We do a lot of impromptu cooking and baking. Typically it'll strike us at some late hour of the night when we're debating the merits of watching bad reality TV versus just going to bed, when suddenly we realize that our lives will not go on unless we make a spicy peanut stir fry or strawberry shortcake cupcakes or whatever else right now. And then we plunge headfirst into creating Second Dinner or Third Dessert......

Christmas is a week away (great googlymoogly - we still have some last minute gifting to get) and if you had planned to have lots of different cookies on hand, or made up to take to your rotten coworkers, and haven't quite managed to bake, a lot. This is a super simple, very fun way to host a gathering, have a good excuse to get your nog on, and have a respectable assortment of goodies.......

Okay, okay - this is a no-bake, not from a "box", as creative as you want to be, addition to your holiday party, goody swap or gift. After all, it's not about buying up all the gift cards at the convenience store on the corner - it's the thought that really counts. Also, these are great additions to little treat bag/thank you gifts for your holiday guests. What is it? Chocolate Bark creations!!! Very......

You might have noticed a couple of changes to Houstonist — and we're here to explain what they mean. Tags Instead of being classified by categories, all our posts are now tagged with content-specific keywords. Not only will they help you find broad subjects (like sports or music), but also specific kinds of posts (like posts about the Museum District, babies, City Hall and, oddly enough, snow). Soon, all our categories will be converted to......

One of Houstonist favorites (which really means very little, because we are hard pressed to find a cookie we DON'T like) is the simple, honest, and slightly gussied-up sugar cookie - the Snickerdoodle! In a very lame homage to that "Stewart" lady, we get festive this time of year, rolling our holiday version of the cookies in red and green sanding sugars. It's all in the presentation, you know. Snickerdoodles 1 1/2 cups sugar......

So, if Thanksgiving is all about pie, pie and more pie, Christmas is all about cookies, for us, for Santa, for everyone we can pawn them off on give them to. Here at Houstonist, we love food, cooking it, eating it, telling you how to make it and where to find it. We'll even let you know if it's all "meh" not so much. Holiday desserts are the best and the calories do not count......

Good morning, Houston. It's no secret that Texans like fried food — so it's no wonder that the Big Tex Choice Awards, the taste-test contest at the State Fair of Texas, focuses on fried concoctions. But this year's Big Tex winner for the best-tasting new food might surprise even the most jaded connoisseur of fried delicacies: It's fried cookie dough, created by Abel Gonzales Jr. The fried cookie dough is a cookie base with......

Need to know just a little bit about something? Ask a dilettante. The Chinese obviously hate us: First, they tried to poison our dogs, then our teeth, and now they're after our kids. Does this mean we should be keeping a closer eye on Yao Ming? Or ChineseElvis? --Red Ballsworth, Houston Now that Yao Ming has entered wedded bliss, I don't think he has the time to plot our downfall. Plus, he's been living in......

The beauty of Missed Connections is that so many are clearly total bullshit while others are endearing works of sincerity and a few make you wonder if they are true or not. Of course stalkers and way too many schlong shots freak us out. Speaking of, some guy wants to feed his hotdog to a JCI fan. When I Saw You, You Had Caught My Eye - 46 You were holding some trendy drink......

By now, you might have already seen the video floating around the Internet that seems to show a toddler who has been given ecstasy. If not, you can check it out here — just be prepared to see a lot of stupidity. In short, it's a video that first appeared on YouTube (it's since been removed); it shows the child sitting on the floor of a van, eyes rolling, as she's tapped, squeezed and slapped......

If you don’t look carefully, you just might miss it. There are no big signs, no front door fanfare, no huge welcoming committee to seat you…just a perfect little space in the Anya Tish Art Gallery off of Montrose. On a hot Houston day, a trip to Tart Café will chill you off instantly. The space is minimal, cool and clean with one huge floor-to-ceiling window that looks out to Montrose. Concrete tabletops mimic the......

Raise your hand if you did not know that the Spec’s Liquor Warehouse Midtown (2410 Smith) also carries 5,000 square feet of deli and specialty foods? Hmmm? Yep. That’s what we thought. One hand too many. If you don’t live or work in midtown/downtown, it’s likely that you might not know about this hidden gem. Houstonist recently went to Spec’s for lunch. Yes, lunch. And then we wanted to come back for dinner and to......

Our bloggers were fairly single-minded this week. We saw a lot of posts on the same couple of topics, but each one had its own distinctive style. Let's take a look at what's hot in the Houston blogosphere this week: Playoffs, anyone? The Rockets are getting ready, and the bloggers are fired up. Globetrotter is getting ready with their "I Urban Houstonian took a more classic approach, with an analysis of each team's chances,......

Last year, New York City's TV on the Radio reached a new pinnacle in their five-year career with their album Return to Cookie Mountain. It has been hailed by critics and showed up as one of our favorite albums of 2006. Since they're in town tonight (and so is Yo La Tengo -- how about that for a dilemma?), we thought we'd feature a video off the CD, "Wolf Like Me." We often wondered......

Good morning, Houston. Do you feel more metropolitan? Or bigger, maybe? According to estimates released by the Census Bureau yesterday, the influx of hurricane evacuees has made the Houston metro area the country's sixth largest. The Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown metropolitan area now has an estimated 5,483,857 residents, which puts it ahead of Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami Beach but still behind the New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth and Philadelphia metro areas. Another population fact: Harris County......

