Gourmet and Cookie Magazines are teaming up for Kids' Restaurant Week. Things kick off Saturday morning at Green City Market with cooking demonstrations from George Bumbaris of Prairie Grass Café, Rick Bayless and the Spatulatta girls, Olivia and Isabella Gerasole. Throughout the week, families may dine at participating restaurants from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Children ages 11 and under pay their age for dinner; all others pay $20.08.......

Last week when we made slow-cooked beef roast with vegetables and calico bell pepper muffins we also made cowboy cookies. This is a recipe that has been in our family's repertoire for generations, but funny enough, we don't know how they got their name. A cowboy cookie is basically a crispy oatmeal cookie with chocolate chips. That cowboys like? No idea. But they're good on their own, and great with a cold glass of......

With the city being overrun by holiday bar crawls, it might be difficult to walk the streets this weekend without being accosted by a drunk dude in holiday vest or run over by a Santa in a hazmat suit. Throw on your best Cosby sweater and enjoy any or all of these weekend delights.... Head to the nearest cineplex and see Juno, the most talked about movie starring Michael Cera since the last movie starring......

Certain holiday cookies evoke memories of childhood. Chocolate Crinkles are one particular cookie that does that for Chicagoist. They're kind of like a cookie brownie, if you can imagine. [Ed note: Oh, can I.] Join us, won't you, as we whip up a batch. What You Need 1 cup cocoa 1/2 cup vegetable oil 2 cups granulated sugar 4 eggs 2 cups flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 2 teaspoons vanilla 1/2 teaspoon salt Combine ingredients,......

Monica Eng at the Trib must be helping Chicago win its title of "most caffeinated" city; she tried 32 different coffees for a story in today's paper about which coffees taste the best. Coming out on top are cups of coffee from Metropolis, Intelligentsia, Coffee Beanery Ltd., Whole Foods, Cafe Colao, Illy, Peet's Coffee (our personal favorite), and Julius Meinl. She also recommends picking up the banana cream tart at Fox & Obel to......

What do Brooke Shields, Grant Achatz and this Chicagoist mama have in common? All three have a professed love for the convenience and taste of HomeMade Pizza Company. HomeMade Pizza Co. sells uncooked pizzas that you then take home and pop in the oven. Twelve minutes later, you’ve got a fresh-tasting, thin-crust dinner. Voila! June Cleaver has nothing on you. Menu options include funky, artisanal options like goat cheese and herbs or a combo of......

We intended to write a post this week on making our own tomato sauce as something to do with all the tomatoes in our garden, but we never got around to it. As you can see, it's pretty easy to do, and if you click here you'll see the recipe we used. We ran the sauce through a food mill to give it a coarse texture and remove excess water with the intent of using......

“I promise you, this story is going some place. I’m not simply blogging,” said author Erik Larson at the Printers Row Book Fair, which was in full swing today. What we love best about hanging out with author-types like Larson is that they just know how to tell a damn good story -- the stories about trying to write, or the stories that don’t fit into a particular cookie cutter format. That is, if you......

A: A free movie every week. To us summer is about more than music festivals, street fairs and outdoor dining. It's also about enjoying wonderful cinema, either indoors in a wonderfully air-conditioned theater, or outside on a big freakin' lawn. And we'll be getting plenty of chances for both over the next several months thanks to Cinema/Chicago and the Chicago Outdoor Film Festival. Better known as the organization behind the annual Chicago International Film Festival,......

One of our favorite writers J.G Ballard once wrote, “It is a curious paradox that almost all science fiction, however far removed in time and space, is really about the present day.” In no other medium is this quite so true as it is in film. We wouldn’t be the first to point out that watching Star Wars tells us a lot more about the year 1977 than it does about a galaxy far, far......

Red Hen Bread lacks highchairs, changing tables, a kid menu and a door big enough to comfortably squeeze a stroller through. We wouldn’t recommend going there with a large group and eating in, but with a long list of appetizing baked goods, a menu of innovative sandwiches, a friendly staff and an actual stroll-though window, this bread cafe should not be overlooked as a place to grab a bite with your kid. We recently tried......

The You Tell Me Cookie of the Week goes to “some guy,” who suggested that we check out new Chicago transplants The Whole Fantastic World last night at the Darkroom. This dedicated reader’s description (“Spoon playing the Police as prog rockers”) combined with our love of the Darkroom’s comfy booths on our weekend-weary bums proved to be an irresistible Sunday night, so we took a deep breath, ordered a cocktail, and settled in for......

It's Easter, y'all. That means, in addition to the re-enactment of the Passion happening as we write this in Pilsen, churches will be filled, families will gather, and restaurants will offer Easter Brunch specials. We have a few for you, in addition to the usual complement of food news and notable events. So sit back and unbuckle your belts. Who Comes Up With These Names, Anyway?: Leave it to us to be late to the......

When The Zincs' frontman Jim Elkington moved to Chicago about seven years ago, he had already fallen in love with the city. He had spend a decade living in London and drumming with a band, but he had an itch to write songs — and get the hell out of London. “I was in bands where other people were writing songs, and I would write arrangements,” he told Chicagoist last week, while devouring a cookie......

When you think of cities you might like to get out of, which ones come to mind? New Orleans, still suffering from hurricane damage? Sure. Detroit, where the floundering auto industry is creating unrest? Of course. But Chicago? We know the CTA has some huge issues, that the job market isn’t the greatest, and that our sweltering summers and frigid winters can create feelings of ill will, but surely it’s a worthwhile place to reside,......

