Homemade Playdough

 I had to babysit Sam and Whitney's and Scott and Jessica's kids the other night.......if you include my kids that's a total of 11 kids!  So what do I do to entertain  e l e v e n  kids?  I made up a few batches of playdough.  It kept them busy for 2 1/2 hours!  Literally, the kids sat in my kitchen for hours playing!

1 cup flour

1/3 cup salt 

(yup! that 1/3 CUP.  the salt helps keep it from being too sticky and helps preserve it)

2 teaspoons cream of tarter

*Mix together in a pot on the stove, then add:

1 cup water

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

food coloring

*Cook and stir on medium/high heat.  The dough will start out runny and it will quickly thicken up.  Depending on how hot your stove is, it may take 3 minutes or 30 seconds.  The dough will start to get lumpy, keep stirring, then it will start to get really thick and it will pull away from the sides of the pot and stick to the spoon.  When it's playdough consistency, remove from heat.  Drop it out on the counter top and knead out the rest of the lumps.  This recipe makes one batch about the size of 2 or 3 containers full of Play Doh brand playdough.