Friday, April 23, 2010

Neiman-Marcus $250 Cookies

I got this in an e-mail forward a while ago and found it again today while looking for a cookie recipe. Some of you may have seen this before.
Some lady was angry that Neiman-Marcus charged her $250 for this recipe when she was led to understand it would only cost her $2.50. As revenge she wanted to give it out to everyone she could for free so that no one will ever have to spend that much again.
I figure if I post it here that would make more sense than forwarding it, plus it's more accessible to refer back to this way.


Here's the story in her own words:

The real moral to this story is always check your receipts!
Enjoy.
A little background: Neiman-Marcus, if you don't know already, is a very expensive store; i.e., they sell your typical $8.00 T-shirt for $50.00. Let's let them have it! THIS IS A TRUE STORY!

My daughter and I had just finished a salad at a Neiman-Marcus Cafe in Dallas , and we 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, but you can buy the recipe.'
Well, I asked how much, and she responded, 'Only two fifty-it's a great deal!' I agreed to that, and told her to just add it to my tab.

Thirty days later, I received my VISA Statement, and the Neiman-Marcus charge was $285.00! I looked again, and I remembered I had only spent $9.95
for two salads and about $20.00 for a scarf. As I glanced at the bottom of the statement, it said, Cookie Recipe-$250.00'.
That was 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 reasonable 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 our money at this point.'
I explained to the Accounting Department lady the criminal statutes which govern fraud in the state of Texas . I threatened to report them to the Better Business Bureau and the Texas Attorney General's office for engaging in fraud.
I was basically told, 'Do what you want. Don't bother thinking of how you can get even, and don't bother trying to get any of your money back.'
I just said, 'Okay, you folks got my $250, and now I'm going to have $250 worth of fun.' I told her that I was going to see to it that every cookie lover in the United States with an e-mail account has a $250 cookie recipe from Neiman-Marcus...for free.' She replied, 'I wish you wouldn't do this.'
I said, 'Well, perhaps you should have thought of that before you ripped me off!' and slammed down the phone.
So here it is!
Please, please, please pass it on to everyone you can possibly think of. I paid $250 for this, and I don't want Neiman-Marcus to EVER make another penny off this recipe!

NEIMAN-MARCUS COOKIES
(Recipe may be halved)

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.

So yes, there it is. I'm actually thinking that I might make these today so I'll let you guys know how they turned out. Enjoy!
~Julie :}

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Bobble Water


Here's an awesome new solution to the bottled water problem. Now you can have clean, portable water without sacrificing taste, style or the thickness of your wallet. Bobble has reinvented the bottle to include a built in filter. Genius, genius genius! $9.95 Will get you an 18.5 ouncer. Tada!