A Lesson in Colors with Play Dough

Today my 2.5 year old and I made play dough in primary colors, which we then mixed together to make the secondary colors. There's something magical about putting a ball of red and a ball of blue together and watching it slowly swirl together in your fingers into purple. And then brown, because of course after that we mixed them all together (having a two year old is very hard on my perfectionist nature!). We used this no-bake play dough recipe from PBS with great results. I actually quartered it because that seemed like A LOT of dough. And it was. A quarter was just right for our purposes. To save you the trouble of the math, here're the amounts we used:

• 1 c. flour
• 1/3 c. salt (okay, technically, if you quarter the recipe it's 1/4 c and 2 tbsp, but 1/3 worked well.)
• 1/4 c. water
• 1 tbsp oil

1.  Mix it all together. You might need a touch more oil and/or water during the mixing process. 
2.  Divide the dough into 3 balls.
3.  Use food coloring to make a ball of each red, blue, and yellow.
4.  Divide each colored ball into 4 balls of each of those colors. 12 balls total.
5.  Mix in different combinations two balls of different colors to get your secondary colors, and two of the same color to get your primary. Dividing it that way makes it so you roughly have the same amount of each color. (Hi, remember me from above, perfectionist?)

So now you have six  balls of six different colors.

1.  red + red= red
2.  red + yellow= orange
3.  yellow + yellow= yellow
4.  yellow + blue= green
5.  blue + blue= (surprise!) blue 
6.  blue+ red= purple (sort of, have you ever met a color more hard to mix than a nice purple???)

Tip: If your dough gets a little dry when you're playing around with it, just damped your hands and smoosh the balls around. It'll get right back to its original pliability. 

Recipe: Frozen Berry Lemonade

This is a favorite summer treat of ours, but we've been so busy running here and there and everywhere that I had yet to share it with you. Now school has started and there has been a HEAT WAVE. It's been hotter this week and last than it has been all summer it seems. So our new favorite after school treat has been, of course, frozen lemonade in all of our favorite variations. I am sipping some raspberry lemonade goodness as I speak. (Or type. Let's not nitpick.)


What You Need:

• a blender!
• half a can of frozen lemonade base, like Minute Maid
• 2 cups of ice
• 1/2-1 cup of berries- strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, whatever says, "This with some lemon would be Heaven." And you can skip this and make plain old lemonade too.
• cold water

What You Do:

1. Put your lemonade, ice, and berries in your blender. Fill with water to make up 4 cups total.
2. Push the on button.
3. Cover your ears.
4. Stop!
5. Pour and enjoy!

Rainbow Cookies

Well, we just had St. Patrick's Day, a bake sale and a preschool rainbow color picnic all in one week, so of course I was on a mission to make something extra festive and brilliant. So Rainbow Cookies it was! There were a couple recipes online but they were either in grams (and I don't have the patience to bother converting to good ol' cups and other measurements that only make sense to Americans.) or YouTube videos (who has the time to WATCH somebody else make cookies?! No thanks!) So I used my brain and my mom's Christmas cookie recipe (which has the bonus of me KNOWING it's delicious!).

   In comparison to my Mom's cookies which require rolling out, cutting, rolling out, cutting, rolling out, cutting, (and baking about a hundred cookie sheets), then frosting in a million colors (Granted, they're beautiful in the end, but I'm over it about halfway through), these cookies were a cinch. The stacking of the colors into an arch-shaped log isn't terribly thrilling and a little time consuming (about a half an hour to mix the colors and stack the log) but after chilling the log, you're home free with just slicing and baking. And they are ADORABLE! and BRILLIANT! And everybody will want to know how you did it!

I did this in two days to spare my sanity and what little time I have in a day between drop-off and drop-off and toddler-feeding (seriously this girl eats 5 meals a day.) and then pick-up and pick-up. And, yeah, I'll admit it, I do this stuff during the day because I hate to see my adult time get eaten up by baking for bake sales and picnics. Also, I am blessed with children who think baking time is quality hang time.