There’s a lot of debate about the best pizza in Chicago. Choosing deep dish, pan or thin crust can be just as taxing as choosing between Gino’s, Lou Malnati's and Uno’s. But sometimes you just need a pizza without all that fuss. We’d much rather skip the hassle of waiting in line to sit in a crowded room of tourists and head to our local pizza joint: Marie’s Pizza & Liquors. There’s rarely a long......

Dharma Garden Thai Cuisine is a restaurant full of contradictions. And we mean that in a good way. One side of this Albany Park eatery is flanked by a long bar, although the restaurant is BYOB. Dharma prides itself on using healthful ingredients and cooking processes — the menu informed us “dharma ragsar” means “natural healing” in Thai — but 10 out of the 20 apps are deep fried. To be fair, a majority of......

Chicagoist loves television. Chicagoist loves all television. There are no prejudices here; we watch an episode of "The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency" with the same reverence as we watch "24." We’re rooting for Rob and Ambah as much as we’re rooting for Chris Sligh. We’re looking forward to "America’s Next Top Model" as much as we’re looking forward to answers on "Lost." Our world suddenly upended when we arrived home to find a catastrophe. The......

We admit to being sort of "eh" about Valentine's Day. Single people hate it for making them feel like losers (except Jen Shefft of course), and people in long-term relationships have to come up with some new way to make the yearly holiday "special." Chicagoist thinks that the only people who really dig little cupid and all of his fancy greeting cards are people who are newly part of a relationship. And lots of people......

We had every intention of going out to eat last night. We were planning on scouring the latest issues of Time Out Chicago, doing a couple of Metromix searches and discovering the latest delicious-but-not-too-expensive-or-mainstream dining spot. Preferably on the North or Northwest side of the city. But we didn't. Instead, we got home and didn't leave. One of our Wednesday night favorites shows is Bravo's Top Chef. Even though Padma Lakshmi borders on incompetent......

We swore My Chemical Romance just left town in a haze of mascara and Queenesque choruses, but the inclusion of MCR on so many year-end, best-of lists means there’s money to be made. So the black parade marches again with local heroes Rise Against who seem to be cast in the unfortunate role of second to bands for whom they’ve paved the way. Allstate Arena, March 1, 7:30 p.m., $30, all-ages. On sale tomorrow at......

Although many members of our staff are involved in noteworthy projects outside of our daily blogging duties, we generally don’t report on everything we do, reserving our self-coverage to only the coolest activites. Rachelle Bowden on "Eight Forty-Eight"? Cool. Scott Smith on "Chicago Tonight"? Trés Fab. Shannon Saar’s intricate ode to Louis Sullivan in gingerbread form? Well, that’s worth telling you about. Shannon, who writes on the weekend shifts and is one of our......

Let's face facts: the period between Thanksgiving and New Year's is deadly. Caloriewise, that is. First we start with T-Day leftovers (seven days and counting), and then we move on to the never-empty office cookie tray, enormous steaming mugs of hot chocolate and egg nog, and the kind of frigid wintry laziness that tempts us to cease exercising all together. It brings to mind that wise old adage: a moment on the lips, forever on......

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......

Last year, Chicagoist was taking a leisurely stroll through Northern Virginia, when we were accosted by every dieter’s worst nightmare: the dreaded Girl Scout. We soon found ourselves shelling out a good chunk of change for a few boxes of glorious Thin Mints, Samoas and Tagalongs. Unfortunately, a few Girl Scout parents in Northwest Indiana seem to have realized how the popularity of the cookies can translate into a sweet amount of dough for themselves.......

Chicagoist has made it no secret that it hearts Alliance Bakery with all of its, well, heart. Some of our best friends have been employed by this fabulous little Wicker Park establishment, and sometimes we enjoy stopping in just to drool over the red velvet cupcakes. In honor of the bakery's third birthday, Alliance is giving away a free cookie with every purchase, today through Sunday. Yes, that's right, FREE COOKIE. By our calculations,......

Today’s CTA Tattler discusses this morning’s RedEye article on the oft-heard but rarely understood CTA public address system. The CTA promises that new fiber-optic cables will soon allow you to know exactly how slow the Red Line is moving today. The Tattler also gives another plug for its CTA wireless alerts system and the transit status website run by friend of Chicagoist Tony Coppoletta. The CTA itself plans on evaluating its online CTA Bus Tracker......

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......

Apparently, the widespread craze of tearing down old buildings and replacing them with cookie-cutter buildings that don't really fit the character and style of the neighborhood and surrounding structures is *not* limited to the city limits of Chicago. With all the hype about the ongoing socioeconomic wars between the condo developer and the struggling artist renter here in the city, we were fairly stunned to hear that the same thing is happening in the places......

If you know anything about Chicagoist, you know: We Love Chocolate. Seriously, we eat the stuff for breakfast. And, we closely monitor what’s going on in the candy aisles. We’re not all Vosges, Godiva and Ethel’s, you know. We also like Hershey’s, the Everyman’s chocolate. And lately, Hershey’s has exploded with its twist-on-a-favorite candy bars, like the endless varieties of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (we’re talking double chocolate, fudge, inside-out and white chocolate varieties). In......