Cranberry Bread and Cranberry Play Dough - Fall Traditions

Papa and Grandma brought us some locally grown cranberries last week, so we had to revisit the cranberry activities we did last year.

We began by reading Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende and Harry Devlin.  This is a great book about not judging people based on their appearance.  I love the characters (how can you not love a character named Mr. Whiskers?), and we have become very fond of this series of books.  As a matter of fact, the book and the bread (oh, yes, there is a wonderful recipe for cranberry bread at the end of the book - YUM!!) have officially become a tradition in our house.  This is a great way to kick off the Thanksgiving season.

We also read  Clarence:  The Cranberry Who Couldn't Bounce by Jim Coogan.

We actually met the author when he came  to our local public library for a special story hour a few years ago.  The book is a nice way to talk about perseverance.  

If you read this book, then you must test a few cranberries to see if they really do bounce.

Why do they bounce?  We had to cut open a few cranberries and examine them.

We know they float because we know that is how the cranberries are harvested, but we had to test them anyway.

Just as I did last fall, I used my favorite play dough recipe and followed the cranberry steeping directions from Almost Unschoolers to make cranberry tinted play dough. 

I just poured boiling water over a 1/4 cup of cranberries and let it sit for a while.  Then I stuck it in the microwave for a minute or two to get the most color from the cranberries.  I used the cranberry dyed water in this recipe:

1 c. flour
1/2 c. salt
1 T. cooking oil
1 T. cream of tartar
1 c. cranberry dyed water
2 t. extract (I used almond this time; see comment below)*

I measured the ingredients into a nonstick pot and stirred until well mixed.  Then I cooked it over medium heat until the dough pulled away from the sides and formed a ball.  I dumped it out onto a cutting board and once it was cool enough to touch, I kneaded it until smooth.

*I knew from experience that there would be no cranberry fragrance, so I added some almond extract just because I like the dough to smell good.  Homemade play dough is the best!