Houstonist spends December either crazy busy or stupid tired, what with all of the parties, shopping, home decorating and general Christmas season ilk going on. We discovered these, "on accident" and even though we are pushing all of our limits, we simply cannot bring ourselves to endorse pre-cut, refrigerated cookies that come with their own icing. There is something so wrong with it, our sensibilities are offended. We may kill ourselves, figuratively, but the cookies......

Damn it’s cold! Even for those of us who weren’t actually born here, but have become acclimated to Texas weather, it’s damn cold. What better way to warm up than a tasty beverage? (We know there are other ways too, pervert, but that’s a different site.) We don’t think the local organization “dedicated solely to girls” would condone this suggestion, but everyone loves a "Girl Scout Cookie". If a Thin Mint packed this much punch,......

If you're hiking, consider charging up your iPod, as Seattlest finds out that a man lost during a hike was found by the glow of his iPod. That cleverness seems to be devoid in cops who were using police cruiser instant messaging clients - although we imagine IMs "so are you nakie" to be included in cop shows, just for realism. If only the cops were busting the Hummer-driving jerk who made a poor......

Let's face it: If you're not cooking on Thanksgiving Day, there's not a whole lot to do (except, of course, when you're eating). Enter Thanksgiving TV, your best buddy for Turkey Day — and an essential part of your post-meal nap in your favorite recliner. Start Thanksgiving Day with three parades: the H-E-B Holiday Parade from downtown Houston, the Macy's parade from New York and the WLS Thanksgiving Day Parade from Chicago. The main......

Ah, fall. Ah, summer. Ah, fall. Ah, summer. Despite the fact that it's now October and we've had a couple of (admittedly short) runs of cooler weather, this week will feel pretty much like July. But there is relief in sight — in about a week and a half. Sit tight. Monday through Thursday Expect a cookie-cutter forecast for much of the week: Afternoon highs of 92, morning lows of 70, lots of sun.......

If you have always wanted to live like Martha Stewart (pre- and post-prosecution, of course), here’s your chance. Groundbreaking begins in Katy today at a new community built by KB Homes and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. Sounding more like a wine than a neighborhood, WoodCreek Reserve will feature 244 homes inspired by the personal residences (yes, that’s plural) of Martha Stewart. Most of the homes have a New England-ish exterior and range from 2,600......

The shot from flickr user and houstonist photo contributor phototainable. We didn't get a lot of sleep last night, so when we first looked at this lovable cookie constable, we thought the badge on his hat said "Cookie CCCP." For a few minutes, we tried to imagine why the Soviets would have needed a cookie enforcer — someone to make sure all the comrades were sharing their snickerdoodles, perhaps? And why would he look......

This has been a rough week for your -ist pals, though you wouldn't know it from the great posts all over the network. Plagued with server problems, our tech team (led by the great Neil Epstein) toiled around the clock to solve the glitches as they arose. Seriously, we've said, typed, and thought the phrase "server problems" more in the past week than we have for the last 35 years combined. Why not say it......

The shot from flickr user and houstonist photo contributor bpc (big pink cookie). The description: "The seats, empty and waiting, ready for the evening concert at Miller Outdoor Theater at Hermann Park. Taken during my photo hunt with Cybertoad for Assignment: Houston, challenge no. 1, Hermann Park. " This is part of the Assignment Houston #1 photo pool, which is totally worth checking out. If you would like to join Houston's best photographers in......

In his second day of cross-examination, former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling lost his cool at times Tuesday, even seeming to try to take control of the questioning from prosecutor Sean Berkowitz. Skilling lashed out at Berkowitz when Berkowitz was pressing him on the allegation that Enron execs used the company's reserves like a "cookie jar" to make Enron look more profitable. Skilling said the reserves weren't used in that way: "It's not only no —......

Speaking of fresh-baked cookies — what, we were, weren't we? — there'll soon be a new place to get 'em downtown. Nestle Toll House Cafe is opening a location at Main and Capitol, on the ground floor of the Great Jones Building. There are already four Nestle cafes in town (two in the Galleria, one at Bush Intercontinental and one on Mason Road), but Houstonist thinks the new location will be an excellent addition to......

We've heard plenty about Houston's escalating crime rate. First, the thugs targeted Oscar and the Cookie Monster, then expensive watches, and now — rock memorabilia? Yep, it's true: Early Thursday, burglars hit the Hard Rock Cafe downtown. The story comes from KTRK, which had very few details — in fact, the station didn't know what was stolen, though it did say at least three items of rock memorabilia are missing. The Houston Hard Rock's collection......

We at Houstonist spend more time playing board games than we’d like to admit. In fact, a few staffers have ongoing games of Scrabble, Sorry and 90’s Trivial Pursuit (and on occasion Literary Trivial Pursuit, the hardest game ever). In order to get out of our apartments we’ll often go to local shops and restaurants to get our game on. The following is a list of our favorite and least favorite spots. FAVORITES 1.......

Not only do we have to deal with an escalating homicide rate — there's new evidence of a regional holiday crime spree! In Katy, two Sesame Street characters are missing. It's believed vandals have kidnapped Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch from a front yard Christmas display. The owner is hoping the thieves will return them. He's also offering a reward for any information leading to their recovery. First the snowglobe stabber, now this? Houstonist......

If you haven’t noticed, we like lunch. If it weren’t for lunch, we’d probably not make it to dinner. If it weren’t for lunch at Thai Cottage, we’d probably go insane. The food is so good that we almost forget that two people can eat there so well for around $15. Located near the Edwards Grand Cinema on the corner of Richmond and Wesleyan, it’s a favorite amongst the Greenway set. The location affords......