Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

My little sister is graduating from high school this weekend. This means that she is now property of the beast known as the Real World, but (much more importantly) this also means she is having a graduation party. With cake. And ice cream. And cookies.

My sister has been a ballet dancer for over ten years, so these cookies are an ode to her and her many accomplishments. The ballerinas are doing a lovely arabesque (yes, I did have to ask exactly what that pose was). How my sister can balance on the tips of her toes will continue to remain a great mystery to me. It appears to defy everything I know about physics. And I know a lot about physics.

So, dear sister, congratulations and good luck for the future! My first advice to you as a diploma carting member of society is to keep these cookies far away from me or you will not get the chance to bite off some itty bitty ballerina limbs for yourself.

These sugar cookies are sweet (but not too sweet), soft, and fluffy. They puff up nicely in the oven and stay that way. Forever. Your sugar cookies no longer have to be two-dimensional! Flower petals can really blossom. Pumpkins can have the correct dimensionality. Santa Claus can have the appropriate amount of chub. The possibilities are truly endless. Now go forth and be creative.

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Chocolate Bowls

Have you ever sat down to a devour a delectable dessert, licked the last sweet taste from the spoon, and groaned audibly at the prospect of now having to clean up after yourself? Groan no more! After a perusal of Bakerella's blog, I discovered the solution to this dire problem. Edible bowls. Can you imagine the grief this will save you? The suffering? The pruny, wrinkled dishwater hands?

I quickly decided I needed to make these chocolate bowls for myself.

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Chocolate Coconut Granola

Every time I find myself in the cereal aisle at the grocery store, I stare longing at the granola. The crunchy, sweet cereal calls out to me from the shelves, asking me to partake, persuading me to indulge. As of late, the Kashi Cocoa Beach Granola has been particularly convincing. The chocolate! The coconut! The almonds! It seems like more of a decadent dessert than a breakfast cereal. And believe me, I know how incredibly seductive the the idea of dessert for breakfast is.

However, I cannot and will not fork over $5+ for this granola. Especially for a box that is dwarfed by every other box on the shelf. I do have restraint even in spite of the sweet nothings this cereal insists upon whispering into my ear (yes, this surprised me too).

As it has become increasingly awkward to salivate over this cereal for great lengths of time in public, I took it upon myself to create this at home. Though I may never know the mysteries that lie in that tiny, overpriced cereal box, I can tell you with the utmost certainty that my hunger has been sated for now. Next I venture into the cereal aisle, I doubt that granola will even register to my eager, searching eyes.

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