Craft Friday: Rice. No, really.

I was trolling through twitter the other day when this tweeter, (twitterer? Person of the tweeting persuasion?) mentioned something about making rainbow rice for her daughter to play with.

INSTANTLY!  I was instantly intrigued!  (Just go with it.  It's kind of hard to make rice thrilling.)

She posted a link to the directions, which came from this blog.  I've heard a lot about tactile play for children, and thought this would be something fun that Sebastian and I could do together.  And luckily we have a 50 pound bag of rice in the basement.  You know, just in case.  (I am not even joking.)

I had everything I needed, though the only colors left in the food coloring pack were green and yellow.  I'd used the red for red velvet cake, and the blue because I wanted to see if I could make a blue velvet cake.  The answer is no.

So we made yellow, green, and yellow green.  You put the food coloring in jars or plastic bags with a little vinegar to make it stick, then shake it and shake it and shake it and shake it.  Sebastian was interested in the shaking for all of 47 seconds, but I think that's because the jars are heavy, though he does tell me daily that he is a 'strong boy, right Mommy?'

After that, you lay the rice out on a baking sheet and stick it in the oven on 175 degrees until it dries, about 20 minutes. 

Does this make anyone else think of St. Patrick's Day?  No?

It really was a neat idea, and I think Sebastian enjoyed 'cooking' me some rice.  Heck, I enjoyed running my hands through it myself.  There is something comforting about warm, florescent, dry rice.

It gave me about 45 minutes to clean the kitchen in peace.  Of course, if you leave an almost-three-year-old by himself with a bowl of rice for too long you get an area that looks like this:

Luckily I thought ahead and stuck the kid outside.