Friday, November 6, 2009

It's a Homemade Play Dough Kind of Day


That was my cousin's status update on her Facebook profile this morning. And given that both The Little and Super Hubby are now down with the same flu that plagued me for two weeks, I was inclined to agree. It seemed like the perfect, low key kind of activity that The Little could help with. Baking Day has been on hold - because really, who wants to eat my Swine Flu bread? So making Play Dough? Perfect. It gives the illusion of gathering together in the kitchen like we do when we bake, but doesn't require we eat the final product (although The Little did sneak a salty bite and then spit it out.)

I asked her for the recipe and she immediately posted it back for me. I have an awesome cousin.

Here it is for those of you that are interested:

4 C flour
1 C salt
4 C water
3 Tbsp oil
1/2 C cream of tartar

Dissolve the salt and cream of tartar in warm water in a large pot. Turn the burner to medium, add the rest of the ingredients and stir. It only takes about 5 minutes. Divide the dough into 4, add food coloring, and knead each chunk for about 2 minutes.

What fun. It provided over an hour of quiet creativity for The Little - it would have been longer but lunch was ready. After we cleaned up, I placed the Play Dough into a large sealed baggy and stored it in the fridge for another day.












The Little really wanted me to help him make a "Roar." When it was done, he carefully picked it up and gave it a hug. Of course his love for this new Roar didn't keep him from taking it a bit later and smashing into the large pile of purple-ish dough that occurred when he mixed all the colors together.


Yours in the joy of Play Dough,

Simple Mama

10 comments:

  1. oooh, we used to love homemade playdough around here, before it was replaced by homemade chocolate playdough. Have you tried salt dough with your little one's ? nIt's so nice to be able to keep those tiny sculotures forever , & even paint them ! :)

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  2. I always forget how much *fun* homemade play dough is...thanks for the reminder-- this will be top-of-the-school-list next week:) I love the colors too!

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  3. Homemade chocolate playdough? Ooh...I think I like the sound of that. Haven't tried salt dough yet, but we will. Thanks for the information. :)

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  4. Hope your loved ones recover soon *hugs*

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  5. We generally make the salt dough as well. Or edible playdough (which is mostly peanut butter and powdered sugar). Fun stuff! The "roar" turned out so cute!

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  6. Fantastic creations! There is no playdough as good as the home cooked stuff, in my mind.

    Sorry to hear you guys have swine flu:( We all had that a few months ago here in Australia, I can truly empathise.

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  7. I have recipes for homemade gingerbread playdough, edible oatmeal playdough, and peanut butter playdough as well! Just shout if you'd like them.

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  8. Using standard food grade food coloring gets you those kind of pastel-y colors, but I've heard that liquid watercolors make a really vibrant playdough color. I just got some from the craft store to try.

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  9. Beautiful! don't tease, lets get those other play dough recipes public. especially the chocolate one!

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