Diamonds in the Rough

I was reading thru some of my old posts this morning and wow, our life used to be exciting!  We had kids playing in orchestras, doing art projects, traveling (believe me, we are still traveling), hiking in the desert, building stuff, sewing... we're just as busy as ever, but now that 3/4 of the girls have matured quite a bit our busyness doesn't look nearly as ...fun.  It's still fun; it's just more... more what?  I am suffering from Adjective Deficiency Syndrome.

Today is Day 2 of day care substitution for our neighbor girl.

8:48 a.m.:  Make playdough.  I came here to my blog to find my tried and true playdough recipe, and behold!  I have never posted it!  So here it is:

The Best Homemade Playdough Recipe

1 cup flour

1 cup water

2 tsp. cream of tartar

1/3 cup salt

1 TBS vegetable oil

Schilling neon food coloring

1. Mix dry ingredients together in a medium saucepan.

2. Add oil and water.

3. Cook over low/medium heat, stirring. Once it begins to thicken, add 4-6 drops of food coloring. (Or, if you are going to divide your lump into two or three colors, add food color with kneading.)

4. Continue stirring until the mixture is much thicker and begins to ball up.

5. When the dough is no longer wet, remove from pan and put onto wax paper or a cutting board to cool until it's not hot to the touch.

6. Knead playdough until it is cool and smooth.

This will make you about a cup and a half of playdough. Beware of mixing those neon colors. We got an ugly ball of something that was supposed to be purple and ended up looking like an old bruise.  And if your guest gets the ugly one, you feel bad for her and have to make a whole new batch so both girls can have pretty playdough.  Store in airtight container in fridge.  Keeps for ... a week?  Two weeks?

 

9:22 a.m., a half hour later:  Still playing with playdough. :)