Cindy McCain Stole Her Cookie Recipe Straight from the Hershey's Website!

[Stephanie]

Oops! She did it again!


From the Family Circle "Presidential Cookie Bake-Off" - the candidates' spouses were asked for recipes for this cookie contest. Bill credited his recipe to the family cook, Michelle to the girls' godmother. And Cindy?

Originally for special occasions only, these butterscotch-chip-studded cookies are
now "an absolute must" whenever the whole family gets together, says Cindy.
The recipe came from a good friend.

--------------------------------------------------------

http://www.parents.com/recipes/recipedetail.jsp?recipeI...

Cindy McCain's Oatmeal-Butterscotch Cookies

Ingredients

3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups rolled oats
1-2/3 cups butterscotch chips

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375 degree F.

2. In a large bowl beat the butter or margarine, granulated sugar and brown sugar together. Add the eggs and vanilla, beating well.

3. In a medium-size bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture; stir until blended. Stir in oats and butterscotch chips. Drop by tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.

4. Bake at 375 degree F for 10 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

http://www.hersheys.com/recipes/recipes/detail.asp?id=3...

Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies

Ingredients:

3/4 cup (1-1/2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups quick-cooking or regular rolled oats, uncooked
1-3/4 cups (11-oz. pkg.) HERSHEY'S Butterscotch Chips

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375°F.

2. Beat butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar in large bowl until well blended. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well.

3. Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; gradually add to butter mixture, beating until well blended. Stir in oats and butterscotch chips; mix well. Drop by heaping teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.

4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown. Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. About 4 dozen cookies.

[YDogg]

1. no fucking scruples.

[roguevalley]

233. this thread is pasted onto page nine of the site's comments. :)

[AspenRose]

2. Does HuffPost know?

Bwahahahaha....stone cold busted, AGAIN

[Stephanie]

5. Doubt it. I discovered it myself after reading this comment at the Family Circle page:

http://www.parents.com/recipes/recipedetail.jsp?recipeI...

CorneliaMarieGirl wrote:
very good cookies, they are almost an exact copy of oatmeal scotchies from a very popular butterscotch chip maker...only a 1/4 cup of butter is the differance

[Yukari Yakumo]

217. Stealing other people's ideas

Isn't that the McCain mantra this year?

I've noticed that nearly every page of the comments section at the recipe's website has at least one person pointing out Cindy's plagiarism.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

Oh good you made it an OP.

I can't believe she did it again. How arrogant can you be?

[gateley]

3. I wonder if Cindy McCain has ever really baked cookies in her life. nt

[Cleita]

9. With her money she could afford to

buy all the Mrs. Fields that she wants.

[Ilsa]

11. I wonder if she is aware that there are kitchens in her mansions? nt

[jgraz]

22. Are you kidding? I doubt she even stole this recipe herself.

She probably just asked one of her servants to send out some recipes to make her look "homey".

[Stephanie]

126. No doubt another intern is about to get fired!

I love how it's a "family favorite" - yeah right!

[Vinca]

4. So which one of her good friends owns the Hershey Company? nt

[msongs]

6. multi-millionaires are friends with people we cannot acess lol nt

[niyad]

7. some of the other recipes were lifted from foodnetwork site--from rachel, I believe

these people are completely dishonest.

the very least she could have said is, "got these recipes from food network, and my family and friends love them", NOt "these are treasured family recipes" or whatever she said

[bunnies]

8. Is this woman a pathological liar or what?!

Unreal.

[jobycom]

10. She's no Hillary Clinton!

http://clinton2.nara.gov/WH/EOP/First_Lady/html/cookies...

[Occam Bandage]

12. When I saw the cookies didn't contain Vicodin, I knew she had to have plagiarized them.

[Teaser]

19. OH SNAP

.

[L0oniX]

61. LOL

[moriah]

182. There are Vicodin cookies? Where?

(Seriously, I have a really bad toothache right now. Ibuprofen isn't cutting it. Must go pay the dentist some money soon....)

[csziggy]

237. Bite a whole clove on the side with the toothache

That will deaden that side of your mouth - seriously.

[Bucky]

219. My God, you're a fabulous bastard!

Sir, I salute you!!

