By popular demand: cake-mix cookie recipe

Dear Heloise: My daughter asked me for the recipe to make a batch of cookies using a cake mix. We enjoyed making them in the past using your recipe, which I thought I still had. Would you please reprint this easy, fun recipe? Peggy Granier, Baton Rouge, La.
This recipe is certainly a keeper. I get so many requests -- it might be because you can use any flavor cake mix and add a multitude of goodies. The possibilities are endless. And it is easy:
Start by preheating the oven to 350 F. Then mix only 1/2 cup of vegetable oil and 2 eggs with a box of regular cake mix. Do not add any water!
Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of "morsels" -- chocolate or peanut-butter chips, chopped nuts or raisins -- and mix well.
Then place the dough by the teaspoonful on an ungreased cookie sheet, about 2 inches apart. Bake 8-10 minutes. Let cool.
For other popular, reader-favorite cake recipes, please send $3 and a long, self-addressed, stamped (63 cents) envelope to: Heloise/Cakes, P.O. Box 795001, San Antonio, TX 78279-5001. The above recipe is not in the pamphlet, so be sure to cut out this page. But, you will find some fun recipes and even learn how to make a heart-shaped cake. And an FYI: When using powdered cake mix, put the liquid in the bowl first, then the dry mix. This will help prevent powder pockets. Heloise
Dear Heloise: For a cleaner kitchen sink, include the sink strainer and stopper in a dishwasher load once a week. Bobbi from Alabama
Dear Heloise: I read your hint from a reader about using the potato water with powdered milk to mash the potatoes. I have a better use for it: gravy. I make potatoes when I have fried chicken.
I use browned pieces from the chicken and any reserved flour coating mixture. I brown this and then add the liquid from the potatoes, supplemented with enough milk to make my gravy bowl full.
Of course, you have to have hot biscuits and mashed potatoes to put the gravy on! Susie Walker, Glendale, Ky.
Yum! I just gained a pound reading your delicious hint! It takes me back to my grandmother's kitchen -- the best fried chicken in Texas, made with love and "enough pepper to choke a horse." Heloise
Dear Heloise: I would like to share how I save brown sugar from becoming hard (works better than apple slices or the microwave, in my opinion). After I remove the amount of brown sugar I need, I fold the inner plastic bag over the sugar and tape it closed, removing the air. Then I use sealing plastic wrap and wrap the sugar bag. The sugar stays soft for a long time. Joan Wirth, Toms River, N.J.
Dear Heloise: I use my waffle iron to cook corn bread. It doesn't heat the kitchen and works very nicely. Delora, via e-mail
Send a money-saving or timesaving hint to Heloise, P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, TX 78279-5000, or you can fax it to (210) HELOISE or e-mail it to Heloise@Heloise.com.
King Features Syndicate