paint cut paste

the paint cut paste history of salt dough ornaments goes something like this: i used to be able to eat gluten, and when i did, the homemade play dough squished all over our kitchen. when N was almost 2.5 years old (2009,) we made these (yummy smelling!) cinnamon dough ornaments (yep in the summer; we like to plan ahead) and when she was almost 3 years old, (near christmastime, like normal people) we made salt dough ornaments. close to valentines’s day 2010, we made these salt dough hearts into garland.

last christmas (2010) we skipped the dough ornament part of our christmas tradition altogether because our kitchen became gluten free a few months prior, and i found it daunting enough to cook with weird and expensive flours. at the time, gluten free crafting seemed like way too much. i guess i’ve adjusted because i now know it’s not. we created the simplest of gluten free salt dough ornaments yesterday.

i was (p)inspired by a lot of pretty salt dough ornaments i saw around the web this year, like these and these, and the lovely ones tinkerlab posted yesterday. so yesterday afternoon, i figured we’d give a gluten free version a shot, and i searched for recipes. the one we ended up using is from the spunky coconut. they made cute pretend fruit with their dough, so it took a while for them to bake their thick pieces, but even our thin ornaments were not quick at all! here’s what we did:

last week, i was inspired by tinkerlab’s beautiful post on rainbow play dough. i used to make play doughs of all kinds frequently before our household became gluten-free in july 2010. since then, i have not made a batch of play dough because gluten-free flours are quite spendy! i’m hesitant to bring wheat flour into my kitchen for fear of contamination (i’m gluten intolerant) so i just sort of put a hold on the dough making… until now.

after the tinkerlab post, i inquired on facebook about gluten-free play dough recipes that wouldn’t break the bank, and one of my wonderful facebook followers, emily, offered up this simple recipe: (thank you, emily!)

• 1/2 cup rice flour
• 1/2 cup corn starch
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 tsp cream of tarter
• 1 cup water
• 1 tsp cooking oil
• Food coloring, if desired (i like the wilton gel icing colors)

Mix ingredients. Cook and stir on low heat for 3 minutes or until mixture forms a ball. Cool completely before storing in a sealable plastic bag or tuperware.

so we began our experimentation with this recipe today. i plan to also try out a gluten-free play dough crock pot recipe next time, also offered by a facebooker. i doubled the recipe, and added a little sensory twist. i thought it’d be fun if each color dough had its own scent, so i broke out my essential oil stash to add into the mix.

i mixed the ingredients together (without color or scent) in a large pot until it looked like this.

then i divided the dough into five parts, one for each color we wanted to make.

then i added a bit of the food coloring to each ball and knead it in my hands to distribute the color. this temporarily put some concentrated color on my skin, but it came right off with soap. your kids can do this part, too.

because N wanted “springy eastery pastel colors” i didn’t add a lot of food coloring to the dough. when i added the color, this is also when i added the essential oils, matching color to scent.

• pink = rose
• yellow – lemon
• green = eucalyptus
• turquoise = peppermint
• lavender = lavender (though the lavender color is a difficult one to get. ours was kind of muted gray.)

this activity really enlivened the senses of sight, smell, and touch!

i have heard that gluten-free play doughs are often gritty. this recipe was not gritty at all! in fact, the texture was quite smooth and almost like a sticky wax. the stickiness was our only complaint. i’m wondering if they will be less sticky once they are stored for a bit…? we’ll see.

play dough residue = sticky fingers

when we were finished playing (and doing lots of sniffing) for today, we stored it in a plastic sealed container for a bit. i wish i had 5 smaller canisters for it since each has a different smell, but i’m not out of butter, yogurt, fresh mozzerella, or parm yet to recycle those tubs for this purpose. so as of right now, they’re brewing their own special fragrance in that container. whooo weee!

happy rainbowy, gluten-free, squishing & smelling!

a handfull of my friends have little ones who have recently celebrated their first birthday. along with new experiences of toddling around and mastering some words, they are also ready to begin some early art-making experiences. a few moms have asked me what i first did with N in that realm. this sent me back through my memory and my zillions of photos of my wee little teeny N-bear.

playroom 12.5 months

generally, the very first art materials are those that we refer to as “pre-art materials.” this basically means they are safe items that can either be digested (such as beans, whipped cream, or dough) or that are large (such as building blocks, balls, bowls). they promote tactile experiences and are used for sensory-motor stimulus, and are great for kids between one and two years of age. pre-art materials are still useful beyond the two-year-old mark because they reinforce the sensory experiences that a child is discovering, and since children at this stage can become easily frustrated, pre-art materials may provide them with a sense of mastery over the art task.

