Bellaire Art Festival

It's that time of year again! Join the Southwest Chamber and Houston Civic Arts Association this Saturday, October 17th as we present the Bellaire Fall Art Festival on Paseo Park. Bring the whole family and enjoy great art from local and regional artists, entertainment, food, face painting and what is supposed to be some great weather! Michael's Cookie Jar will be there with Halloween cookies, soft-baked Americana cookies, brownies and more!

When: Saturday, October 17, 9am - 5pm

(RAIN DATE on Sunday, October 18)

Where: Paseo Park - in the Bellaire Blvd. esplanade (@ S. Rice Ave.)

MCJ Secures New Location

For the past three years, Michael's Cookie Jar has been sharing a commercial kitchen with the Bavarian Cakery. While being "baking roommates" has been very beneficial for the past three years, the time has come for us to move into our own kitchen and open up a retail bakery.

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After an 18 month search, a great location has been found! Formerly "The Village Table," this location in West U (a city within the Houston city limits) comes virtually ready to move in!
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It comes ready with a walk-in freezer, pot sink, dishwasher, mop sink, hand sinks, tile floors and ADA compliant bathrooms. While these are not terribly "sexy" things, they are required for a commericial kitchen. We'll add a hood for the oven and then our equipment and, of course, a display case.

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A move-in date has not been set yet, but it could be as early as Thanksgiving, but not later than the first week of January. We'll have a "grand opening" sometime in the first few months of 2010.

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In the meantime, some electrical work will be done, as well as making sure everything is up to code for the health department.

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Check back periodically to see new updates! There is a way to set your computer to automatically notify you when updates are made, but I don't know how to do that. The photos here show the space as it is today. I'll have exterior photos on the next post.

Halloween Creativity

Autumn lends itself well to cookies! The colors and flavors of the fall season naturally conjures up colorful images and sweet flavors. For this year, I've enlisted the talents of my sister, Leigh Hannan. She is a Illustrator and specializes in colorful pen and ink drawings for "surface treatments." Surface treatments are things like napkins, coffee cups, plates, stationary, stamps, embroidery and so on. I encourage you to visit her website to see all her designs! I also encourage you to visit Michael's Cookie Jar to see all our delicious buttery cookies for Halloween.