A Meal for You

I feel like such a blog slacker! I totally have recipes to give y'all but just haven't done any posts. So, today I'll give you an entire meal! It's really pretty easy and, except for the fact that it cooks for longer than 30 minutes, could be a 30 minutes meal. :-) Over Christmas break, my brother and his girlfriend decided that they wanted to make dinner for all of us...he made it a big surprise as to what he was making. They ended up doing pork loin, creamed corn (from the tube!), and garlic mashed potatoes (from the bag) and I added a salad. It was all very good. The pork loin was SOOO good. He just used an A1 marinade and instead of marinading the meat, cooked it in the marinade. I don't remember exactly how long but I think it was about 1.5 hours on 350...he followed the instructions on the meat package and then tested with the meat thermometer. Great job, Philip!!!

I provided the dessert (ooops, not at this meal but earlier that week!). After seeing so many rave reviews about the Levain Bakery, I decided to try Anna's recipe for the copies. I made four cookies instead of two. I don't know if I did something wrong, but they pretty much turned out like your typical chocolate chip cookie, though still good.

Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies from Cookie Madness

2 ounces unsalted butter, room temp
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 3/4 tablespoons beaten egg (that’s half an egg)
3/4 cups BREAD flour (3 1/4 oz) – weigh if possible. If no scale, scoop and sweep
1/8 plus 1/16 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Beat butter and both sugars just until they come together. Don’t over-beat. Add the egg and beat just until incorporated. Mix together the flour, salt and baking soda. When thoroughly mixed, add to batter and stir just until blended. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. The dough should be neither sticky nor dry. Divide dough into four freeformed mounds. Bake on ungreased insulated cookie sheet or an upside down rimmed cookie sheet for 15-20 minutes at 350. Cool on sheet for about 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Philip and Kenna shared one with some ice cream.