Cat with Cat-shaped markings

I have nothing to add; I just thought you all needed to see this.

Don’t forget the Oscar pool!

entertainment for the housebound

dateline: New Jersey; 2/6/10, 1:30 EST – For those of you who are snowed in and looking for some free entertainment (I don’t care how much of a football fan you are, it’s too damn early to start watching that pre-pre-game crap. BTW, a student actually had the stones to remind me, the other day, that The Game was on Sunday night, as though it were a religious holiday that would justify me extending the due date of a paper that was assigned 2 weeks ago [asshole],) take note that TVLAND is showing a Sanford and Son marathon until 4 p.m., and at 2:30 will start showing the multi-episode arc in which Fred goes to the Junkman’s Convention in Hawaii and gets involved with jewel thieves. No, this is not one of those crappy ’70’s jump-the-shark plots that were an excuse for the cast & crew to get a free trip to the tropics; it’s a brilliant parody of those episodes. Watch and see, dummy!

Counting Down to the MJBlOscars, update

I apologize for the crappy ballot I posted the other day – in my enthusiasm to post it quickly, I copied the first one I could find, from Moviefone, and when astute newcomer Gypsyscarlett asked me what happened to “Best Art Direction,” I noticed that M.f. had truncated the ballot and left out a number of the fun & interesting tech awards. This would not stand, since MJBlog is all about the celebration of unsung excellence, so I’ve corrected the omissions. The official Academy Awards site has a lovely printable ballot, but since we are not meeting in person, I figured I’d save you guys the trouble of farting around with the PDF file. Here it is, however, for anyone who might be having a flesh & blood, brick & mortar Oscar party:

http://oscar.go.com/media/2010/pdf/OSCAR_BALLOT.pdf

For our virtual pool, however, I think you’re better off just copying the following, boldfacing your choices, and emailing them to me -

Actor in a Leading Role

• Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart”
• George Clooney in “Up in the Air”
• Colin Firth in “A Single Man”
• Morgan Freeman in “Invictus”
• Jeremy Renner in “The Hurt Locker”

Actor in a Supporting Role

• Matt Damon in “Invictus”
• Woody Harrelson in “The Messenger”
• Christopher Plummer in “The Last Station”
• Stanley Tucci in “The Lovely Bones”
• Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds”

Actress in a Leading Role

• Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side”
• Helen Mirren in “The Last Station”
• Carey Mulligan in “An Education”
• Gabourey Sidibe in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
• Meryl Streep in “Julie & Julia”

Actress in a Supporting Role

• Penélope Cruz in “Nine”
• Vera Farmiga in “Up in the Air”
• Maggie Gyllenhaal in “Crazy Heart”
• Anna Kendrick in “Up in the Air”
• Mo’Nique in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”

Animated Feature Film

• “Coraline” Henry Selick
• “Fantastic Mr. Fox” Wes Anderson
• “The Princess and the Frog” John Musker and Ron Clements
• “The Secret of Kells” Tomm Moore
• “Up” Pete Docter

Art Direction

• “Avatar” Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair
• “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” Art Direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; Set Decoration: Caroline Smith
• “Nine” Art Direction: John Myhre; Set Decoration: Gordon Sim
• “Sherlock Holmes” Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
• “The Young Victoria” Art Direction: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Maggie Gray

Cinematography

• “Avatar” Mauro Fiore
• “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” Bruno Delbonnel
• “The Hurt Locker” Barry Ackroyd
• “Inglourious Basterds” Robert Richardson
• “The White Ribbon” Christian Berger

Costume Design

• “Bright Star” Janet Patterson
• “Coco before Chanel” Catherine Leterrier
• “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” Monique Prudhomme
• “Nine” Colleen Atwood
• “The Young Victoria” Sandy Powell

Directing

• “Avatar” James Cameron
• “The Hurt Locker” Kathryn Bigelow
• “Inglourious Basterds” Quentin Tarantino
• “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels
• “Up in the Air” Jason Reitman

