Dying Wagon Wheel Pasta

I'm back to human again. Josh and Lydia are getting there. And Ben just barely took us back to the beginning of pukedome. C'est la vie.


So, last month was Ben's 100th day of Kindergarten. At our school they make a big, day-long party out of the event. The now-seasoned students make and eat a 100 foot long banana split, see how far they go in 100 steps, count things up to 100 like crazy, and other assorted centi-festivities. Including making a necklace out of 100 pieces of wagon wheel pasta dyed different colors. Hmmm, where would they get all that pasta? Why, helpful mother volunteers of course. When Emma was in kindergarten I was in charge of green and our kitchen table still bears a few stains from that day. With this bit of hard won experience, I was much more prepared to take on red and blue for Ben.

Here's the directions:

1 box wagon wheel pasta

1 bottle of food coloring

2 T. alcohol

1 gallon sized ziplock bags

newspaper and tinfoil

Put your pasta, coloring, and alcohol in the ziplock bag and shake, shake, shake

Spread out the pasta to dry on the tinfoil which is on top of the newspaper (just for good measure). The original directions only called for one measly sheet of wax paper for drying. Can you imagine? It would soak right through. It would dye your table for at least two years. And counting.