[blogslut]

13. Awesome find!

Do you have a Kos Diary? That would help blast this lousy move out to the world.

[Stephanie]

17. I do, but let the world come to DU for a change.

Kos is so full of itself.

[blogslut]

23. cool

I can dig it But, if it doesn't get the attention it deserves...?

[Stephanie]

31. I could post it over there later

But let's see what happens...

[Stephanie]

70. I posted a link to this thread in the Family Circle comments!

[blogslut]

79. Others are commenting on the theft as well

Frankly, I hope Family Circle disqualifies Mrs. McCain.

[Stephanie]

85. The others are most likely from here!

This will be out soon! Hah hah hah!

[ChimpersMcSmirkers]

235. Wouldn't that be fucking embarrassing. To be disqualified from a cookie contest for cheating???

You can't make this shit up.

[Occam Bandage]

14. Is this a DU exclusive?

[Stephanie]

15. It is! I just found it myself.

I saw a comment at the recipe page that said the recipe was the same as the butterscotch chips package, so I googled butterscotch chips and there it was, first place I looked! *Pats self on back*

[Occam Bandage]

16. Well congratulations! Let's link this around; this is too good not to pass up.

[Stephanie]

18. Absolutely!

It's so funny!

[FloridaJudy]

215. Cookiegate!

I love it. I love it!

[Stephanie]

216. That's what I'm talking about!

She's a serial recipe appropriator!

[SemiCharmedQuark]

21. Yes, well done Stephanie!

[L0oniX]

62. Old news n/t

[dogday]

75. Old new about the other recipe she swiped or this one?

[Stephanie]

77. This one is a DU scoop, you heard it here first, I found it myself.

[dogday]

78. I believe you Stephanie, just trying to figure out why

Loonix is saying this.. I think he is thinking about the first swiped recipe...

[Stephanie]

80. Yes, if you see the posts below it looks like this is the THIRD time

[dogday]

83. Or in my neck of the woods we call it the turd time.... In Cindy's case, it fits....

[dogday]

98. Maybe Michelle needs to be informed of this

bet she could use a good laugh

[Kittycat]

184. SEnd it to KO, he'll get a laugh and maybe put her on Worst Persons

[Stephanie]

227. I tried but I don't see a link for comments or tips

Do you?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/

[tammywammy]

20. Wouldn't this be the second time she's lied about her recipes

LOL

[Stephanie]

26. Yes!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

Bloggers Find Something Fishy In McCain Site's 'Family Recipes'

By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 16, 2008; Page A05

Ahh, the home cooking of Sen. John McCain's wife, Cindy. You can almost smell her Ahi tuna with Napa cabbage slaw or her rosemary chicken with warm spinach salad as you peruse the recipes on her husband's campaign Web site.
Or you could have, until yesterday, when that part of the site was taken down after bloggers revealed that several of the "McCain Family Recipes" were, in fact, copied word for word from the Food Network.

Cindy McCain's tuna recipe was actually developed and submitted to the Food Network by cookbook author and former "Cooking Thin" host Kathleen Daelemans. The recipe for farfalle pasta with turkey sausage, peas and mushrooms was a "quick pasta classic" from the TV show "Everyday Italian." That old McCain standby -- rosemary chicken -- was a creation of TV chef Rachael Ray and was lifted, with a few changes, from the same Food Network site.

All three were listed on a McCain Web page titled "Cindy's Recipes."

"Apparently a Web intern added Rachael Ray to our policy team without her knowing it," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds deadpanned yesterday. "He was swiftly dealt with, and the page is down for revision."

[shugah]

24. how many people actually create their own cookie recipes?

i'm going to give cindy a pass on this. people get baking recipes from a variety of sources - rarely does anyone know the original source. my kids would tell you that my recipe for chocolate chip cookies is the best recipe in the world, but if you looked at my hand scribbled recipe, you might notice that it is almost identical to the recipe printed on the back of a bag of nestlé chocolate chips.

[AspenRose]

28. Then she shouldn't lie and say they're from her family or some such nonsense

She's done this TWICE now.