Documentary (Feature)

• “Burma VJ” Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller
• “The Cove” Nominees to be determined
• “Food, Inc.” Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein
• “The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers” Judith Ehrlich and

Rick Goldsmith

• “Which Way Home” Rebecca Cammisa
Documentary (Short Subject)
• “China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province” Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill
• “The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner” Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher
• “The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant” Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
• “Music by Prudence” Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett
• “Rabbit à la Berlin” Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra

Film Editing

• “Avatar” Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron
• “District 9” Julian Clarke
• “The Hurt Locker” Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
• “Inglourious Basterds” Sally Menke
• “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Joe Klotz

Foreign Language Film

• “Ajami” Israel
• “The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos)” Argentina
• “The Milk of Sorrow (La Teta Asustada)” Peru
• “A Prophet (Un Prophète)” France
• “The White Ribbon (Das Weisse Band)” Germany

Makeup

• “Il Divo” Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
• “Star Trek” Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow
• “The Young Victoria” Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore

Music (Original Score)

• “Avatar” James Horner
• “Fantastic Mr. Fox” Alexandre Desplat
• “The Hurt Locker” Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
• “Sherlock Holmes” Hans Zimmer
• “Up” Michael Giacchino

Music (Original Song)

• “Almost There” from “The Princess and the Frog” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
• “Down in New Orleans” from “The Princess and the Frog” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
• “Loin de Paname” from “Paris 36” Music by Reinhardt Wagner Lyric by Frank Thomas
• “Take It All” from “Nine” Music and Lyric by Maury Yeston
• “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from “Crazy Heart” Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Best Picture

• “Avatar” James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
• “The Blind Side” Gil Netter, Andrew A. Kosove and Broderick Johnson, Producers
• “District 9” Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers
• “An Education” Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers
• “The Hurt Locker” Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier and Greg Shapiro, Producers
• “Inglourious Basterds” Lawrence Bender, Producer
• “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers
• “A Serious Man” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Producers
• “Up” Jonas Rivera, Producer
• “Up in the Air” Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, Producers

Short Film (Animated)

• “French Roast” Fabrice O. Joubert
• “Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty” Nicky Phelan and Darragh O’Connell
• “The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)” Javier Recio Gracia
• “Logorama” Nicolas Schmerkin
• “A Matter of Loaf and Death” Nick Park

Short Film (Live Action)

• “The Door” Juanita Wilson and James Flynn
• “Instead of Abracadabra” Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellström
• “Kavi” Gregg Helvey
• “Miracle Fish” Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey
• “The New Tenants” Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson

Sound Editing

• “Avatar” Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
• “The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson
• “Inglourious Basterds” Wylie Stateman
• “Star Trek” Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin
• “Up” Michael Silvers and Tom Myers

Sound Mixing

• “Avatar” Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson
• “The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett
• “Inglourious Basterds” Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano
• “Star Trek” Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J. Devlin
• “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson

Visual Effects

• “Avatar” Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones
• “District 9” Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken
• “Star Trek” Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

• “District 9” Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
• “An Education” Screenplay by Nick Hornby
• “In the Loop” Screenplay by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
• “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher
• “Up in the Air” Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

Writing (Original Screenplay)

• “The Hurt Locker” Written by Mark Boal
• “Inglourious Basterds” Written by Quentin Tarantino
• “The Messenger” Written by Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman
• “A Serious Man” Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
• “Up” Screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy

MJB EXCLUSIVE CATEGORIES

write in your own answers. Winners are determined solely upon the discretion of the Blogmistress:

Most Unlikely Nomination
Let’s face it, there were way too many noms this year. What would YOU have eliminated?