N was a kid who, at around 9 or 10 months old, loved to hold the stems of two leaves in her hands everywhere we went. then two drumsticks from her toy drums. which evolved into two fat crayons, one in each hand, with which to make her first marks. often, two or three crayons were in each hand, making marks together.

15 months

she loved the cause and effect of being able to create a mark… to make something on the page! how powerful that must feel for the first time, for a brand new being to assert herself and push pigment across paper and watch what happens! she was sold.

15 months

as you can see in the photo above, we have always loved taping off the borders of the page — not only does it keep the paper from wobbling all over the place for early artists, but it also creates a lovely frame around abstract scribbles.

14 month scribbles by N (bottom pastel rainbow by me)

we ventured into the realm of homemade dough as we got closer to 18 months old. mostly she just loved to mush it around, pull it apart, squish it, feel it, poke it with straws. she would command certain things for me to make for her like balls, snowmen, various animals, and then manipulate them, while cracking up, after i created them.

playing with dough at 20 months old

and always, sandtrays, water tables, and natural materials found outside are great for exploration… (keep an eye on where sticks and rocks end up at this stage, of course.) have fun introducing these tiny artists to their own creative potential — it truly knows no bounds!

i was at the dentist office last week, and i was naughty and ripped a page out of their kiwi magazine on cooking with kids: making homemade pizza, april/may 2010 issue. (the iphone pic of the page wasn’t gonna cut it with the small text.) as evidenced by N’s pure joy when we made homemade pretzels recently, i knew she’d be into anything involving creating dough and then eating it. so we embarked on the art of a pizza adventure!

here’s whatcha need: (i love to visit the bulk bins at wholefoods for the flours)

for dough:

• 1.5 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 3/4 cup warm water
• pinch of sugar
• 1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup unbleached wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil (plus more for brushing)

for the toppings: (this is their recipe, but we altered it because i’m not a ricotta fan)

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp coarse cornmeal
• 2 cups sliced mushrooms (as local and wild as possible)
• 2 cups sliced asparagus (we didn’t do this part)
• 1 clove of garlic (i used 6 – we’re garlic people)
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese (i used a bunch of shredded mozzarella and also some sliced fresh mozzarella instead)
• i topped ours with parm, too

then here’s whatcha do… (words almost verbatim from kiwi magazine – i couldn’t find it online so i retyped it for you all. whew! hopefully this karmically makes up for the fact that i tore the page out of my dentist office’s magazine.)

parent & child: in a small bowl, ask your child to combine yeast, 1/4 cup warm water, and the sugar. set aside for 5-10 minutes.

parent: in a food processor, pulse to combine the flours and salt. add yeast mixure, remaining water, and olive oil, then pulse until shaggy dough forms

parent & child: knead the dough on a floured surface for 5 minuts, until smooth and elastic. we had so much fun doing this together. during it, N said, “we’re cooking together! now i can find out what it’ll be like when i’m a mommy!”

child: lightly brush the bottom and sides of a large metal bowl with olive oil. place dough inside, cover with dish towel, and set is aside in a warm place for one hour, while it doubles in size.

parent: preheat oven to 500 degrees

child: brush unlined baking sheet with olive oil and dust with cornmeal

parent: on medium heat, saute mushrooms and garlic (minced or sliced) until soft (5 min) then add asparagus (if you’re using it,) thyme, salt, and pepper. saute 5 more minutes and then set aside.

parent & child: on lightly floured surface, roll the pizza dough out from the center into a 12 inch circle. transfer to baking sheet and bake 10 minutes.

parent: remove crust from oven and let stand until cool to touch (just under 10 min)

parent & child: spread ricotta cheese (or whatever cheese you’re using) onto crust leaving a half inch border, then brush the border with olive oil. scatter on the rest of your toppings (or arrange into a face or get creative with the arrangement… we just scattered ours though.)

parent: put pizza back into the oven until cheese and veggies are heated through, about 5 minutes. then dinner is served! (sure, it’s labor-intensive, but it’s lotsa creative fun, too!)

this feeds about 4 people and is very filling and yummy! we paired it with a simple romaine salad (with sauted garlic, olive oil, and lemon on it… tho it didn’t make it into this shot for some reason. N just had a bowl of green peppers and carrots on the side, as she dislikes the texture of lettuce… white wine for the parents, organic OJ for the little one.)

enjoy your artful dinner! we did, and N was so proud, “i cooked dinner for you!”

we baked homemade soft pretzels on sunday morning!!! yeah, this is not a cooking or recipe web site, i realize, but this is an art, people! if you’ve not done this before, i really recommend doing this with your kids – N loved it!

