Hurry! The entry portion of our 9th-annual holiday cookie contest is coming to a close, fast: If you want to enter, you've got to submit your recipe by noon Friday to taste@startribune.com. (If you're sending via snail mail, your entry must be postmarked Oct. 14).

We're hoping for original recipes, but we also appreciate cookies that you've culled from cookbooks, newspapers, magazines and websites and made your own. Here's a great example: Almond Triangles, our 2009 winner (pictured above). Charlotte Midthun of Granite Falls, Minn., first encountered her winning recipe in a magazine in the early 1990s and, over the years, made it her signature holiday baked good. Now it's one of ours, too.

Because we also love a good story, we ask that you tell us how your cookie fits into your holiday traditions.

You could win, and win big: The prize is a $200 gift card to a local cooking store, and you and your recipe will be immortalized in the pages of Taste and at Startribune.com. You'll also be the star of the show at a cookie-baking demonstration at the Mill City Museum in Minneapolis on Dec. 3rd.

Tell us all about your favorite holiday cookie(s). Send your recipe -- and story -- to taste@startribune.com (and please put Taste Holiday Cookie Contest in the memo field). or mail to Taste Holiday Cookie Contest, Star Tribune, 425 Portland Av., Mpls., MN 55488.