The story goes that a woman in Dallas TX was eating lunch at a Neiman-Marcus café, and decided to try the “Neiman-Marcus Cookie”. It was so good she asked for the recipe, and when they wouldn't give it to her she offered to buy it. They said the price was “two-fifty,” which she thought meant $2.50, and when the $250 charge hit her credit card she realized the misunderstanding. She called the company to ask them to reverse the charge, but since she already had the recipe, they refused. In retribution, she decided to make the recipe public, and get her money's worth.

The story is completely false; it never happened. Neiman-Marcus has developed their own real cookie recipe which they make available on their web site for free. However, the recipe attached to the urban legend is quite good! Nobody knows where it really came from, but here it is (with a slight improvement by yours truly).

• 2 cups (four sticks) butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 4 cups flour
• 5 cups oatmeal, blended*
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 24 oz. (two bags) semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 8 oz. (a bit less than a 10 oz. bag) of Nestle Caramel Swirl Chips
• 3 cups finely chopped nuts (walnuts are perfect)

* Fill a blender with five cups of dry oatmeal, then grind it into a powder.

Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda. Add chocolate chips and nuts. Roll into balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 375°F. Makes 112 cookies. Recipe may be halved.

When you add the flour and oatmeal, don't dump it all in at once; add it slowly while you stir. The dough will become very difficult to stir once all the flour has been added.

The original recipe called for an 8 oz. Hershey bar, grated. I tried grating a chocolate bar with a cheese grater, and the result was a disaster. The caramel swirl chips are great; white chocolate works too. Milk chocolate chips would give you something closer to the original idea.

It will seem like you're adding way too many chips and nuts. Keep trying; it really does work.