranberry sauce

1 3/4 cups apple sauce

Directions:

1. Dissolve gelatin in boiling water

2. Stir in cranberry sauce until melted.  Mix in apple sauce.  Pour into oiled 5-cup mold.  Chill until firm.

3. Flip mold onto a plate and enjoy!

Speaking of cranberries, that reminds me of something:

Happy Wednesday!

How-To's Day: Crock-pot Tips and a Chili Recipe

Have you ever found yourself spending a packed afternoon in town, running kids back and forth to various lessons and appointments, only to come home with a car full of hungry people and no easy, healthy remedy for dinner?  In these situations, the crock-pot is a wonderful invention, as I'm sure many would agree, and makes setting up a meal hours in advance very easy.  Most soup and stew recipes can be adapted to spending all day in a slow-cooker, so just throw something together in the morning, set your cooker to go, and forget about it until dinnertime. Sounds simple, right?  That's because it is.  We just have a couple of suggestions to make it that much easier on you:

1. If your recipe calls for potatoes, cut them up and par-cook them in the microwave to ensure that they are soft when it's time to serve.
2. Use a slow-cooker liner (available at the grocery store) for every crock-pot meal to minimize scrubbing that big heavy bowl.  Those liners are very durable and hold up well even against metal spoons.  An added boon to using a liner is that it makes it much easier to package your left-overs by simply lifting the liner out of the crock-pot (assuming it's not punctured) and pouring its contents into a jar or other container.

Most people already have a few favorite crock-pot recipes, but just in case, here's one of ours:

Chili Con Carne y Legumbres (chili with meat and vegetables)
Serves 6

Ingredients:
1 pound lean ground beef or turkey
2 medium onions, chopped
1 (15oz.) can kidney beans, drained
2 (15oz.) cans chopped tomatoes
1 (8oz.) can tomato paste
1 red bell pepper, chopped
vegetables of choice (see notes)
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 teaspoons chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 cup cooking wine

Directions:
Brown meat in a pan with the onion and garlic.  Throw all ingredients into crock-pot. Cover and cook for 6-8 hours on low.  Serve hot over baked potatoes, rice, or corn chips.

Notes:
We like our chili spicy and full of garlic and vegetables, but not everybody does.  If that's too much garlic for your taste, cut it in half.  Cayenne is pretty hot, so if you're not that brave, just omit it and use 1/2 tsp. of black pepper.  For the veggie content, we do not recommend broccoli, cauliflower, or cabbage as they have a strange consistency in chili, but leafy greens such as spinach or kale are easy and almost unnoticeable.  Chopped roots of any kind (carrots, turnips, beets, parsnips, etc.) work well, too, as well as shredded zucchini.  Essentially, just do what you feel and enjoy!