Double Chocolate Rebels & Aunt Nat

Today's been a long hard day at the office and on the way home I listened to Amanda Dickson's book on CD, "Wake up to a Happier Life."  Those few minutes of listening got me smiling.  She said something so amazing that I stopped and replayed it the clip.  She said, "Why would you do anything because youshould when you could do it because you love it!"   Infusing all that I do with love stirs creative thoughts and ideas and gets me excited about life.  I'm sitting in the BYU Salt Lake Extension Center Library as I write this and asking myself, "What do I love about this place?"  "What things are going to make me wildly happy today?"  The answers come so easily when I ask these simple questions.

I feel so much better.

Now, I started with those thoughts because Amanda Dickson and the phrase "infuse joy" remind me of a very special woman in my life.  Aunt Nat.  She's an avid blogger and beautiful writer.  She's passionate about library books, treasure hunting at consignment stores, her family and God.

She always is helping me discover wonder in new hobbies and talents. 

When I asked her to send me a recipe, she said she loves to look to her mother's amazingly good recipes because they bring back memories.  She took me back to her childhood memory in McCallan, Texas.  She was holding a teaspoon in her hand near the kitchen sink and making a Nestle's cookie recipe when her mother pronounced her the "Best cookie maker in the family."  She's confidently lived up to that honor since that day.  As a young girl I remember going down to her house and making cookies with her and her kids on Sunday nights.  I always loved going to their house on Main Street!  I was younger than all of them but they made me feel so important.  I remember when all the McKassons (her family) would come up to our house for waffle parties on the holidays.  At one of these Fourth of July breakfasts, I can proudly remember running the waffle iron when my own mother proclaimed that I was the "little cook of the family."  Since then I too have tried to live up to that honor.  

Natalie's conversation uplifted me and she ended by telling me how much she loves me.  

She wanted to share my Grandma's Double Chocolate Rebels recipe

Mary Ann Bradford

1 ½ cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 1/4 cup margarine

1/4 cup water

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup sifted flour

½ tsp. soda

½ tsp. salt

6 Tbsp. cocoa

3 cups rolled oats

6 oz. pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips (or half white, half semi-sweet) (Nat's lil addition.)

Sift dry ingredients together, cream butter and sugar and vanilla.  Add beaten eggs in thirds.  Mix in dry ingredients and water in between.  Add oatmeal and chips.  Bake on ungreased cookie sheet 350° for 10 to 12 minutes.