Giant cookies

So here's a recipe for some humongous cookies that are delicious. You can make regular sized cookies with the dough, but why, when you can make ginormous ones?

Peanut butter Reese's chunk Giant cookies

1 1/2 sticks butter
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup creamy PB
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cup reese's chunks (or a combo of your favorite baking chips)

Preheat oven to 350. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, whisk butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, mixing well until combined. Stir in PB. Then add flour, soda and salt. Mix in PB chunks when everything else is mixed nicely. Scoop onto prepared baking sheet and bake for 18-20 min. Let cool for 10 min, then eat!!!

Makes 6 giant cookies or a lot of smaller cookies.

P.S. You better have some milk or vanilla ice cream on hand when you make these. You won't be able to survive one cookie without one or the other.

Trip Tip Dry Rub

• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons garlic salt
• 1/2 teaspoon celery salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon dried dill
• 1/4 teaspoon dried sage
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed dried rosemary
• 1 (2 1/2 pound) beef tri-tip roast

Combine all dry ingredients. Moisten outside of roast. Rub on until all sides are coated. Let sit for at least 2 hours (overnight is best) before grilling or baking.
*We don't have a barbeque so I seared both sides on a grill pan before placing in a 9x13 and baking at 400 for 1:45. It was a little tough (and too well done), so I would recommend cutting the temp back to about 350/325 for a more tender/pink roast. Though the roast was a little tough, this rub was seriously amazing!!! It had the best flavor, ever!

Italian MVP Bake (Meat Vegetables Pasta)

Ingredients:
1 pkg mild Italian Turkey sausage (can use pork too)
1 med onion, diced
1 med eggplant, diced
1 bell pepper (whatever color you want), diced
handful mushrooms, diced
1-2 tomatoes, diced
2 cloves garlic, pressed or equivalent
1-2c fresh or frozen spinach, chopped
basil
S&P
crushed red pepper flakes, if desired
Parmesan or mozarella cheese, shredded, opt
1 7 oz package bits-sized pasta of choice (rotini, penne, shells, etc)

Directions:
Start pasta cooking to al dente.
In 5 qt saucepan, brown sausage, casings removed, with onion and eggplant on med-high heat. After about 4-5 min (meat and veggies are quite cooked through), add bell pepper, mushrooms, tomato (if using) and garlic & basil (to taste). Saute until veggies are soft and garlic is fragrant (about another 3-4 minutes). Add spinach and S&P to taste, stir in and immed remove from heat or spinach will get too wilted. Mix meat/veg mix with pasta, place in 9x13 pan. Sprinkle with cheese if desired. Bake 400 degrees for 10 min (don't let cheese burn but toasted and slightly browned is nice). Remove, let sit for few minutes before eating.

Serves 8
*I made this dinner on a night I took dinner to a family with a new baby. That way we weren't eating it for a week because it's large.
Serve with salad, toasted parmesan English muffins, or by itself. This recipe has all the meal parts (meat, starch, veg) in one dish.

Chicken and Bacon

Here is a link to a company called Zaycon Foods:

https://www.zayconfoods.com/

They have amazing sales on bulk chicken and bacon. BS cxn breasts for $1.49/# and bacon for $2.97/#. They only sell in cases that would feed an army so cases are good to share with friends.

<3 TLB

Summer Squash B'gosh

I found this recipe on simplyrecipes.com and tried it and loved it. If you have lots of summer squash or zucchini lying around, it's a great side dish, or even main dish if you want. Here goes:

• Prep time: 5 minutes
• Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 lbs squash and/or zucchini, sliced
• 1 green bell pepper, seeds removed, sliced
• 2 smallish tomatoes or one large tomato, peeled and cut into wedges
• 1/2 yellow onion, peeled and sliced
• 1 clove of garlic, chopped
• Olive oil
• 5 or 6 slices of cheese - jack or cheddar
• Basil, either dry or chopped fresh
• Salt and pepper

Method

1 Put onion, garlic, squash, bell pepper into a large saucepan with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Put on high heat and brown the vegetables slightly to develop flavor. As you are browning, sprinkle either dried basil or chopped fresh basil on the vegetables. When vegetables are slightly browned, remove from heat, add the slices of cheese, and cover the pan.

2 In a separate stick-free fry pan, put the tomatoes and cook at medium hi heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. You want to let the juice from the tomatoes evaporate some. After 5 minutes, add the tomatoes to the rest of the vegetables and stir. Salt and pepper to taste.

Yield: Serves 4.

Fat Kids Club and Foodies Unite!

The Reason

So Jen and I had a great idea that I think everyone, not just our immediate families will love because of the legacy we have received from both sides. I'm talking about the mutual undying love of delicious food that is practical and relatively simple to make... and even, on occasion, healthy! Even the title of this project reflects this fact that we love good food.

Family History Lesson

The following is a quick family history lesson for your reference and for the posterity. In our upbringing, a couple different terms were coined to describe basically the same thing: "Foodies" and honorary members of the "Fat Kids Club", or "FKC" for short. In several ways, they describe a lover of food-preparation, food-sharing, and, above all, food-consumption; an amateur aspiring gourmet who appreciates delicious and healthy food, but who also values time and lives on a budget, and therefore appreciates a quick and simple recipe for a Tuesday night; a person who glories in having created something that turned out so good, they're confident that, if tasted by others, they could win lasting friends solely on the shallow premise that they enjoy their cooking; someone who, when presented with food so sinfully tasty that, if untempered by wisdom and restraint, might be tempted to eat until sinking into a diabetic coma, or until you literally "become what you eat". (Please feel free to supplement these definitions with versions of your own).

Therefore, for this express purpose, we hereby create this blog. For the perfecting of the food, for the work of the kitchen, for the edifying of the body of our indulgences. We are here to proclaim that we love food and we are good at making it; and we want to share that love with the world.

The Rules

Here are the rules. You're all free and welcome to post your trusty recipes that have come through for you time and time again, as well as the new ones you've tried that turn out to be too good to keep to yourself. Feel free to show the blog to your extended family members, friends and coworkers. We want this to be a family thing so that we can all share and enjoy each others' family traditions, our experiences, our love for life, and our love for each other, through food!

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Please let us know because this is going to be a work-in-progress and we want everyone to add to it, use it, and enjoy it!

With love,

Daniel and Jen Mooney