Dying Pasta

supplies :

• dry pasta in a variety of shapes (we found the elbow macaroni stuck together very easily... i would avoid next time) 
• rubbing alcohol or white vinegar
• food coloring (we happened to use liquid watercolor, which worked beautifully)
• galloon size zip lock bags
• plastic tablecloth (A LOT of newspaper or wax paper would work as well)
• rubber gloves recommended (alas, i did not use)

directions:

• pour 1/3 cup (2/3 cup white vinegar) of rubbing alcohol into bag.  the alcohol/vinegar lock the color in place so it does not rub off onto your hands.  
• add food coloring - just a few drops will do.  we went a little bit crazy.  and when i say we, i mean me.  the blue didn't make it.  it looked black.  abby kept telling me that was enough but i didn't listen.  let's talk about role reversal. 

• pour about 2 cups of pasta into the bag.  seal and shake so that the liquid covers pasta.  lay the bags flat on your drying surface.  

  

• repeat as many colors as you want.  we obviously needed to make the rainbow.  and then some.  abby really wanted to mix colors so we did this at the end... you might notice the small bags at the end of the line.  
• we let our pasta soak for a few hours, turning half way.  other pasta dying experts say this is unnecessary - just shake and dump out the pasta onto your drying surface.  due to the fact we had to throw out blue because it was sooo dark and soft, perhaps you should listen to the experts.    

• once you have achieved colors you like, dump onto the the drying surface and spread out so each noodle is flat and not touching any other noodles.  this is where the gloves would have come in handy.  
• let dry.  our pasta took overnight to dry (because i was overzealous with the color), but again, pasta dying experts say this should happen pretty quickly due to the rubbing alcohol.  

what in the world does one do with 5 pounds of dyed pasta and two year old?  more on that tomorrow!  

alternatively, if you do not want to take the time and effort to dye your own pasta and your hands and maybe some of your hardwood floors you could buy some here.  although, i think i spent about $5 total because i had the rest of the supplies on hand.