1. Mix 1 cup of water with a couple drops of food coloring
2. Add in 2 cups of corn starch and mix until combined
3. Add in extra corn starch or food coloring if desired
   

Dan found that our potato masher (click the link to see what ours looks like, as they are all different) worked the best for mixing this stuff – you want something fairly sturdy that can get in there and make sure all the corn starch gets mixed in. Once it’s all mixed in and colored to your liking, get your hands in there and get ooblecking!

So what is this oobleck stuff? Well, it’s a bit of a mystery mixture – it doesn’t seem to know if it’s a liquid or a solid – you can roll it into a ball in your hands but if you stop applying pressure it will ooze through your fingers. Punch the mixture and it will feel as hard as a brick wall (or so) or touch it gently with your finger and it will be as ooey gooey as it looks.

If your kid gets really messy (as they should) and it splatters on the table or you let it sit on your hands long enough, it will eventually dry to look something like glue. Crush that dry stuff with your finger and it will turn to dust. The dust can be vacuumed or swept up and thrown away – which makes for easy clean up. My husband also found that if you dip a tissue into the mixture (carefully) and remove it, the gooey oobleck will turn dry right away because all the moisture will be taken out of the mix. Science is fun!

• Want to store your oobleck for another day? Put it into a Ziplock bag and refrigerate. You might want to label it – I’d hate to be the person who tried to eat it – yuck!
• Word of warning: Do NOT dump your oobleck down the kitchen sink – it can clog the drain!

The Easiest, Most Delicious Cookie Recipe In The Universe… I Swear!

Prep Time: 10 minutes * Bake Time: 10 minutes * Makes: About 40 cookies (for me that’s like 2 dozen, I don’t really do the tiny cookie thing)

Ingredients:

• 1 package (1 pound 2.25 ounces) devils food cake mix (I’ve tried several kinds of chocolate cake mix, all are good – you can really do any cake mix, funfetti is fun, but the chocolate cake mixes come out better for me, so I stick to them)
• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
• 1 egg
• 1 1/3 cups white chocolate chips (Truthfully, I’ve only measured once – I pour them in until it’s enough, and again you can use ANY kind of chocolate chip – chocolate, white chocolate, peanut butter, swirled – go nuts)

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl, combine cake mix, butter and egg. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 2 minutes (you can hand mix it, too, just use your judgment and stop mixing when it starts to look like cookie dough), scraping down sides of bowl as necessary. Stir in chocolate chunks of your preference.
2. Shape the dough into 1 1/2 inch balls and place them 2 inches apart on an un-greased cookie sheet (I don’t know how big my balls are (my google search engine results are going to go crazy now, thanks recipe gods). They typically fit in the palm of my hand with room to spare, I suspect they are larger than the recipe calls for, because I never get 40 cookies out of the batch. And really – does it matter?).
3. Bake until cookies are set, about 10 minutes (am I the only one who bakes cookies until I can smell them from another room – this seriously works for me and I don’t know if I’m delusional. I probably under cook my cookies a tiny bit, but at the same time – my cookies are typically moist and delicious for their entire lifespan, unlike other people’s cookies that get stale and crumbly – mine do not. So there.). Cool for 1 minute on a pan (so they don’t fall apart), then remove them with a spatula and place on a wire rack to cool completely (snagging one cookie on your way out of the kitchen because they are delicious right out of the oven and you don’t really care if this one falls apart in your hand on the way to your mouth do you?).

Your welcome.

Want to know how many calories are in each cookie? Here’s a handy tip – if you go to this calorie counting website you can hover over the tab that says FOODS and click on New Recipe. Enter all the ingredients and then how many cookies (or servings) are in the batch and it will tell you how many calories are in each cookie. Brilliant, no? For example, if I plug in this recipe and put 24 servings (assuming I make 24 cookies in my batch) then each cookie has 198 calories. Make smaller cookies, they’ll have less calories per.

Recently released is Rachael Ray’s Big Orange Book (BOB) which is the:

Ultimate collection of:

• All-new 30 minute meals
• Vegetarian Dinners
• Meals for One
• Kosher Meals
• Holiday Menus and much more

Certain recipes in the book sound absolutely delicious and make my mouth water just thinking about them. Such as the Cheesy Potato and Sharp Cheddar Hash. Which in my opinion completely was made to encompass the term “Cheesy goodness.” Also, the Fish Tacos with Quick Slaw, Avocado Sauce and Green Rice just sounds perfect to me.

My problem with the Big Orange Book (BOB)? There is no calorie counts for any of the recipes. When you are trying to count your calories this is not helpful. Of course there is always websites such as this Calorie Counter website that you can put your recipe into and it’ll help figure it out for you.

What are your ideas on Rachael Ray and her Big Orange Book?

Quickie Review by Andrea from Red Knows How