Most Overrated Celebrity
Anyone nominated for anything this year:

Most Overlooked Film, Nominated or not:

Most Overlooked Performance, Nominated or not:

Most Overrated Film

Most Overrated Performance in a Nominated Film

Film Most Deserving of Having Gone Straight to Cable, nominated or not

and finally:

POST TELECAST AWARDS
The schoolteacher in me is inspired to offer extra-credit this year – everyone has the option of voting for these categories until 6 a.m. EST, on Monday March 8. Each correct answer counts as one point, same as the others:

Hottest Actor in a Tuxedo, Male or Female

Most Ridiculous Headgear

The rules are the same as last time:
1. Copy the ballot, and either boldface your choice, or erase the others. Send it to my email address no later than 5:00 p.m. EST on March 7. You are all welcome to invite any friends or loved ones you can vouch for, as long as they understand there’s no real prize up for grabs here. I figure by only including those of you who have my email address and/or those whose answers you are willing to forward, we can prevent weird surfers from crashing our party.

2. Each correct vote counts as one point – in other words, “Best Sound Mixing” is as heavily weighted as “Best Direction.” The tech people work hard, too.

3. No pestering me for results – I’ll do my best to tabulate the answers by the end of that week.

4. In the event of a tie, well – there’ll be a tie. Both winners will receive bragging rights until we alll get tired of hearing about it, along with my choice of a bacon-flavored chapstick, a cup of coffee, or anything else I may have lying around the next time I see you.

5. The live chat meebo was a bust last year, but anyone who wants to, please log in, and Fang & I’ll be here during the show.

Mixed reports

I don’t know why I love Groundhog Day so much, but I do – maybe it’s the irrational way of determining that spring is coming, or the fact that it’s the last holiday that hasn’t been commercialized outta control, or the fact that like McC’s & my birthdays, and the anniversary of my marriage, it’s an oasis of joy during the otherwise coldest & dreariest part of the year. It’s an early reminder that no matter how much everyone else hates the month of February, I myself look forward to it all year, and you should, too, b/c without the shortest month, not only would there be no Groundhog Day, there’d be no MJB, nor any Mr. & Mrs. Fang. So let the celebration begin!

This morning in the northeast, there were conflicting predictions. That overrated celebrity rodent from Pennsylvania, Punxatawny Phil (the first syllable of his first name tells the whole story,) apparently saw his shadow and predicted a long winter. However, I have always relied on that unsung, underrated resident of that unsung, underrated borough -my former hometown – Staten Island Chuck, who has it all over Phil in terms of both accuracy and attitude.

Accuracy, b/c he’s been correct 22 out of the past 29 years, and attitude, well, because just look at him. This is, after all, the hog that bit Mayor Bloomberg last year:

The papers had a lot of fun with that, of course, suggesting that maybe Chuck was a Republican who was pissed at the mayor for changing parties, or a libertarian who resented his overinvolvement with issues of personal health, but IMO the groundhog was simply being a New Yorker – the kind of guy who feels “just because I do my job and take pride in my work, doesn’t mean I have to take any shit from The Man while I’m doing it.” I don’t think Chuck had anything personal against the mayor; he just didn’t like being rousted out of his home early in the morning, by a politician offering a bribe no less (Bloomberg tried to coax him out of his little house by offering him an ear of corn. Chuck took the corn, then bit him. I mean what would YOU do?!)

Anyway, to avoid trouble this year, Chuck’s handlers (yes, like any celebrity diva, he has handlers) took him out before the mayor got there, (you gotta give Bloomberg credit for returning, instead of holding a grudge) and Chuck predicted an early spring. Why shouldn’t we believe his surly optimism? Dude has already proven he cannot be corrupted.

P.S. The Oscar nominations were announced this morning, and you all know what that means. I’ll get ballots out to you all within the next week or so.

