The Thunder Rolls.

This morning we awoke, had our breakfast on the porch, and watched excitedly as the thermometer began to climb. We were quite slow out of the blocks, lazily reading our books, and contemplating a possible trip with the new kayak to the lake later on.

When lunch rolled around, to our dismay, the temperature plateaued, and we sat there as the dark clouds quickly formed over the ranch. As the dog and horses began to stir, we quickly realised we were in for quite a storm.

They were right.

As we huddled inside with the eaves overflowing on the front deck, I decided it would be the perfect day to do some baking. I had wanted to make my special Neiman Marcus cookie recipe, but had left it at home in Vancouver. We had received this recipe in a mother's day cookbook (made by my brother's grade five class) accompanied by a story that someone had paid $250 for it unknowingly, and now wanted to share it with as many people as possible. I have since learned that this was an urban legend, though I could really care less, as it consistently made damn good oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Having forgotten this recipe at home, I jumped on the computer, in search of something similar. I found our old recipe on a website discussing the urban legend, along with a new recipe claiming to be the Real McCoy. So I tried it. The recipe pulled through, making some fantastic cookies. I used real espresso instead of instant espresso, as we didn't have the latter (though I should have increased the quantity as you couldn't taste the coffee when the cookies were baked). This recipe also did not have the Oatmeal that the original recipe called for, and this was something I missed.

Regardless, these were YUMMY!

The REAL Neiman Marcus Recipe (apparently!)

1/2 Cup Butter (Softened)

1 Cup Light Brown Sugar (I used demerara, as that's all I had)

3 tbsp White Sugar

1 Large Egg (lightly beaten)

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

1 3/4 Cups All Purpose Flour

1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Salt

1 1/2 tsp instant espresso (I used finely ground regular espresso- though would add more next time as the flavour didn't come through in the final product)

1 1/2 Cups Semi Sweet Chocolate chips

*** Preheat Oven to 300 F***

Directions: Mix together butter and sugars using an electric mixer (you can't tell from the photos but my bowl was far too small and I sprayed sugar all over the kitchen! - once you put the egg in, it keeps it together...good to know for next time!)

 Add 1 Large Egg (Farm Fresh of course!) lightly Beaten and Vanilla

Combine dry ingredients, then mix in with wet ingredients.

Stir in instant espresso and Chocolate Chips ( I used Ghiradelli Chocolate- Yum!)

Drop onto lightly greased cookie sheet about 3 inches apart (or use parchment paper like I did)

Use the back of a spoon to flatten dough slightly making round circles

Bake for about twenty minutes (until they are lightly brown around the edges). Bake longer if you like them crispy. It seems longer, but remember, the oven is only at 300.

Place on cooling rack (or better yet, eat hot out of the oven with a big glass of milk!)

Almost like a sign from above, as the cookies came out of the oven, the clouds parted and we were left with a gorgeous evening (now that's a good recipe!).

Off to the lake we went...

Dad in his new Kayak.

Here, now you can pretend you were with us...

Ommmm.