[shugah]

39. i think it's very possible that she did get the recipe from "a friend"

cookie recipes get passed around.

however, i never thought i'd find myself in a position of defending cindy mccain -i'm kind of creeped out about the whole idea of it. yuck!

(i far prefer Michelle's shortbread cookie recipe anyway.)

edit: typo

[Stephanie]

32. Nah, hers was not scribbled anywhere. Look at the way the amounts are formatted.

She won't even name the "good friend" who gave her the recipe. Our Democrats both credit the source. Look at how the wording is identical except for the brand of chips and the last direction. When you are scribbling a recipe off a package you don't write all that stuff out.

[chascarrillo]

36. Also note that the directions are obviously reworded to hide the original source.

[Stephanie]

37. And when you write out a recipe you don't include "all-purpose" flour or vanilla "extract"

You'd write 1 cup flour, 1 tsp. vanilla. Those qualifiers are revealing. It's clearly a cut and paste job.

[shugah]

45. good point

okay, that's a very good point.

[Stephanie]

50. right? like would you really write out "granulated" sugar?

No way. Cut and paste, for sure.

[Pab Sungenis]

212. Yes you would.

Granulated sugar works differently from confectioner's sugar. Likewise, all-purpose flour and bread flour work differently in recipes, and you should specify which.

[dsc]

196. actually on the vanilla you might point out not to use real vanilla

if you are in recovery. I can't use real vanilla in my recipes and must use fake.

[Merlot]

40. The idea that any woman should have to prove herself with a cookie recipe

is just sad and outdated. I too can't get on the bash-her-for-this bandwagon. Yes, she could have said where the recipe came from but I'm sure she's lied about things of much more substance than this.

ps. Most people lie about recipies....

[Stephanie]

42. But she has already been busted lying about recipes once.

Hence the general hilarity. You'd think they'd be a little more careful this time.

[Occam Bandage]

44. ...is incredibly stupid, I agree. The idea that she would rather lie about it yet again than

refuse to participate is stupider still.

[Cha]

171. Sorry you don't get it...it's a sign of her character.

She's lazy and a plagiarizer for two obvious glaring signs.

[LiberalAndProud]

185. I couldn't agree more.

This is a First Lady tradition I don't appreciate in the least.

[Stephanie]

186. Bill was also asked for his favorite cookie recipe

And he gave the one he liked to eat, not cook. Sexism is in the eye of the beholder.

[Cha]

102. We'll you're too freakin' easy...this isn't the

first she's done this plagiarsim thing with recipes..did you give "her a pass" on the other one, too?

[Pab Sungenis]

210. I do.

I even shared it with the world:

http://www.newadventuresofqueenvictoria.com/recipes-1.p...

[jgraz]

25. Well, I can believe she's "good friends" with a multinational food conglomerate.

[havocmom]

27. When you steal husbands and drugs, stealing recipes comes easy

If something exists, it must be for Cindy!

[AspenRose]

30. Damn that was harsh!

[havocmom]

47. Never did find that bush others beat around

[Occam Bandage]

66. Snap! Nice one.

[Tatiana]

135. DUzy!

[havocmom]

165. Nah, I just have an admitted low tolerance of desert rat floozies who go after married men

especially when they try and blame the help for their drug thefts.

[papapi]

29. Why would a person suffering from anorexia be obsessing.....

on stealing everyone else's recipes?

[mentalsolstice]

33. I've made these cookies myself

So I know she copied the recipe from the back of the butterscotch chips bag (or her servant did).

[Barack_America]

38. Somebody's getting fired...

My thoughts exactly.

I doubt Cindy has ever made these cookies.

[Occam Bandage]

59. I also doubt Cindy has ever made cookies. She's Paris Hilton, not Betty Crocker.

And it's really, really funny to watch the vain, narcissistic, drug-addled Paris McCain try to pretend to be a good Republican Housewife.

[Beaverhausen]

34. And this is important why?

seriously, who cares? There are plenty of important issues to go after her husband about. Where she got her cookie recipes doesn't really matter, does it?

[Stephanie]

35. Get a sense of humor! Criminy you know how to spoil a good time.

She's already been caught once stealing recipes and pretending they were her own.