OK, so, really, this is


HOW YOU DO IT!

1. Mix up your butter cookie dough, or sugar cookie dough. To be honest, I'm not sure what kind of dough my mom's cookies are but it works and tastes delicious and that's all I need to know.

Here's the recipe I altered to make the rainbow cookies. The real recipe for Christmas Cookies to follow.

RAINBOW COOKIES

• 1 c. softened unsalted butter
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 3 cups sifted flour (Honestly, I just stir the flour in my canister before lightly spooning it into the cup, it's less of a pain in the caboose and the results are good.)
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

Cream together butter, sugar, vanilla and egg. Sifte together flour, salt and baking powder. Stir together flour, salt and baking powder. 

Add flour mixture gradually to butter mixture.



2. Roll the dough into a cone-shaped log. Divide into 6 sections with each ball being slightly larger than the last. (Ignore that extra ball in the background of my picture, I was doing a double batch.)

3. Put a thumbprint in the middle of each ball and put your food coloring in. I used gel colors. It was a little less messy and the colors are more vibrant. The small ball is purple, then blue, green, yellow, orange, then red is the largest.

(again, ignore my doubles, I was doing that double batch.)

4. Roll the purple ball into a log about 1" in diameter. Mine was about 7-8" long.
 (In the end the log was about a foot, just so you know.)

5. With each subsequent color, flatten the ball into a rectangle that will wrap around the log to make an arch. This is about how mine measured out: blue was about 2.5" wide, then green was 3.25, yellow4, orange 4.75 and red 5.5. With each color getting about an inch longer with every addition, because the log gets stretch a little longer every time you wrap a new color. Really smoosh them on there so there hopefully won't be gaps between the layers.

Keep going....

Keep going....

Done!

6. Put the log into the refrigerator for at least an hour. I did overnight, so onto:



DAY TWO:

7. Preheat oven to 375*.

8. Take the log out of the fridge. Cut the ends off, taking off only as much as you can to make a nice flat surface on either end.

9. Cut the rest of the log into slices 1/4" thick. Sometimes you'll get gaps between the colors, I just kind of smoosh the back together gently, sometimes I rock the log back and forth along the arch to smoosh the colors together more before cutting. So far they don't fall apart after baking so take that for that's worth.

 10. Bake on parchment lined cookie sheets, leaving a little space between them, for 10 minutes or until edges just golden brown.

11. The bottoms of the rainbows will be a little pushed out, so while the cookies are warm cut off the bottom of each rainbow with a sharp knife to get a nice clean edge. Cool on wire racks.

I suppose Skittles might sue me if I say "Taste the rainbow," but look at these, how can I resist!?

Rice Krispie Treat Nests

In spirit of Spring, we did a little twist on the traditional Rice Krispie Treat. Using the regular old recipe from Rice Krispies we made birds' nests. Instead of spreading the sticky mess into a pan, we let it cool for a couple minutes (to make it more moldable.). Then we greased up a 1/4 c. measuring cup and scooped balls onto greased cookie sheets. We shaped them a little with greased up hands so they resembled ice cream scoops and then flipped them so the flat sides were up. Then making a little indentation in the middle we stuck some Cadbury Mini Eggs into the centers. Cute, simple, delicious. I suspect you can do just about anything with this edible Floam...

Rainbow Cupcakes

Thanks to Disney's Family Fun we found this recipe for rainbow cupcakes. They were the perfect thing to bring to Spiff's school color picnic this month. It's Rainbow month. These cupcakes were very time-consuming to make- about an hour before you even get them in the oven (and the layering is not for the little ones, though the color mixing is great for counting and learning colors.) but the results are worth it! (You know, to make them once or twice a year anyway.)

Salt Baking Dough

While I'm at it, here's a reliable recipe for salt dough. It's fun to play with and you can color it with food coloring. You can also bake what you make. We often use it to make Christmas ornaments and have used it for handprint ornaments for the Grandmas for Mother's day. To make ornaments just use a straw to punch out holes in your ornaments before baking and make sure to flip them half-way through baking. Or you can just air dry.

