Neiman Marcus Cookies

One of the reasons I'm getting anxious for Thanksgiving is so I can make some Neiman Marcus cookies. I LOVE these cookies! I’ve made them several years now for Thanksgiving. They are by far and above my favorite. I believe it was my older sister Cindy that introduced me to them about 20 years ago and I have loved them ever since.

Somehow in the last year I misplaced my recipe for them though. So today I went online to search for the recipe. The first place I found was actually the Neiman Marcus website. They had a story and the recipe listed. But, it was NOT the recipe that I have used all these years. My recipe has oatmeal. The one on the Neiman Marcus site did not have oatmeal. MYSTERY! Makes me wonder, did they post a bogus recipe so people don't really have their recipe OR is the recipe that I had an entirely different one, never really from Neiman Marcus (probably the latter)?

Well, fortunately, I found the recipe that I have used and will continue to make the cookies this way. Here's the recipe if you want a real treat:

(Recipe may be halved):

2 cups butter
4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups brown sugar
5 cups blended oatmeal (measure oatmeal and blend in blender to a fine powder)
24 oz. chocolate chips
1 tsp. salt
1 8 oz. Hershey bar (grated)
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)
2 tsp. vanilla

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.

Shape of my heart

Prepare to be AMAZAED!

YATES

THE LAKE ISLE OF INNISFREE

by W.B.Yates


I WILL arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

50 Things I Like

I don't know what's up with the list thing, I guess I've seen a lot lately. Here's my latest. It's all about me. 50 things I like:

1. good friends
2. planning a vacation
3. nighttime
4. cheese--all kinds
5. the Brown Pelican restaurant in Santa Barbara
6. Saturday morning coffee on the beach
7. cool Autumn nights
8. hot summer days
9. walking in snow under a full moon
10. Thanksgiving road trips
11. scalp massages
12. my mom's hugs & kisses (dad's, too)
13. wearing my dad's class ring
14. the last 5 minutes of a plane ride
15. waking up from anesthesia
16. red wine
17. the smell of eucalyptus
18. lasagna
19. Sushi
20. peach cider
21. crossword puzzles
22. magazines
23. knitting and crocheting
24. Torah study
25. down comforters
26. the movie "Rudy"
27. adventure traveling
28. my cat Jaki
29. thin crust pizza
30. hearing my step-daughters voice on the phone
31. that last glance at night of my step-son sleeping
32. Kenny Chesney's song "Old Blue Chair"
33. maps
34. family reunions
35. motivational books
36. drinking coffee
37. being right
38. strawberry lemonade
39. buying flowers
40. Dairy Milk milk chocolate bars
41. napping in a hammock
42. grocery shopping at 2 a.m.
43. a good, medium rib eye steak
44. surfing the internet
45. laughing so hard I cry
46. chocolate pecan pie
47. Seeing a good play
48. Wahoo fish tacos
49. cheering for Notre Dame
50. dreaming

WHO* Avian Flu Update

Avian influenza – situation in Indonesia – update 17

2 October 2007

The Ministry of Health of Indonesia has announced a new case of human infection of H5N1 avian influenza. A 21-year-old male from Jakarta Province developed symptoms on 18 September, was hospitalized on 25 September and died in hospital on 28 September. The investigation found that the case was an egg seller in a traditional market. All of the contacts remain healthy, where they will continue to be monitored for ten days after their last contact with the case.

Of the 107 cases confirmed to date in Indonesia, 86 have been fatal. (80.37%)

*World Health Organization

Hollywood Squares

And now for something a little lighter...

If you remember the original Hollywood Squares and it's comics, this may bring a tear to your eyes. These great questions and answers are from the days when "Hollywood Squares" game show responses were spontaneous, not scripted, as they are now. Peter Marshall was the host asking the questions, of course.

Q: Do female frogs croak?
A: (Paul Lynde) "If you hold their little heads under water long enough."

Q: If you're going to make a parachute jump, at least how high should you be?
A: (Charley Weaver) "Three days of steady drinking should do it."

Q: True or False, a pea can last as long as 5,000 years?
A: (George Gobel) "Boy, it sure seems that way sometimes."

