A Spin on Milk and Cookies: Introducing Our Spiked Cookie Milk Recipe!

This super yummy make-ahead cookie dough recipe combines the flavors of peanut butter with the chocolatey M&Ms we all know and love. If you only have unsalted butter on hand and the recipe calls for salted, just add 1/4 teaspoon salt to the recipe! (via Sally’s Baking Addiction)

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies

This make-ahead cookie dough recipe kind of borders brownie territory, which we are 100% here for. You'll get a mouthful of chocolate, with a fun hint of chili powder and cayenne that get at the real Mexican-inspired flavors. (via The Real Food Dietitians)

Red Velvet Fudge Cookies

Chewy and gooey, and reminiscent of our fave cake flavor, these red velvet cookies can be frozen solid for up to 1 month. We could see them being even tastier with some white chocolate drizzle! (via Whole and Heavenly Oven)

Matcha Cookies

Baking with matcha is so fun! You can prep this make-ahead cookie dough recipe a few weeks out if you're planning a party or have a bake sale on the calendar. It'll take you only 15 minutes of prep for a truly tasty payoff. (via Takes Two Eggs)

Thumbprint Cookies

This cookie dough recipe is fairly basic, taking on the flavors of whatever jam you choose. We'd recommend raspberry and peach! (via Culinary Hill)

Soft Peanut Butter Cookies

The key to making freeze-able cookie dough is choosing a recipe that’s full of fatty ingredients. The fat will allow the dough to still taste fresh weeks down the line. Case in point is this delightful peanut butter cookie recipe! (via Rachel Schultz)

Kitchen Sink Cookies

Kitchen sink cookies are the best! You can basically throw whatever you want into the dough, but we prefer chocolate chips, potato chips, pretzel pieces, and nuts. This recipe leverages butterscotch, too, and finishes everything off with a pinch of flaky sea salt. Yummm. (via Completely Delicious)

Loaded Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sure, this freezable cookie dough is made with oatmeal, but don’t you dare call these rich, buttery cookies a health food! They’re far too yummy for that. And they happen to call for an entire stick of butter, so you know they’re going to be decadent. (via Averie Cooks)

Lemon lovers everywhere will appreciate the sweet, lemony goodness of these buttery make-ahead cookies. They also happen to only call for a few select ingredients for baking with ease: lemon juice, lemon zest, butter, sugar, eggs and flour! (via Simply Whisked)

Butter Pecan Cookies

Not only is this recipe totally okay to make ahead of time, but the recipe actually requires it. This cookie dough needs to chill for at least three days, so why not whip it up to have on-hand any time you’re feeling the need for cookies? (via Sally’s Baking Addiction)

Healthy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Sometimes you're craving to go down the healthier route when it comes to cookie time, and these oatmeal + raisin-packed ones are the ultimate solution. This cookie dough recipe is make-ahead and freezer-friendly. When you're ready to bake them, let the dough thaw out at room temp for an hour, and you're ready to go! You can also freeze after baking, if you wish! (via Vanilla and Bean)

Disneyland’s Peanut Butter Cookies

This copycat recipe recreates the big, fluffy peanut butter cookies you can find on Main Street USA in Disneyland. Interspersed throughout the doughy, buttery cookies are peanut butter chips, which set them apart from your average peanut butter cookie. (via Six Sisters Stuff)

This butter cookie recipe is super soft and creamy, so it’s great for freezing ahead. Bonus: it’s also perfect for cutting into fun shapes, making it super appropriate for kids to make along. Don't forget to make some icing to decorate them! (via Life As Mama)

Perfect Sugar Cookies

These Lofthouse-like sugar cookies are sweet, soft, doughy and perfect for topping with frosting once they cool after baking. The freezable dough is just as good on it's own, if you catch our drift! (via Chef in Training)

Vanilla Bean Danish Butter Cookies

Vanilla bean is the star ingredient in these Danish cookies. Freeze the dough, let it thaw, and then use a piping bag to create pretty circle shapes before baking! (via Ashlee Marie)

Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies

Make this make-ahead cookie dough recipe a few days in advance, but leave the chocolate kisses for adding in at the end. Hershey’s kisses, peanut butter, brown sugar, butter and vanilla extract comprise the flavors of these classic cookies! (via The Semi Sweet Sisters)

These doughy cookies pull gently apart in the oven, creating a crinkle-like texture on top. But inside? It’s pure softness. Be sure to lightly coat the cookies with powdered sugar before baking to create the crinkle effect. (via How to Nest for Less)