[Beaverhausen]

52. Again, why is this important? is she a chef? Is Michelle Obama a chef?

Did Michelle claim she made up her own recipe from scratch?

How many of us make cookies from recipes we created? I'm guessing very few. We might tweak a recipe already published somewhere, but I think few of us have the cooking know how to create one out of thin air.

This whole thing is very sexist. Neither of those women's cookie recipes should matter to anyone. We have big problems in this country- maybe you haven't noticed...

[Stephanie]

55. No, Michele said she got hers from the girls' godmother,

Cindy said she got hers from a "family friend." Her friend is named Hershey's Inc., apparently. I am not saying she should have created her own recipe, but to copy and paste a recipe from the Hershey's website and then say it is a family favorite gotten from a family friend is, well what would you call that, a LIE, I guess, is the correct term.

[Beaverhausen]

60. how do you know her family friend didn't get it from Hersheys?

jesus this is nearly the stupidest topic I've seen here. WHO THE FUCK CARES???????????????

I'm outta here. Have fun with your cookies.

[blogslut]

74. Because the repubs are trying their best to present Mrs. McCain as the perfect housewife

While simultaneously insinuating that Michelle Obama is some sort of America-hating anti-mom.

Does a stolen recipe matter in the grand scheme? Probably not. What does matter is the lying. This is the second time Ms. McCain has been caught lying about her culinary skills. The fact that with all her riches, she couldn't take the time to pay a professional baker to invent a unique recipe shows that team McCain, once again, JUST.DOESN'T.GET.IT.

It is a petty and shallow act by petty and shallow people.

[Stephanie]

76. Or at least not lie about a "family friend" who gave her the recipe

And how it's a "family favorite" when it was CLEARLY just copy and pasted from the website. Who writes out "packed light" brown sugar when they give you a recipe? Who says to mix in a "large" bowl? Cut & paste job, clearly.

[dogday]

106. Not a stupid topic.. Cindy yet demonstrates how with the McCain's

it will be more of the same.. In this case more of the same deception and lying on the part of the Republicans... Since this is the history of this woman, I would say it would be quite a topic indeed... If Michelle had done this, trust me the Republicans would be up in arms with pitchforks, ready to destroy her reputation....

[Cha]

176. Then moveon ..nothing for you

here.

[Occam Bandage]

56. Because she's a shameless (and yet really obvious) liar and thief, and that's kinda funny.

It's like she can't help it. She even steals (and then lies) about recipes, for God's sake. Not just drugs, not just money, but recipes.

[grantcart]

104. yes why should I kick this thread again

well why not lol

[Stephanie]

108. I am trying to send the tip to HuffPost but I get an error message

I hope this gets covered tomorrow!

[Merlot]

43. I'm with you on that

[Stephanie]

48. Because it's funny. And because it's the second time they've done it.

[chascarrillo]

49. What was important about George HW Bush not knowing what a supermarket scanner was?

Perhaps on the grand scale of things, scanners and recipes aren't big deals. However, I think that little things sometimes tell you a lot about a person.

[KittyWampus]

91. Because in today's media climate THIS is the sort of thing that can put a chink in McCain's

media-granted teflon.

Please take your sanctimonious indignity elsewhere.

[whistler162]

144. Well she must be a fabolous cook since....

Rachael Rae and Hreshey's have stolen her recipes.

[KingFlorez]

155. With all the crap they are throwing at Michelle Obama this is fair game

It shows how dishonest Cindy McCain is to try and pass other people's ideas off as her own.

[Richard Steele]

157. Because it shows that she's not only a barefaced liar, she's an arrogant barefaced liar.

Arrogant enough to do it again after she was caught the first time.

It speaks to her CHARACTER. Or, more accurately,
her utter LACK of it.

[NobleCynic]

189. I agree wholeheartedly. Who cares?

[Barack_America]

41. Unreal. I can't believe she got caught again.

Cindy, when you're going to pass off your cooks' recipes as your own, be sure to at least know where they got them from.

[Stephanie]

46. I doubt the cook made these. I think the intern was asked to dig up a recipe again.

As I pointed out above, note the formatting of the ingredients. When you copy a recipe out by hand you don't write out "all purpose" flour. You don't put the dash in 1-1/2 cups. Etc.