Q: You've been having trouble going to sleep. Are you probably a man or a woman?
A: (Don Knotts) "That's what's been keeping me awake."

Q: According to Cosmopolitain, if you meet a stranger at a party, and you think that he is attractive, is it okay to come out and ask him if he's married?
A: (Rose Marie) "No, wait until morning."

Q: Which of your five senses tends to diminish as you get older?
A: (Charley Weaver) "My sense of decency."

Q: In Hawaiian, does it take more than three words to say "I Love You"?
A: (Vincent Price) "No, you can say it with a pineapple and a twenty."

Q: What are "Do It," "I Can Help," and "I Can't Get Enough"?
A: (George Gobel) "I don't know, but it's coming from the next apartment."

Q: As you grow older, do you tend to gesture more or less with your hands while talking?
A: (Rose Marie) "You ask me one more growing old question Peter, and I'll give you a gesture you'll never forget."

Q: Paul, why do Hell's Angels wear leather?
A: (Paul Lynde) "Because chiffon wrinkles too easily."

Q: Charley, you've just decided to grow strawberries. Are you going to get any during the first year?
A: (Charlie Weaver) "Of course not, I'm too busy growing strawberries."

Q: In bowling, what's a perfect score?
A: (Rose Marie) "Ralph, the pin boy."

Q: It is considered in bad taste to discuss two subjects at nudist camps. One is politics, what is the other?
A: (Paul Lynde) "Tape measures."

Q: During a tornado, are you safer in the bedroom or in the closet?
A: (Rose Marie) "Unfortunately Peter, I'm always safe in the bedroom."

Q: Can boys join the Camp Fire Girls?
A: (Marty Allen) "Only after lights out."

My Personal Favorite:
Q: When you pat a dog on it's head he will wag his tail. What will a goose do?
A: (Paul Lynde) "Make him bark?"

Q: If you were pregnant for two years, what would you give birth to?
A: (Paul Lynde) "Whatever it is, it would never be afraid of the dark."

Q: According to Ann Landers, is there anything wrong with getting into the habit of kissing a lot of people?
A: (Charley Weaver) "It got me out of the Army."

Q: It is the most abused and neglected part of your body, what is it?
A: (Paul Lynde) "Mine may be abused, but it certainly isn't neglected."

Q: Back in the old days, when Great Grampa put horseradish on his head, what was he trying to do?
A: (George Gobel) "Get it in his mouth."

Q: Who stays pregnant for a longer period of time, your wife or your elephant?
A: (Paul Lynde) "Who told you about my elephant?"

Q: Jackie Gleason recently revealed that he firmly believes in them and has actually seen them on at least two occassions. What are they?
A: (Charley Weaver) "His feet."

Q: According to Ann Landers, what are two things you should never do in bed?
A: (Paul Lynde) "Point and laugh."

We don't stop laughing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop laughing!

Ask the Dr.

I found this Human Avian Flu information today on WebMD.com:

Weighing the Odds
The key to widespread outbreaks or a multicontinent pandemic is for the virus (H5N1), carried by domestic and wild birds, to morph into a form that can be passed from human to human via a cough or sneeze. Scientists are all over the map on whether this will happen.

Robert G. Webster, the Rosemary Thomas Chair at St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., is sometimes called "The Flu Hunter." Webster recently says there is a 50-50 chance the virus will become transmissible human-to-human. If it does, he projects that half the people in the country would die. He has stored a three-month supply of food and water at his house.

Others cite the swine flu scare of several decades ago. That one fizzled.

The upshot is no one knows for sure. The World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Homeland Security, and countless local governments are taking bird flu seriously and trying to plan.

The irony may be that for all of this planning, taking care of cases will probably fall to individuals and take place in the home. This is the view of Gratton Woodson, MD, a primary care doctor at the Druid Oaks Health Center in Decatur, Ga., who has made a years-long study of bird flu on behalf of his patients and has published a bird flu preparedness manual to help them cope.

The CDC also has put up a web site helping people to prepare for this possibility. It's www.pandemicflu.govhttp://www.webmd.com/click?url=http://www.pandemicflu.gov.