Bakery-Style Chocolate Chip Cookies

Finally, these chocolate chip cookies are the perfect perennial favorite to store in the fridge before baking! We’ll also leave you with one final tip: when freezing cookie dough, it’s best to shape the cookies into individual portions and pop them in the fridge for about 30 minutes to harden. Then, stack them on top of each other, with sheets of parchment paper between each level. Put them into a freezer-safe bag, and chill. (via Tastes of Lizzie T)

As a Power of Women honoree, Mariska was recognized in regards to her work as an advocate for sexual assault survivors. She took the stage and used her platform to discuss rape and assault conviction reversals, shining a light on the recent overturned ruling in Harvey Weinstein's landmark NYC case. Here's what she said:

Today I want to talk about reversing convictions, and more specifically I want to talk to you about how impossible it is to reverse mine. It’s impossible to reverse my conviction that survivors matter. It is impossible to reverse my conviction that what happens to us matters, and that our society must respond to survivors with a more a compassionate, holistically, deeper, and more nuanced understanding of what healing means.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that after a trauma, survivors can reclaim lives of hope, of possibility, of audacious risk, beautiful intimacy, and glorious, glorious abundant joy. And I stand before you as evidence of that statement.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that we must listen to survivors as experts on what justice means. It is extraordinary how little their voices are consulted, let alone incorporated, in the process of deciding how to repair harm. Justice is not a one-size-fits-all journey.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that patriarchal impunity has to end. Patriarchal impunity is when a male-dominated system exempts perpetrators from punishment. Studies show that only 20% of all rape cases in the U.S. are reported to the police, and that between 5 and 0% of all rapes result in a guilty plea or a conviction. So why do 80% of victims not report? Because they're met with a system that grants impunity to perpetrators; a system that blames victims; a system that accepts only those victims who are experienced as "real" rape; a system that completely misunderstands the neurobiology of trauma, which causes behavior in women that doesn't fit the picture of how a "real victim" would act.

Is that change needed that victims should just pull themselves together? Just buck up and report anyway? No. No, it's the system that receives them that needs to change

It is impossible to reverse my conviction — and the conviction of my extraordinary team, The Joyful Heart — that the backlog of untested rape kits can be brought to zero; that the testing of all new kits must be mandated; that we need a statewide kit tracking system; and that survivors have the right to access the status of their kits.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that grammar — yes, grammar — that we use when we speak about rape must change. In the sentence, "A woman is raped," there's a crime and there's a victim, but there's no perpetrator. Where's the perpetrator? Where is he? Statistically, as we know, most likely he's walking free. He's so free that he doesn't even appear in the language about the crime that he committed. Is that not extraordinary? It's extraordinary that in the very grammar, the perpetrator goes free. Reintroducing perpetrators in the language of rape will make some very unwieldy grammar, but that's the nature of change. It's unwieldy, it's messy, it's uncomfortable, but it's necessary.

Hargitay continued on in her prolific speech to describe that rape shouldn't be considered a "crime of passion" because it's "not simply the next step in the trajectory of his passion" when a man takes a consensual hookup too far and assaults a woman against her will. She stated that it's "an exercise of power," doubling down that the language we use is important.

The speech went on to address that rape is both about power and control, as a "construct" that was "built, and assembled, and reinforced over time." She noted that there are people with these positions of power — and she specifically called out those in the entertainment industry — that could make a difference and aligned themselves to victims and survivors.

After this and some other remarks, Hargitay specifically called out the Weinstein conviction reversal. She said:

I do want to say something about the Harvey Weinstein conviction, specifically about the reason that it was overturned: too many women's voices. Too many women's voices were allowed to speak. Hallelujah! Amen! I can't imagine anything more beautiful than that. The Daily podcast episode talked about how it was so risky for the prosecution to have that many women testify. Risky to let women speak? You're damn right it is!

Too many women speaking brings change. Too many women speaking shakes the establishment. Too many women means we get listened to more, and people might actually hear what we have to say. Look what happened when women started saying just two words, right? Me too — just as an example — a tidal wave of change. Me too.

And then of course, there was the response: the Me Too Movement. The backlash. The examination of whether the changes that have come are lasting, or are even positive. Of course there's a backlash! What did they expect? For women to speak repeatedly, loudly, together, with a purpose — for there to be no backlash? The backlash is evidence of how powerful those voices were, how powerful those voices ARE.

Watch Mariska Hargitay's Full Speech Here

Turns out that your TV heroes really can be your IRL heroes after all. Long live Olivia Benson! Long live Mariska Hargitay!