With the whale swimming pool now residing mainly on its side on the deck, we've had to come up with other activities to do inside the house, particularly when it is Leo's naptime and we are both about to start bouncing off the walls.
Rather than bounce off said walls last week (which is never as much fun as one would think), we made play dough. And not the usual crappy stuff that is easy to whip up in a snap, and then has to get tossed once you're done playing with it five seconds later. That stuff is not for us. This stuff, on the other hand, is marvelous. And I'm really quite pleased with ourselves for doing it. It was Emilia's idea to begin with, because she was so disgusted with me for throwing out her gazillion little containers. But really, once it ends up in a great big mound -- of the most unappetizing hue -- and then gets smooshed all over the floor and chairs and such, what does she expect? What's more is that our play dough is not made in China (seriously -- it all comes out of China these days); nor it is filled with nasty chemicals and the like. Well, that isn't quite true because you do have to add food coloring -- unless you have beat juice and turmeric on hand. (Turmeric, yes. Beat juice, hell no.)
The recipe I usually use is from Southern Sideboards, which is the cookbook from the Junior League in Jackson, Mississippi. It is easy to make and requires no cooking, but I don't like it in the least. Although, it is quite excellent to bake up your designs when you are finished, particularly if you've made a nice flower or something. Anyway, I suppose I resort to it because it is what I have, and besides I like Jackson (who doesn't?). But it doesn't feel the play dough is meant to, and it doesn't have much of a shelf life. This is why I was so delighted when I got on Earthenwitch's site and saw her experiments with play dough. (I love her blog. In fact, it is probably my fave when it comes to blogs. There is something so incredibly comfy and cozy and very relatable to it. But someone needs to tell her to abandon all ideas of dreadlocks already.) Anyway, Earthenwitch found a play dough recipe from a German site, or maybe it was The Netherlands, I can't really remember, which is easy-peasy and loads of fun.
So while Leo was sleeping, Emilia stood on a chair in the kitchen and helped me measure and stir and knead until we had four balls of colorful dough. We were both impressed mostly with the green and yellow because the colors were the nicest, but it didn't really matter in the end because Emilia still managed to mash them all up into one great big ball and make 'meatballs for Sweet Pea's dinner.' (Sweet Pea being her baby doll.) Thank goodness I had the presence of mind to take half of each color and safely tuck it all in the back of the fridge somewhere. That way the next time it rained or was miserable out, we had it on the ready -- which was the next day and the day after.
We were incredibly boring with our dough because apparently you can add scent to it and everything. The lovely lady from whence the recipe comes added lavender to one, honey chamomile scent to another, and fire to another. I'm very curious about the fire one, in particular. All I could find was a nasty old bottle of eucalyptus oil. Who even knows how old that thing is.
Play Dough
1 cup plain white flour
1/2 cup salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 cup water
1 tablespoon oil
few drops of essential oils
food coloring
Place all ingredients in a saucepan and stir with a wire whisk to get the lumps out. Put the pan on the burner and cook, stirring all the while. I used a wood spoon for this, but use whatever you like. Once it all comes together and starts to look like dough, turn it out on the counter, let cool a smidge, and then knead a few times. Store in an airtight container in the fridge. (Recipe from: Guusje's Appeltaart, a rather splendid little site.)
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