Nothing Says Love Like Caramel deLites , amirite

2025 is the last year to get this Girl Scout cookie flavor in Houston

It’s officially the best time of the year — Girl Scout cookies season has arrived.

Now through March 23, enterprising kids have already started hawking delicious treats online, with booths scheduled to pop up around Houston beginning this Friday, February 14. Nothing says “be my Valentine” like a last-minute purchase of Thin Mints for your sweetheart from a booth in front of a grocery. (Jokes aside, no one will be mad about receiving a box of Girl Scout cookies for Valentine's Day.).

If you are buying for someone else but don’t know their favorite flavor, you can’t go wrong with what the Girl Scouts of San Jacinto Council (GSSJC) say are the top three desired cookies: Thin Mints, Caramel deLites, and Lemonades.

Fans of ToastYays!, the French toast-inspired cookie dipped in icing, will want to invest in more boxes this year as the organization says farewell to the retiring flavor.

“When a girl sells Girl Scout Cookies, she gains valuable skills and earns money to help her troop take on their next challenge,” Mary Vitek, CEO of GSSJC, said in a statement. “Besides helping the troop, all the money from the Girl Scout Cookie Program stays in our local community and helps Girl Scouting thrive for tens of thousands of girls.”

To kick off the 2025 cookie season, GSSJC invited eight Houston chefs to compete at the Just Desserts event on February 5. The competition paired the chefs with local Girl Scouts to transform the classic Girl Scout cookies into tempting desserts. A panel of media personalities and influencers then judged the creations, and awards were presented:

Most Creative Recipe: Cake Fine Pastry
Best Use of Cookie: GUD Sugar
Best Dessert Presentation: Phoenicia Specialty Foods
Best Chocolate Lovers: Kenny & Ziggy’s
Celebrity Judges' Favorite: The Cheesecake Queen
Girl Judges' Favorite: Lexi Coffee
Best Just Desserts Rookie: The House of Sweets & Treats
People’s Choice Award: HTX Nitro

“One of the most amazing parts of being a Girl Scout is participating in programs and activities that help us grow into confident leaders,” Emma, a Girl Scout cadette, said at Just Desserts. “These experiences are invaluable as we discover who we are and who we want to become as young adults and community members.”

As the second-largest Girl Scout council in the country, GSSJC serves more than 39,000 girls in 26 counties. The cookie program teaches Girl Scouts invaluable skills such as money management, while proceeds support activities and provide financial aid to underserved communities.

Most Girl Scouts sell through an online store shared via a link with friends and family, but if you aren’t lucky enough to know a local cookie seller, visit gssjc.org to find a booth near you.

Courtesy of The Girl Scouts of San Jacinto Council

The Girl Scouts of San Jacinto Council has officially launched the 2025 cookie

season.

girl scout cookies news-you-can-eat

NYT best dishes

Houston Mediterranean restaurant makes NY Times' best desserts list

Sayad Mediterranean Kitchen/Facebook

Sayad Mediterranean Kitchen is the only Houston restaurant on either list.

The New York Times included four Texas restaurants among its favorite dishes of 2025. Divided into two lists — The 23 Best Restaurant Dishes We Ate Across the U.S. in 2025 and The 14 Best Restaurant Desserts We Ate Across the U.S. in 2025 — the dishes are:

Bad Honey Bunny at Mercado Sin Nombre (Austin)
Ketan Hitam at Yeni’s Fusion (Austin)
Konafa Naama at Sayad Mediterranean Kitchen (Houston)
Picadillo Macaroni and Cheese at 2M Smokehouse (San Antonio)

Times food writer Priya Krishna, who authors the entries for all four Texas dishes, traveled to far west Houston to visit Sayad Mediterranean Kitchen. “The konafa, a signature here, arrives with a molten layer of cheese under a sticky-sweet layer of golden, nutty semolina. The craft is evident, the konafa gone in a few bites,” she writes.

Sayad Mediterranean Kitchen Konafa Naama Don't skip dessert at Sayad Mediterranean Kitchen.KSayad Mediterranean Kitchen/Facebook

In Austin, Krishna praises the rice pudding at Yeni’s Fusion. “This barely sweet version, lush with coconut milk, aromatic with pandan and as soothing as warm porridge, is the gentlest way to end a meal,” she states.

Already hailed as one of America’s best breakfast spots by Bon Appetit, Krishna singles out a honeybun at Mercado Sin Nombre. “The coiled honey bun at this semi-clandestine cafe looks almost cartoonishly perfect, and the heady scent of cardamom and honey hits you before you even take a bite. Somehow, it tastes every bit as plush and elegant as it appears,” she writes.

The picadillo mac and cheese at 2M Smokehouse showcases how the San Antonio restaurant incorporates Mexican flavors into traditional Texas barbecue. “Imagine Hamburger Helper, but spicier, punchier and even more luxuriously creamy. It’s not easy to one-up the singular, thickly spiced brisket here, but the picadillo mac and cheese — which runs as an occasional special — holds its own and then some,” Krishna writes.

The New York Times regularly shines its spotlight on Texas restaurants, In September, it named four establishments — ChòpnBlọk (Houston), Isidore (San Antonio), Lao’d Bar (Austin), and P Thai’s Khao Man Gai & Noodles (Austin) — to its list of America’s 50 Best Restaurants.

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