To me, there is nothing like the smell of my house at the holidays. Whether it is the smell of the turkey cooking on Thanksgiving, the roast in the oven on Christmas, or the smell of a freshly cut Christmas tree, the holiday season smells divine.
To start off making our house smell nice for the holidays (or any of time of year for that matter), I always have my favorite standbys ready to simmer in the kitchen. Since Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away… I know panic probably just set in with many of you, I figured I would share one of my favorite homemade potpourri recipes. I like to call it Homemade Stovetop Harvest Potpourri.
If you happen to bake, you may be in luck. Some of the ingredients may even be in your pantry!
Homemade Stovetop Harvest Potpourri
Ingredients:
2 large oranges of any kind.
1/3 cup of ground cinnamon (you can use cinnamon sticks if you have them) You can use less cinnamon if you want more of the orange smell.
1-2 tbs. of ground cloves (you can substitute whole cloves)
2 tbs. vanilla extract (smells better if it is pure vanilla)
How to make the potpourri:
- Cut up the oranges and squeeze into the pan. Add the orange pieces.
- Place all dry ingredients in with the oranges.
- Pour vanilla in next.
- Add water to just about the top and place pan on medium low heat. The cinnamon WILL NOT blend in with the water at first. This is completely normal. Let cook for about 10 minutes and then stir. Lower heat to low and simmer on your stove.
- Enjoy the smell!
- When the water level starts to decrease, simply add more water.
This potpourri can simmer away for an entire day. If you would like to add more ingredients, fresh cranberries blend nicely with this as well. Obviously, as with anything on the stove, do not leave it unattended and please keep an eye on your children.
UPDATE: I never use my crockpot for anything other than maybe chili or an occasional batch of ribs, so it never crosses my mind. Thanks to my BRILLIANT readers who mentioned that this same recipe can be made in the crockpot and then you don’t have to worry about always keeping an eye on it. That is how they are going to use this recipe which I think is AWESOME! Thank you to those who mentioned it to me!
I love making homemade potpourri. It smells amazing and it’s so easy. This one looks great. I will warn you though that it is very easy to forget about it and start burning all the ingredients inside. I have totally done that before. Someone recommended using a crockpot instead. I’ll be pinning this though!
I am so crazy about keeping my eye on the stove, that it’s never happened. Honestly, I never use my crock pot, but that would be a super-easy way to do it! Definitely trying that one. I’m going to add that in to this blog post too. You are the second person to mention that. 🙂