Funny Valentines

In a nostalgic mood lately, I've been thinking a lot about my parents. They are both gone now by years, which is sad because I miss them both. Makes me think about my own mortality more than I want to, but as my oldest son, Ryan, reaches his first adult age milestone of 18, it makes time more pressing that you cannot turn the clock back.

Traveling down memory lane, I remembered a cookie that my Mom used to make called "Mrs. Field's Cookies". The cookie itself has a peculiar story associated with it.

There was a chain letter that went out in the late 1980's to people all over claiming that a woman that  had been shopping at Neiman Marcus had stopped to have a bite to eat at their cafe. She ordered a Coke and one of the famous Mrs. Field's Cookies. She thought the cookies were so delicious that she asked the waitress for the recipe as she put the snack on her tab. The waitress returned with the recipe and the woman put it in her purse and left.

A month went by and the woman received her bill from Neiman Marcus. As she looked over her purchases, her eyes lit up in surprise. There on the bill for her purchases was a charge of $250 dollars for the famous cookie recipe!

However the recipe was a fake and the story that accompanied it was adapted from an urban legend attached to recipes for cookies from Neiman Marcus and Waldorf-Astoria Red Velvet Cake.^[2]
In response to the chain letter Debbi Fields posted this sign in all of her stores:

Mrs. Fields recipe has never been sold. There is a rumor circulating that the Mrs. Fields Cookie recipe was sold to a woman at a cost of $250. A chocolate-chip cookie recipe was attached to the story. I would like to tell all my customers that this story is not true, this is not my recipe and I have not sold the recipe to anyone. Mrs. Fields recipe is a delicious trade secret.

The author of the chain letter remains a mystery.

So back to my memories of my Mom- she acquired a recipe for Mrs. Field's Cookies and guarded it with her life. It took her a long time to make these cookies, and sometimes she would let me help her make them. They were delicious chocolate chip cookies, but I never thought to ask her for her "recipe".

 I began a search on the web to find the recipe closest to my Mom's Mrs. Field's Cookie. I knew the basic ingredients that I had helped her with, so I kept searching until I found one suitable. I made the batch of cookies with as much fanfare as I remember my Mom going through. They turned out delicious, so I bagged them, marked them as "Mrs. Field's Cookies" and placed them carefully in the freezer for a special occasion.

Several days later, Ryan came up to me to ask if the cookies that were in the freezer were to be given to someone because he had been munching on the bag and nearly eaten all of them before he noticed the marking "Mrs. Field's Cookies"! Then he asked "Who's Mrs. Field's?"

I laughed so hard! But I have to admit that those cookies received the kid's Good Seal of Approval because they are delicious!