This highly readable book aims to ease the many challenges of starting undergraduate research. It accomplishes this by presenting a diverse series of self-contained, accessible articles which include specific open problems and prepare the reader to tackle them with ample background material and references. Each article also contains a carefully selected bibliography for further reading. The content spans the breadth of mathematics, including many topics that are not normally addressed by the undergraduate curriculum (such as matroid theory, mathematical biology, and operations research), yet have few enough prerequisites that the interested student can start exploring them under the guidance of a faculty member. Whether trying to start an undergraduate thesis, embarking on a summer REU, or preparing for graduate school, this book is appropriate for a variety of students and the faculty who guide them.

Elaborately decorated cookies fill the shelves of high-end bakery cases, tempting shoppers with bright colors and whimsical shapes. The cookies are beautiful, but buying them in a bakery can be shockingly expensive, and their flavor often doesn't live up to their appearance. Now home bakers can have their pretty cookies and enjoy eating them too
Thanks to the clear instructions and practical methods developed by authors Valerie Peterson and Janice Fryer, amateur cookie crafters can achieve bakery-quality design and homemade fresh taste. "Cookie Craft" gives readers access to the entire world of decorated cookies, beginning with an inspirational gallery of 150 colorful cookies guaranteed to start those creative juices flowing.
The authors go on to discuss ingredients, supplies, equipment and technique. They include four delicious recipes for rolled cookie doughs (Traditional Sugar, Chocolate, Nutty, and Gingerbread) that provide perfect blank canvases for decorating, and, of course, their recipe for versatile Royal Icing.
In the most important section, they share the design techniques accumulated and perfected during hundreds of afternoons spent crafting thousands of cookies. Cookie crafters will learn how to pipe, flood, and sugar their cookies, how to design color palettes that work with every season, how to make cookies stand up in fun 3-D structures, and much more

This highly readable book aims to ease the many challenges of starting undergraduate research. It accomplishes this by presenting a diverse series of self-contained, accessible articles which include specific open problems and prepare the reader to tackle them with ample background material and references. Each article also contains a carefully selected bibliography for further reading. The content spans the breadth of mathematics, including many topics that are not normally addressed by the undergraduate curriculum (such as matroid theory, mathematical biology, and operations research), yet have few enough prerequisites that the interested student can start exploring them under the guidance of a faculty member. Whether trying to start an undergraduate thesis, embarking on a summer REU, or preparing for graduate school, this book is appropriate for a variety of students and the faculty who guide them.

Make every Christmas a cookie craft Christmas The holidays offer just the right combination of cold weather and family togetherness for cookie crafters to elevate their skills to showstopping new heights. With more than 60 new Christmas cookie designs, along with festive New Year s cookies and lovely Hanukkah treats, "Cookie Craft Christmas" delivers colorful inspiration to cookie decorators just when they need it most.Each spread features a full-page, close-up photograph of one cookie cutter shape with detailed decorating instructions on the facing page. Some pages feature one gloriously decorated cookie, while others might feature two or three interpretations of the same shape ornaments in complementary colors, Christmas trees decorated in varying styles, or gingerbread men wearing a rainbow of colors and patterns. Decorating instructions are as simple as tinting cookie dough green before baking Christmas trees or as intricate as piping hair on a gingerbread grandma, creating a frilly pattern for her apron, and decorating her dress using a pretty feathering technique. Techniques are described in full in a Decorating Glossary, and cookie and icing recipes are included.Fresh inspiration and fabulous decorating ideas fill the pages of this handy little sourcebook. It s the perfect gift for anyone who has ever picked up a pastry bag."