Recipe:

Salt Baking Dough

• 3/4 c. salt
• 3/4 c. warm water
• 2 c. flour

1. Mix salt into the warm water and cool. Add dye now if you wish. Add flour slowly, stirring. Knead.
2. Roll dough to 1/4-1/2" thickness and cut out ornaments.
   
3. Bake at 325 degrees for 30-60 minutes, until moisture is out. Cover with foil if necessary to avoid browning.
4. When cool, paint and seal with water-based polyurethane.
   

Gingerbread Play Dough

This is a recipe Griffin came home from school with and is a variation on good old salt dough. It smells delicious but probably doesn't taste so good! (Though it is edible, just in case your Octopus does eat it.)


Recipe:

Gingerbread Play Dough

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup salt
• 1 tbsp. ground ginger
• 1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
• 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1 cup water
• additional vegetable oil as needed to improve consistency.

Mix the ingredients together. Knead until the dough is smooth. Play.

"Stained Glass" Votive Holder

These votive candle holders are really easy and fun to make and really cheap, too. I like cheap. Plus, they can be as simple or as intense as you want to design them. With a 4 year old and a 2 year old we went simple. Just torn up scraps of tissue paper mod podged on. We even made our own mod podge. That too is cheap and easy. Nice.


What You Need:

• one Recipe Mod Podge (recipe at the end)
• one small, cleanjar (We used artichoke heart jars that are 6.5 oz)
• small (like 1-2"sq) torn pieces of tissue papers in various colors

Here's What You Do:

• Brush a bit of the mod podge onto the outside of the jar then put a piece of tissue on it. Smooth out the tissue with more mod podge. Thin layers is best.
  
• Do this all around.
• Let dry.
• Voila!
• Now put a votive candle or tea light in it and put it on display or gift.

***

Mod Podge Recipe:

• 1/4 cup Elmer's Glue
• 1/4 water

Stir together in jar until well mixed. For what it's worth, we also used an artichoke heart jar to mix and keep our mod podge in.

Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments

These are a celebrated Christmas craft and you'll find recipes for these everywhere on the web. They'll vary a little bit but they're all basically the same thing: Applesauce and Cinnamon. Some recipes have white glue added for strength. We nitpicked through them and came up with this recipe which served us well and we got a dozen good-sized ornaments out of one batch.

Cinnamon Applesauce Dough:

• 1 1/4 cups ground cinnamon
• 1 cup applesauce
• 1/4 cup Elmer's glue

Mix it all up until it resembles a sticky cookie dough. It'll be too sticky to roll right now, so let it sit for a half hour to an hour until you can work with it. Then roll it out to a 1/2 inch thickness (or a little thinner) and use cookie cutters to cut shapes. Set the shapes on a cookie sheet.

To make the holes, take a straw and stick one end through the "cookie" where you want the hole. Lift it out and the little hole should come with it. Blow the hole out.

Now you can dry these in a corner. They take a couple days to dry. I'm impatient. You know that. I baked mine. Set the oven to 200 degrees and bake for 2-2.5 hours until dry, flipping the ornaments half-way through. Even so I let them dry out more overnight before the kids decorated them with glitter glue.

Decorate, hang with a ribbon. Fun and done!

Easy enough for little hands and they make great home-made gifts. They just make your whole house smell of Christmas cheer.

Recipe: Fake Blood

When Spiff was 14 months old he was a Vampire. Because he was in a biting stage. But what kind of a vampire can you be without blood? So I set out to find a recipe for an edible blood suitable for a toddler. And this is what I found out- Corn Syrup! (Yeah, it's my crafting friend, what about it!?)

What You Need:
light corn syrup
red food coloring
blue food coloring
water

And this is where you'll hate me, but it's true, nothing is precise. You just feel it! Start with a quarter cup (or more depending on how much of this stuff you want to make) of corn syrup, and add red food coloring, lots of it, and a drop or two of blue until you get the color you want. Then you just dribble in some water until you get the consistency you want. I added just enough so it slowly dribbled down Spiff's chin and dried there. So, it's not a science! Happy Haunting!

