Too hot to cook . . .

I'm appreciating my air-conditioned house these days and remembering the summer when we didn't have a/c and I was 9 months pregnant with Big when we had a heat wave like this.  But, my a/c still hasn't been inspiring me to cook.  And, subjecting my husband to the barbecue just doesn't seem nice.  Luckily, we've had a bunch of leftovers and salad fixings from last week.  I'm planning to try a new gazpacho recipe tomorrow night.

We've done sixteen items on our summer bucket list and at this point, I'm realizing some of them (tennis lessons, running races, the Hollywood Bowl) might not happen.  But, it's been a fun summer and we still have a few weeks left before school starts up again.  Here's what we've been doing in the heat:

Floating in the pool

Diving in the pool

Watching the Olympics and pretending to be Olympians (gymnasts in this shot)

Chilling out in the library

Concocting our own paint

Today's recipe is sort of like cooking and it doesn't require heat but unfortunately, it won't feed your family either.  Big and I made our own watercolors the other day.  I suppose you could eat them (no weird chemicals) but you shouldn't.  I didn't realize when I first read the recipe that these would dry and harden like regular old watercolors.  It took a few days for our jars to dry out but they should last a long time.  Don't be afraid to use plenty of food coloring and make the paints dark because they'll fade some when they dry.

Read this post here for the recipe and directions or here's my version (I made half the amount of the original recipe):

In a plastic cup (I used disposable because I didn't know if I'd dye my regular cups), mix 1 Tablespoon baking soda, 1/2 Tablespoon white vinegar, 1/8 teaspoon light corn syrup, and 1/2 Tablespoon corn starch. Mix it until it's well dissolved.  You want it to be a gooey consistency, almost to where a blog would hold its shape.  If it's too thick, add a little vinegar as needed but remember, it's going to dry solid.  Add your food coloring and stir.  Pour into a little jar or container with a lid.  Rinse out your plastic cup and start again on your next color.  I did the process 6 times for the colors you can see above.

We found our jars at Michaels for a couple of bucks in the paint section (clear plastic with white plastic lids) and used regular old food coloring.