Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Homemade Play Dough

Since the summer cooking lessons, Genevieve and I have not done much deliberate work together in the kitchen. School took over our lives.  Occasionally, she would fry the breakfast eggs or help with a baking project, but mostly, she didn't ask and I didn't insist.

 
Now, we are having a very snowy winter on top of Christmas vacation on top of my joblessness, so we've had lots of time at home.  Cooking together is back!  Genevieve has mastered macaroni and cheese (more on that later) and homemade play dough.

I confess that this is the first time I have ever made play dough, which seems strange for a thrifty mom.  But the commercial stuff seemed to always appear in our house through party favors, grandparents, and teachers, so I never needed to make it.






I must say, play dough is a great way to get kids in the kitchen.  There's very little cooking involved, but there's fun measuring and mixing and then, the payoff, lots of cookie cutter and rolling pin play with the final product. 

Also, Genevieve got to use the food coloring which is banished from our everyday food (and water - my kids would dearly love to drink colored water) and hides timidly in the cupboard for birthday icing.

We laughed ourselves silly over the crime scene face.



I can't find the precise recipe we used, but it seemed fairly standard after I had looked several up (and note: alum and cream of tartar can be used interchangeably as the preservative that keeps the dough soft).  I even came across edible play dough recipes.  Maybe that will be the next snow day project.

7 comments:

Rebecca said...

I shudder when I hear "edible playdough". When we were kids my mom made the p.b. playdough from M-with-L. We ate and ate until we made ourselves sick.

Rozy Lass said...

Wonderful memories! We made play-dough when our children were young too. It kept them occupied for hours.

Melanie said...

Ha, I was thinking something similar to Rebecca! Mom made peanut butter play dough for us from MWL, but not often. I don't remember eating myself sick, but maybe that's why she didn't make it a lot!

I also remember making batches of regular and peanut butter play dough to take to babysitting gigs, and it was always a hit. I guess you'd have to be more careful about that now with peanut allergies, but it was always fun to show up for a babysitting job with that treat in my bag!

beth said...

Oh yes! I used to make it too. ;)

BLD in MT said...

I love that photo of G running her finger across the recipe! How wonderful. And the crime scene, too, of course!

Matt and I made edible (peanut butter based, as I recall) playdough because Matt's mom made it when they were little and I'd never heard of it. As an adult I wouldn't say I wanted to eat it, but I could see a little kid version of me going to town building and eating.

jenny_o said...

A great project for a snowy day! I used to make playdough, too; it was quick and welcome.

Anonymous said...

Such Fun... Beautiful photos of G.