Adventures in cooking

Adding food coloring to the playdough

We've had baby gates up in the kitchen and hallway for months now. Our kitchen is pretty small and it's been just too dangerous to have Freddie in there while I am making dinner. So, we set up his own kitchen in the hallway with some other toys and he is usually pretty content to play there while I'm making dinner. Until recently...

About a week ago we were having a long afternoon inside, waiting for a package to be delivered- aka the worst, boring sort of afternoon. This is pretty rare for us- usually as soon as Freddie wakes up from his afternoon nap we are up and out of the house ASAP to go to the park or playground or see the ducks in the pond before coming back home for dinner. But, since we had to stay home, I quickly tried to come up with new, exciting, indoor activities. Not a bad idea since it's also starting to be freezing and we have both continually had a cold since we've been back.

The finished product

First on the list was making playdough. I found a recipe online that called for, according to my mom, the key ingredient- cream of tarter. I put an apron on myself (a first) and Freddie and he loved it. I have to say, it does make you feel like a legit chef when you have an apron on. Must do it more often. We stirred together the ingredients slowly, adding one at a time, and used various, non-essential pieces of equipment (measuring cups, spoons, forks, a wooden spoon, a spatula and the garlic press (I was getting desperate)) just to keep things interesting.

When it came time for the cooking part (you have to cook it on the stove briefly), I put Freddie on my back in the Ergo to keep him safe and sound. Within minutes, we had perfectly squishy playdough in two different colors and spent a good portion of the rest of the afternoon playing with it. We whipped up another two colors yesterday and now have yellow, blue, green and red (ok it's maroon- FYI it really changes color when you cook it!).

Since that first "cooking" escapade, we have made cookies twice and dinner together every night. I seem to have created a monster- my days of cooking alone have vanished! It's great to have Freddie in the kitchen though and lots of fun to see him discover the feel of all the different ingredients. One tip to all you cooking with a one-year-old though- add a bit extra of everything when you're baking to counteract all the spillages!

Every good chef tastes his work.

Making sugar cookies- guess who loved the dough!