You've got until noon Friday to submit your recipe in our eighth-annual holiday cookie contest. How will you know if you're a winner if you don't enter?

Here's how it works: You submit a terrific recipe (like Almond Triangles, pictured above, last year's fantastic winner, from Charlotte Midthun of Granite Falls, Minn.), we send you a $200 gift certificate to a local cooking store, and we feature you and your recipe in Taste.

We love original recipes, but we also value cookies that have been handed down from friends and family, or that you've discovered in newspapers, magazines, cookbooks, websites and other sources; in short, anything that has become a cherished holiday tradition in your household. Because we love a good story, we ask that you include a letter that explains the recipe's origins and its role in your holiday celebrations. Be sure to make your submission stand out with a recipe that even the most prolific of bakers will want to add to their holiday baking rotation.

Finalists will be featured in Taste on Dec. 2, and will be invited to demonstrate their cookie-baking prowess at the Mill City Museum in Minneapolis on Dec. 4.

Along with your recipe and story, please include your name, address, daytime telephone number and email address. Deadline is noon on Friday (letters must be postmarked Oct. 29). By mail: Taste Holiday Cookie Contest, Star Tribune, 425 Portland Av., Mpls., MN 55488. By email: taste@startribune.com, and please put Taste Holiday Cookie Contest in the memo line.