Food: Frozen Chocolate Bananas

Frozen Chocolate Bananas were a treat we made when I was little. It was one of my favorites, fun and easy to do and yummy. I thought today as I was slicing up some banana for Squidgee that that would be a fun treat to make (without Squidgee because I can just picture THAT disaster. We waited for nap.). Then Griffin and I went to work.


What You Need:

3 firm, ripe bananas, cut into halves (OK, we only had 5 halves because I'd already given Squidgee half of one before I remembered to be brilliant.)
1 cup milk chocolate chips (we used Nestle.)
1/2 cup chopped nuts or sprinkles on a plate
1 tbs olive oil

6 Popsicle sticks (we wash and save ours from when we eat Popsicles)
a wax paper-lined baking sheet or tray
Pyrex measuring cup
a microwave
a freezer


What You Do:

Impale your bananas on their sticks. Lay them on the tray and put them in the freezer for 20 minutes of so, until their nice and hard and cold.

Mix your chocolate chips and oil in the measuring cup and pop it in the microwave for about 30 seconds, stir it, pop it back in for another 15 seconds or so. Keep adding on 10 seconds until it's all melted and smooth.

Dip your bananas one at a time into the chocolate, tilting the measuring cup and turning the bananas until their coated, use a spoon if you have to. Let the excess chocolate drip off. Then roll them in your nuts or sprinkles.

Put the bananas back onto the tray and pop back into the freezer for at least another half an hour. The eat up! Or don't, you can store them in the freezer for a while.


A Bonus Treat:

If you have leftover melted chocolate and nuts, just drop it onto the wax paper in spoonfuls and sprinkle some nuts on top. Then cool them in the fridge and you have some yummy candies to eat. Wasting chocolate just about kills me.

Food: Pizza Faces

English Muffin pizzas have been a trend in my house this week. We made faces on them and now it's the only way to make them. In fact Spiff says "I will ONLY eat my pizza if it has a face on it." which might make for interesting fodder in future therapy sessions.

What You Need:

English Muffins, halved and lightly toasted.
Pizza Sauce (Ragu makes a good one.)
Shredded Pizza Cheese
Sliced Olives
Some chopped olives
foil-lined baking tray or cookie sheet


What You Do:

Preheat your oven to 425*. Lay your english muffins nook and cranny side up on your baking tray. Put a little sauce on each half. Sprinkle on your cheese. Let your kid make his face. Some days Griffin makes red pepper noses and other days he makes olive noses, this is if we decorate the pizza before Squidgee eats all the olives (it's like a race to the finish.). Throw them in the oven (not literally.). Bake for 6-8 minutes until the cheese has melted. Yum.

We like our food to have faces.

Snow: Yellow Snow Cones

Who says you can't eat yellow snow? I wish I had thought of it sooner but I decided to give snow cone syrup a go before we're out of snow (right about now, that seems pretty impossible, but spring is on its way!). I've heard you can make it with Kool-Aid but I didn't have any and I don't like making anything if I don't already have the stuff on hand (but it's on my grocery list because I want to try it!). I had on hand lemon and vanilla extracts so that's what I used and I am sure if you had orange extract you could use that instead or forgo the vanilla altogether. Besides that, all you need is sugar and water, a saucepan and a stove.


Here's what you need:

1.5 cups of white sugar
1 cup water
2 teaspoons lemon extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
yellow food coloring if desired.


Here's what you do:

Boil in saucepan the water and white sugar, stirring. Reduce heat and simmer 15 more minutes, until syruppy. Remove from heat. Stir in extracts and 10 drops of yellow food coloring (This was Spiff's color choice and I thought it funny, so why not?). Then cool in refrigerator for a while. (I was in a rush so I put mine in the freezer for a bit and then in the fridge.). Scoop up a cup of clean white snow. Dribble on 2-5 tbsp of the syrup. This recipe makes 1.5 cups of syrup or 12 2 tbsp servings.