Grandma's Play-Dough Recipe

My Mom-in-law is a mother of five and a grandmother of twelve, so as you can imagine she knows what the little ones like. The grand kids always love her homemade play-dough so when my son was about two I asked her for a batch of it for him for Christmas, and she also passed along the recipe. Of course you can buy play-dough at the store, it's not expensive, and it's non-toxic. So why would you make your own? Because this recipe makes better stuff, it's really easy, and this way you get to do a fun project with the kids. So since the days are colder and we need some things to do indoors, making a few new colors of play-dough and sculpting whatever the kids can dream up with it is a perfect way to spend a couple of hours.

You even (probably) have all the ingredients in your kitchen already:
1 Cup Flour
1/2 Cup Salt
2 T Cream of Tarter
2 T Cooking Oil
1 Cup Water
Food Coloring

Mix together flour, salt, cream of tarter, oil and water in a sauce pan. Add food coloring. This is a good opportunity for little ones to do some experimenting with colors and learn how to mix them to create the colors they like. (But if they're really little they may just want to dump in a bit of every color, which makes brown. We've had quite a lot of brown play-dough. That's ok, just shape it into "logs" and build log cabins!)

Heat over low heat and stir frequently.  It will get really sticky and not seem like it's working right. DO NOT throw the whole pan in the sink and stomp out of the kitchen. (Not that anyone has ever done that...) 

After a few minutes it will get better! Just continue heating and stirring until it gets the right texture and you can form a ball with it. Remove from pan, remember to let it cool a bit before the kids touch it, then it's ready to go!

Thanks for the recipe Grandma Jan! We are so blessed to have you!