Homemade Play Dough

The other day the kids wanted to play with play dough.  Of course, the play dough was hard and yucky.  And, I really needed them to entertain themselves for an hour.  So we whipped ourselves up a batch of homemade play dough, which takes about 5 minutes, from start to finish.  And it is super soft.  And we added lavender essential oil so it smells nice.  We did green food coloring in ours, and none of the color came off on our hands. This recipe makes a lot of play dough, and if you store it in a ziplock bag, it will last for a long time.  If you have never made play dough, you really should!  (I'm saying this to my sisters, who all have young kids and probably hard play dough, as well.)

Homemade Play Dough
by: instructables.com

2 c. flour
2 c. warm water
1 c. salt
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1 Tbsp. cream of tarter (it said this was optional, but I used it)
food coloring
scented oils

In a large sauce pan, mix all of the ingredients together and stir it over low heat.  The dough will start to thicken.  Keep stirring.  It gets thick pretty fast.  When the dough pulls away from the side and clumps together in the center of the pan, remove it from the heat.  If it is still sticky, cook it a little longer.   When it has cooled, remove it from the pan and play!