[Occam Bandage]

53. Right. I'm honestly kinda surprised they bothered to change the "HERSHEY'S Butterscotch Chips."

Everything else is in Official Recipese.

[chascarrillo]

57. True, but that may be dictated by the style guide for the publication.

Mind you, I am a completely awful cook (I messed up cole slaw, for god's sake!), so I'm not entirely qualified to make these statements...

In any case, the order of indgredients are the same, the ingredients are the same (except that there's 1/12 of a cup fewer butterscotch chips - presumably Cindy stole them from the intended recipients of the cookies), and while the directions look different, they're actually saying the exact same thing - they're only very oddly rewritten, I think in an attempt to hide the source.

[Stephanie]

213. Clearly in an attempt to hide the source.

My best cole slaw recipe:

Mix shredded Napa cabbage (one head), carrots (2 or 3 large), and thinly sliced red onions (one medium, or less, to your taste) in a bowl. Make a dressing by mixing Newman's Own Balsamic Salad Dressing and mayonnaise (Hellmans!) to a creamy consistency. Pour dressing over the cabbage mix, sprinkle with salt & pepper to taste, toss, and refrigerate so the flavors can blend. Delish!

[WeDidIt]

51. Cluwe me in here, is this the second or the third time Cindy's been caught

stealing recipes and passing them off in one of these things?

[goldcanyonaz]

54. cookiegate!

[me b zola]

128. over-privileged theif & liar-gate.

[L0oniX]

58. This is old news ...it was picked up over a month ago.

[Occam Bandage]

63. Are you, perhaps, thinking of Cindy McCain's other recipe thefts? I don't recall seeing this one.

[WeDidIt]

64. No, that was a different recipe thing where she stole the recipe from Rachel Ray.

This is an entirely new recipe contest.

[Occam Bandage]

65. And then there was the one where she stole one from Quaker.

http://redblueamerica.com/blog/2008-04-15/scandal-did-c...
http://internetservices.readingeagle.com/editor/archive...

[chascarrillo]

71. Wow. This IS the third time!

Here's the two cookie recipes from the second link:

McCain: http://www.yankeemagazine.com/recipes/search/onerecipe....
Quaker: http://www.cooksrecipes.com/cookie/3-minute_no-bake_coo...

[Barack_America]

73. Hmm, does the "three strike" rule apply to cookie theft?

[chascarrillo]

67. Nope. These recipes were just announced this week by Family Circle. This is brand new.

[Stephanie]

69. No, that was recipes from the McCain site posted as "family recipes" but copied from Food Network

This is a new event, today!

[Lochloosa]

68. Not the same recipes...

Cindy tells you what size bowls to use.

Case closed.

[Stephanie]

72. Cindy says, "In a large bowl beat the butter or margarine, granulated sugar and brown sugar..."

Hershey's says, "Beat butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar in large bowl..."

Another intern is about to get FIRED!

[dogday]

81. Both recipes say use a large bowl.. How is that different?

that is the same size in my book....

[Stephanie]

86. He forgot the sarcasm thingy

It's just hysterical how they tried to disguise the recipe by moving "large bowl" from the beginning to the end of the sentence.

[dogday]

99. I tell you I am totally lost with the sarcasm thingy....

Round here, sometimes very hard to tell... Sarcasm thingy is my friend... lol

[Lochloosa]

191. ...

[FrenchieCat]

82. That's what you call shameless.

Does the woman even cook? That's what I want to know.

[Stephanie]

88. I don't care if she does or not but I do care that the campaign is so stupid to do this three times!

The shameless lies, the theft, it does not reflect well on them, and in a family magazine.

[Stephanie]

84. Okay, which one of you is Janet?

Hah hah hah! Comments: http://www.parents.com/recipes/recipedetail.jsp?recipeI...

[jakem]

87. guilty...

typo and all...

[Stephanie]

89. Ha hah hah!

I will be interested to see if they keep my link to this thread up.

[jakem]

90. the whole thing will be scrubbed as soon as anyone else notices-

but the point needs to be made nonetheless!

[Cha]

177. Wow..the comments are like the ones

on here who think this matters.

Is cindy mccain obtuse or what?