The Return of WiFi, and Best Oatmeal Ever

Where did wifi go, you ask? I have no stinkin’ idea – I still have not figured out why my old router gave off a perfectly good signal, strong enough for my next-door neighbor to see it,
BUT when you plugged it into the back of the desktop, we got no internet service at all: not on the laptop, NOR the desktop. I finally decided it was worth the $40 to buy a new damned router, and let the nice telephone service rep from India talk me through set-up. (I kept the old router, BTW, and if any of you can figure out how to make it work, you can have it.) The little disc that is supposed to tell you how to install the thing, by the way, is completely useless. Has anybody ever been able to set up a router without calling the live human being for help? Anyway I’m up & running in time for the Spring term (funny, isn’t it, that in my world “spring” starts on January 19? These wacky academiics!) and loving my renewed ability to multitask, such as it is (as we speak I’m blogging while watching “Pet Star” on Animal Planet. It’s early – I promise I’ll get to some real work within the hour.)

My other accomplishment today was, as part of my effort to detox from all that fattening Xmas deliciousness, to find another breakfast that will stick to my ribs instead of my ass (Rosie can vouch that when we went out for breakfast over the weekend, I resisted anything with syrup or a crumb topping. Hey, a cheddar cheese omelet isn’t exactly diet food, but it’s a start…) I came up with this:

put 1/2 cup quick-cooking oats* in a microwaveable bowl, along with 1/8 cup (the size of a coffee scoop) of dried cranberries (I used the orange-flavored kind. The plain ones, or golden raisins, work great, too,) and 1 cup of water. Microwave for 2 minutes & 20 seconds, then stir in a tablespoon of peanut butter & half a cup of unsweetened applesauce. Cinnamon and fake butter spray are optional. All this is fewer than 400 calories, and I’m still full. I know this is a little more time-consuming than just grabbing a bagel, but if you have the stuff in the house, it is actually less time-consuming than stopping at Starbucks and waiting in line, because again, you can multitask, by microwaving the oatmeal while you make your coffee (for weekdays, I have one of those little drip coffeemakers that brew a single cup, right into my commuter mug) and apply mascara (so much safer than those awful women who do this in the rear-view mirror at the red light.)

* so much cheaper and tastier than the instant variety that comes in the little paper pouches, and just as time-efficient. Plus less packaging = less garbage.

OK, now I have to print out some articles for my Crimes and MsDemeanors class, and start doing some actual work. Eat hearty, everyone!

To Help and Be Helped

Just as I was getting ready to break down my Xmas decor today, I got an email from The Trivia Maven, a friend of ours from The Old Neighborhood, who was passing along a really clever use for all those Xmas cards that are almost too pretty to throw out, but then again, what the hell do you do with ‘em?

This is what:

http://stjudesranch.org/help_card.php

Go ahead, please, it’s worth cutting and pasting, and I’ll get my brother drumno5 to show me how to add instant links sometime this year, I promise. The premise is that if you cut the fronts off of all your “used” cards and send them to the St. Jude’s Children’s Ranch, they remount them onto fresh card stock, and sell them to raise money for the charity. All it costs you is postage and a little bit of time, plus you get to start the new year by reducing clutter instead of just adding to it. I consider this to be a great idea and hope any or all of you will, as well.

Happy New Decade, Everybody

Stay warm, and healthy, and just as interesting as you always are, for at least the next ten years, my loved ones!!!!

A Fascinating Failure

That’s how I feel about Nine, the movie musical, which I saw this afternoon. I’m don’t regret seeing it, and it really does have a lot of fascinating aspects – Daniel Day-Lewis and Judi Dench should star in every movie ever made, Marilyn Cotillard is the best Luisa ever, and there’s a lot of truly compelling cinematography – so why isn’t that enough? Bear with me while I try to figure this out.

