Cooking With Charles

Today Charles wanted to make play dough. This is one of his favorite things to do. Every time we make it we have the color lesson. Red, yellow and blue are primary colors and when you mix two of them you get a new color but when you mix non-primary colors you get a yucky looking color. Charles got out the box of food coloring to choose which color or colors he wanted to use. He pulled out the green bottle and said, "I can't use this one right mom, because it's not a church color". My mind slowed for a second as I thought "church color"?? My back had been turned to him and when I turned around and saw the green bottle it clicked, he meant primary color. How cute is that. He ended up mixing yellow and blue to get green.
Here's the recipe for great play dough from Trish Kuffner's book The Preschooler's Busy Book.

Colored Playdough

1 c. water

1 T. vegetable oil

1/2 c. salt

1 T. cream of tartar

Food coloring

saucepan

1 c. flour

Combine water, oil, salt, cream of tartar, and food coloring in a saucepan and heat until warm. Remove from heat and add flour. Stir, then knead until smooth. Cream of Tartar makes this dough long-lasting--up to six months or longer--so resist the temptation to leave it out if you don't have it on hand. This dough should be stored in an airtight container or a ziplock bag. Do not regrigerate.

I make a half batch at a time (which makes about a baseball size chunk of playdough) then you can have two colors using one recipe.