My Great-Aunt Ivene was one of a kind.  She was born in 1914 and lived for 94 beautiful years.  She grew up cooking, working on the family farm, later working at the bank and probably her truest calling…taking care of the family because she had no children of her own.

You see, Aunt Ivene married the love of her life, Foster Hammond.  Foster was killed in the war in 1944.  And she never remarried.  She always told me about why she didn’t remarry…”It wasn’t Foster”…she would say.  So she took it upon herself to take care of us.  ALL of us.  The rest of her long & beautiful life.

As a child, I used to spend nearly every Friday night with Aunt Ivene.  We would watch Dallas, play Chinese Checkers and OF COURSE…we would cook. I credit her with first showing me around the kitchen! Green Beans, Mac & Cheese, Pies, Cakes & her famous Sugar Cookies!  She made those for everyone!  And she would deliver them in an empty cracker box, an old Maxwell House Coffee can or those old Planters Cheese Ball Tins. Still such vivid memories I have of those special times and those cookies!!

I’ve been thinking a lot about Aunt Ivene lately and I decided to make a few batches of those cookies and deliver them to some friends like she did.  And then I decided I wanted to make some with Nutella.  I love Nutella.  And I could probably eat it by the spoonful (notice I said probably…doesn’t mean that I’ve actually DONE that…ummm, no…never).  And if you don’t know what Nutella is…just click on the link.  And then drop everything and race to the grocery store.

Here is all you need because these are very, very quick & easy.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  You will need a couple of baking sheets for these because this recipe makes A LOT.  To start, beat your eggs with a mixer until they are frothy. Then mix in the oil & vanilla. Next mix in your Nutella & Cocoa. Mix in your sugar, and then finally your White Lily flour. Mix these just like I’ve described so the ingredients get incorporated evenly. This will only take a couple of minutes. Take your ungreased baking sheet and start dropping a “dollop” of the cookie dough onto the sheet with a teaspoon. Don’t crowd your pan because these will spread out. But don’t worry about making them perfect either! Just see mine…not perfect. Not even close.

And here are some with the Nutella batter.

You will have to watch these closely depending on how big you made your “dollops”. Mine baked for about 10 minutes. Just until I could tell the bottom was slightly brown. They cook fast, so don’t burn them!
Once they are done, take them out of the oven and let them cool on the baking sheet so they have time to rest. Once they are cool..then grab a glass of milk and DIG IN. Try to resist from eating all of them at once. Just do what Aunt Ivene did…grab you a tin can, or an empty cracker box and share with your friends & family to put a smile on their face! Or eat them…your choice. 😉