I think my biggest beef is that Rob Marshall wasn’t sure whether he wanted to pattern the project after a stage musical, a movie musical, or those fabulous b/w Italian films of the ’60’s, and he wound up not committing to any one of them. When he filmed Chicago, which was originally billed “a musical vaudeville,” he trusted that idea 100% and ran with it, with spectacular results. This film, on the other hand, was all over the place: big production numbers (why couldn’t Fergie/Serghina, who did a very good job conveying the spirit of the original, just have done her number solo, with the little boys, on the beach? Why keep cutting to the big “Hookers with Corsets & Chairs at the Saloon” staging? ) layered on top of MTV-meets-Fellini b/w dance numbers (Kate Hudson stinks, BTW – she has officially used up any good will I had for her after Almost Famous) on top of some genuinely excellent straight acting that sorta clashed with content that was originally conveyed in songs that help move the plot along. Judi Dench was wonderful, but why couldn’t she have played the producer: why did they have to invent those guys Fausto and Dante, who had no back story and no music? Why all those anonymous snarky journalists, when the press was conveyed so successfully via one performance and one number in the original production (I so miss Stephanie Necropolis singing “ThetroublewithContinihe’sthePrinceofMediocrityasecondrate directorwhobelievesthatheisSocrateshenevermakesamovieorapictureor aflickhemakesaFILM…” I missed it in the Broadway revival, as well. I also miss the whole “Grand Canal” number – couldn’t they has worked it in as a clip from one of Guido’s more successful movies, or a failed attempt at a scene in the misbegotten “Italia”?)

And then there’s the odd stunt casting. Nicole Kidman would have been perfect for this part 10 years ago, before she had her whole face paralyzed, but when she takes Guido’s face in her hands and you see her every-inch-of-40-y.o. hands up close against her weirdly smooth facial profile, it ruins all thoughts of her as a Timeless Muse, and I’ve always argued that she has a pretty decent voice, so why cut out the whole chunk of “Unusual Way” where she explains how she’s moved on and doesn’t need Guido anymore? Penelope Cruz is undeniably a force of nature, but that’s different than being an actress. Yeah, she’s supa-hot, which is necessary for Carla, but she can only do one accent, she can gyrate but not dance, and the director didn’t seem to trust her to do more than one song, which robbed her of a chance to show her neurotic but touching vulnerability, as the stage Carlas got to do when they sang the lovely “Simple;” here instead we get another boring man barging in, in the person of her colorless pathetic husband. After casting all these high-wattage actresses, why didn’t Marshall allow them to tell the story? And if he was going to keep the character of Young Guido (rightly so, since that kid was the only male in the film, other than Day-Lewis, to give a memorable performance,) why stiff him of that sweet little song at the end? The ending wasn’t half bad, really – it makes more sense for him to return to filmmaking AND let Luisa return to him, but since the kid’s in the scene anyway, why can’t he sing “Getting Tall”? After leaving the theater, that is the song I found myself humming, rather than anything from the movie. Somebody see this movie and tell me how it could have been fixed, please.

Tracking Santa

I can’t give you any better info than this, so I will leave you in the capable hands of the folks at NORAD:

http://www.noradsanta.org/en/index.html

Merry Christmas, everybody!

The Cookie Miracle

Snow is falling softly but steadily over the most of the tristate area, and since my winter break started at 3:30 on Thursday, I’m kinda digging on it. I laid in my cookie-making supplies yesterday, which was a good idea, even though the actual weather event didn’t start until early afternoon around here, so we had time in the morning to go out for coffee and pick up a few last-minute items at Target – I was pleased to find the holiday sized bag of Rolos, which are an unremarkable little candy, but an important ingredient in some of the best cookies you’ll ever make. Go ahead, try ‘em*

But as I blasted my BB King Christmas CD and set out the 3 (or was it 4?) pounds of butter to soften, it wasn’t the Rolo confections I was thinking of, but of the Christmas when my friend The Actor and I took part in a genuine Yuletide miracle.