i was inspired by a lovely blog on the artful parent. after i read it, i knew i could not squelch my craving (not even with frozen superpretzels from the store) until we made our very own. one issue: i don’t own a stand mixer, and the recipes i saw online said not to attempt this without one. seeing as the uber-spendy stand mixer was the one item that we did not get off of our wedding registry all those sweet years ago, i borrowed one from my baker friend (big thanks!) and went to work.  we mixed.

we let the dough rise in a warm spot. (i may have taken this too literally. hee hee.)

rising by the fire

we rolled out some strips.

we twisted.

we boiled.

we basted and salted.

we baked and cooled.

we ATE!!! (warm from the oven… we’re freezing the rest to heat up later but i’m sure they won’t be as delicious as these fresh few were! really, get em while they’re hot!)

when we sat down to our feast, i couldn’t help but hear jerry seinfeld’s “these pretzels are making me thirsty” in my head (though honestly, they weren’t. i didn’t overload the salt.) so i popped open a bottle of cream soda (a rare soda occasion for me – what a perfect combo!!!) and had some leftover sweet potato coconut milk sage soup from a couple nights ago. N enjoyed her pretzel with lemonade… and some raw fruits and veggies. a great lunch!

this is the recipe we used:

ingredients

and now i sooo want a stand mixer, in pistachio please.

we are feeling springy over here this week… the trees are already pink and white with blossoms and it’s been in the mid to upper 60s this week. yesterday N and i went for a long afternoon walk around our neighborhood, looking for treasures and for signs of spring.

we meandered through streets, ducked through bushes, gazed up at trees… we collected all sorts of nature’s gifts, like leaves, sticks, berries, acorns, seeds, flowers… the sweet friends the earth has put in our new california neighborhood. we are still acclimating to our new digs, and feeling our way through the scenery out here. the specimens we gathered were like evidence of our move; like clues to our new surroundings. we studied them.

getting personal with a palm tree

when the sun was setting and we made our way home, i remembered a cool project i’d just seen in a very cool book N got for her birthday last month called nature’s art box. (i also recognized it from the artful parent blog as well.) the project was about making a clay fossil to preserve the textures and shapes of natural objects in sculpey.

bag of goodies

when we got home, we looked over each treasure while putting it into a bowl on our table. we talked about what it was and where we found it.

then, i busted out our trusty box of sculpey, and we went to work making and squishing little balls of the polymer clay.

then we pressed some of the objects into the clay to make textured discs. like little thumbprints from mother nature.

granted, scupley is not my most favorite clay to use with kids, as it can be toxic while baking. so, i made sure to do that part after N was asleep on the other end of the house with kitchen windows open and her door closed. (next time, i may try my trusty model magic and see if that works…)

after the discs were baked, i put them onto a pretty plate that we often keep on our nature table or altar.

i wrote with a brown sharpie on the backs of them what the object was, the city, and the date. N is enjoying examining them and guessing what made the print. they’re a good size for her to carry around and be proud of, too. it’d be nice to poke a hole in the top of some (or all) of the discs with a straw before baking to make pendants or ornaments out of them, too. i enjoy the white of them, but they may also be nice if painted (a light watercolor wash, perhaps) or glazed.

i loved doing this activity – mostly the walking, talking, and paying attention to so many intimate details. seeing the world through N’s big, new eyes always keeps things fresh for me. i’d love to repeat this activity in different places, like on a beach vacation, almost like a 3-d photo album from a trip, without the photos.

okay, it’s not revolutionary to play with play-doh… but it is a staple of childhood. opening a canister of play-doh set my olfactory memory off on a trip to the 70s, squeezing dough hair through plastic heads in my play-doh hair factory. as an adult and a mom, i usually opt to make my own play dough with N, but sometimes the neon colors and unmatched squishiness of play-doh is irresistible.

so when N got play-doh AND dough tools for her birthday last week, i was psyched to have an excuse to use the stuff again! she can sit for HOURS (literally, it’s magic) and sing, play, create, chatter, rhyme. (in fact, she is playing with it right now as i type this beside her.)

my sister (N’s aunt kim) gave N a a set of dough tools that melissa and doug makes, and N is loving these… 3 rolling pins, stamps, and a dough cutter. mix this with some good ol’ cookie cutters, kid-safe scissors, and some of her tiny toy figurines, and she’s off and running for an entire morning.

so i had to give a little nod to the creators of this modeling compound in all of its fluorescently pliable unnaturalness for the guilt-free momma-time it provides while productively stimulating kids’ minds, hands, and senses for decades.