Play-D'oh!

For someone with a Greek heritage who grew up living and breathing food and cooking, it never ceases to amaze me how easy I find it to mess up even the simplest recipes, like playdough.

Granted, this recipe isn’t meant to be consumed, but it still involves a kitchen, edible ingredients and cooking, not to mention a fool-proof recipe off the back of the MacKenzie’s Cream of Tartar box (that's the recipe I used, in case there are any other playdough novices out there, apart from me!).  Nevertheless, I still managed to mess it up.

I’ve been racking my brain for relatively mischief-free activities that I can have ready to entertain the Rosebud.  (We have changed her middle name to Mischief because of all the little misadventures she’s been having lately, like drawing with red lipstick on Mumma’s light beige carpet, for example.)

This was my first encounter with playdough since I was a kid (Rosie's first encounter too.  And you always have to taste something you've never seen before!).  

Check out the tongue, and the little string of spit hanging off it :)

My first attempt at making it ended up straight in the bin, hence this post’s title.  As with many of my spur-of-the-moment endeavours I embarked on the journey before actually ensuring I had all the necessary ingredients.  Instead of normal cooking salt I only had rock salt, which I attempted to use thinking it would dissolve in the cooking process.  Right? 

Wrong.  Needless to say it wasn’t a great outcome – Rosie’s hands would have been torn to shreds had I actually given it to her.

"So Mum, it's important you come from a really high angle, okay..."

 I did persevere and give it another go with the correct ingredients and it worked out just fine. I used olive oil and that must have been what my Mum used when I was a kid because as soon as I smelt it I was immediately taken back to my childhood.  I can remember how hot it was when it first came out of the pot, and the smell of the salt and oil combined, and how my hands went all dry after playing with it for a while.  It’s amazing how much of an impression smells and textures leave on you.

So, the playdough activity lasted about 15 minutes until someone decided she would rather throw it on the floor and say “Uh-oh”, expecting Mum to pick it up.  It’s a fun game, that one.  Picture a blank look on my face.  

Other than that, I would say it was a success.

X
:)