Many years ago, the Actor and I found ourselves, at this time of year, broke, underemployed, and respectively involved in some unhappy romantic complications. We both love Christmas, but we were distracted, not really feeling the season, with not enough cash between us to go to a restaurant (even one the numerous cheap ones he can always seem to find) or see a show to take our minds off things. We decided, in our flaky callow way, to pool our resources and buy a bottle of cheap sweet wine, and the makings for homemade Christmas cookies. I’m not sure whose idea it was to start drinking BEFORE we started baking, but we did have a lot of time on our hands (we must have started drinking fairly early in the day, come to think of it,) so we spent a few hours after lunch getting drunk and lamenting our stalled careers and dysfunctional love lives, and then decided that there was still time to bake cookies. We were at The Actor’s apartment, and god knows I was too inebriated to recall any recipes from memory (not even my mom’s butter cookies, which only have 4 ingredients,) so we chose to go with a recipe that he had obtained from the mother of an old girlfriend for Russian Tea Cakes (also known in some circles as Mexican Wedding Cakes, or, as the protestants call them “snowballs.”) I am not proud to tell you that we were both so drunk that we could barely read the recipe, and were lucky that we didn’t burn the house down. But then again, I don’t think it was luck. I think it was a bona-fide Christmas Miracle: the Russian Tea Cakes turned out to be some of the best cookies I’ve ever had, even after I sobered up, and what’s even better, you don’t have to be drunk in order for them come out PERFECT. Here’s the recipe, which you should really double because everyone will want more, and if you make a whole bunch of them in advance, they freeze nicely with no appreciable loss in texture:

1 c. butter, softened
1/2 c. confectioners sugar (buy a fresh box; you’ll need more later)
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/4 c. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 finely chopped nuts

Cream together butter, sugar, and vanilla. Work in flour, salt & nuts (do this step by hand, rather than with the electric mixer; it makes a more tender cookie.) Shape dough into 1″ balls (I have a little device that looks like a tiny ice cream scoop that works great, or you can use a round measuring tablspoon) and place on an ungreased cookie sheet (I like the insulated air-bake pans; you never burn anything with them.) Bake for 10 – 12 minutes @ 400 degrees (do not brown!) While the cookies are baking, dump the rest of the powdered sugar into a cereal bowl. While the cookies are still hot, roll them in the sugar, and place on brown paper to cool. When they cool off, you’ll notice that they have sort of absorbed most of the sugar, so dump some more into the bowl, stir in a teaspoon of cinnamon, and roll the cookies a second time.

miraculous!

Shortly after the first Cookie Miracle, the Actor got a role on Broadway and organized his love life; I got a new job and started going steady with Fang. Go ahead, make a batch: who knows what could happen? At the very least, you’ll warm up the house and have a dessert for Xmas dinner – if they last that long.

*And just so you don’t think I’m crazy for singing the praises of a homely little candy like the Rolo, try these, while you’re at it. You don’t have to take my word for it; they were a Pillsbury Bake-off winner:

1 c. white sugar
1 c. brown sugar, packed**
1 c. butter
2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
2 1/2 c. flour
3/4 c. unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp. baking soda
1 c. chopped walnuts or pecans, divided into 2 half cups
party-sized bag of Rolos

In a large bowl, cream together butter, & sugars, beat until fluffy. Add vanilla & eggs & blend well.

In a small bowl, combine flour, cocoa and baking soda & mix well. Blend into sugar mixture, stir in 1/2 cup nuts, cover w/plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes while you heat the oven to 375 degrees and remove the foil from the Rolos. In a small bowl or shallow teacup, combine the remaining half cup of nuts and the tablespoon of sugar.

For each cookie, flatten out 1 tablespoon of dough into a little patty, place a Rolo in the center, and wrap the dough around the candy so that it’s all dough, w/no visible seams. Dip each cookie in the nutty-sugar mixture and place on an ungreased cookie sheet (they spread, so space them more widely than you think is necessary.) Bake for 7 – 10 minutes, until set & just a little cracked on top. Cool for 2 minutes before removing from the pan, but try a few of these while they are still warm and the caramel center is still melted. Hoo boy. I guarantee everyone will clamor to learn at what fancy bakery you bought them.

** did you know that if you store your brown sugar in a ziplock bag, along with a piece of day-old bread, the bread will get hard as a rock, but the sugar will stay nice and soft, indefinitely? Crazy but true.