How can I portion out frozen cookie dough? A friend's kid was doing a fundraiser, and I now have two 3 lb tubs of cookie dough. It's frozen, which is great on one hand because it keeps for so much longer, but...when I want cookies, it's a bit of a hassle.

I don't really want to thaw the whole tub, as I don't need that many cookies at once. I thought about thawing it and then portioning it into cookie sized pieces and refreezing it, but I was concerned about possible illness and such, because, well, it's raw cookie dough. 

If that's not an option, what's my best way to carve out just as much as I want of the frozen stuff? I tried a spoon and a fork, but that just left me with bent cutlery. My ice cream scoop didn't really work any better. I tried knives, but with how it is within the container (and so far I've not had a lot of luck getting it out to slice, either), I can't really get any purchase to slice through it.
Thaw in refrigerator until soft enough to portion.  Portion total batch, then re-freeze. Ideally, it should have been portioned before initial freeze. At this point, unless you want to bake them all, you will be fine with a refrigerated thaw, portion, and re-freeze.  Store portioned, frozen, cookie dough with as little air in the container as possible.