Salt of the Earth

If there's a salt shortage in Topeka, you can blame Jill and other mamas with fourth graders at Jay Shideler Elementary.

Randy & I made a stop in Topeka Friday evening before Susan's first bridal shower in Kansas City on Saturday. While Grandpa and Eric took Kinley to volleyball practice, Jill and I stayed behind in the "salt mines" ... so to speak.

The salt dough is being used to construct 4th grade volcanoes this week. 

Other parents had already signed up for the easier stuff - like detergent and other needed supplies. So Jill volunteered to make a a dozen recipes of salt dough for Kinley's fourth grade class project. 

By Friday night, no one else had signed up to bring the rest of the dough. Since Jill and I already had our system down, she texted Kinley's teacher and asked if she wanted her to make all the dough.

"Extremely grateful" was the gist of the return text. 

I measured out the salt and the flour. Jill added the water with the mixer. And we used teamwork to maneuver the completed dough into the quart-sized plastic bags. With the additional recipes, we had to wait on a salt delivery from Eric. Otherwise, we would have gotten it accomplished in an hour. 

As I was taking a photo of the supplies, Jill said that Hudson Cream Flour isn't available at her Hy-Vee Grocery Store, where she purchased everything. Hudson Cream Flour is made at Stafford County Flour Mill, our home county. We are both part of a Hudson Cream Flour baking group on Facebook, and if she needs it for her home baking projects, she gets it at Dillon's. 

I told her that Hudson Cream Flour was too valuable to use for an inedible recipe anyway.

After we got all 22 bags complete, we decided that Kinley was going to need help getting it to her classroom.

She was convinced she could do it ... until she about pulled her arm sockets out with the two grocery bags of dough. Jill dropped it off at the school with the teacher ahead of time.

I wish I was a fly on the wall so I could see the 4th graders using the dough for their volcanoes. Kinley says they built the volcanoes yesterday. She told Jill that she "did a good job" making the dough. Today, they are supposed to paint their masterpieces, and tomorrow is eruption day.

Hopefully, I'll get to see a photo of the finished product.

Salt Dough

2 cups all-purpose bleached flour

1 cup salt

1/2 cup to 1 cup warm water

In a mixing bowl or stand mixer, stir together flour and salt. Mix in water, 1/4 cup at a time. Add water until it forms a doughy consistency, similar to Playdough.

Do not overmix! Overmixing will make it too stringy and hard to form into shapes.

***

That was just first stop on a fun and activity-filled weekend. I shared photos from Susan's & Brent's first bridal shower on Facebook. But there are some blog readers who don't see my Facebook page, so I'm including some here, too.

Brent wasn't there for most of the shower, but he came at the end to help load and transport the gifts home. It was fun for me to get to meet some of their friends.

Jill, Brooke and Kinley also were there to take in the festivities.

 

 Susan's friend, Mallory, added lots of special touches for the brunch.

 

The moms were both glad to be there!

I can't wait to do it again in a few weeks! Shower No. 2 is coming up then!

But we weren't done with the fun. We also went to Dave & Buster's. 

And just in case we hadn't done enough for the day, we ended the day at Kinley's tennis tournament.

A good time was had by all. (That was the tagline on social news in weekly newspapers like The Stafford Courier back in the day.)