The Smells of the Season
Making my home smell wonderful is so important to me this time of year. The smells of the evergreen, cinnamon, orange and spice all mean the Holidays are here.
A stove top potpourri mix is an easy inexpensive way to make your home smell wonderful. Packaging the mix in a Holiday bag makes a wonderful gift for friends, neighbors, teachers and co-workers.
Here’s how I make my concoction:
Holiday Stove Top Potpourri Mix
- one whole orange or just the orange peel
- 1/2 cup cranberries
- 1 Tbsp. whole cloves
- 3 sticks of cinnamon or a small handful of small pieces of cinnamon
- a bit of grated nutmeg if desired
Quarter the orange. Put all the ingredients into a saucepan. Fill pan with water. Place on the stove on the smallest burner, on the lowest setting. Refill water as needed.
It’s just that easy.
I love to use an orange that is starting to get old… or just use the peel of an orange.
Another important tip is don’t allow the water to completely evaporate. I always refill the water when I turn it on. One mix stays good for weeks. With heating the mix does turn brown, but continues to smell wonderful, so I usually make only batch in a season.
It’s not the Holidays without the delicious scent… it makes me think of cranberry sauce or wassail. Yum.
A stove top potpourri mix makes a perfect easy gift this season. It is inexpensive, homemade and useful.
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P. S. If you are interested in a few ways to package stove top potpourri as a gift, I blogged about it here. I even included a PDF you can download with the instructions for use.
45 Responses to “The Smells of the Season”
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Is the second ingredient cranberries?
Holy Cow Lynn, my editor should be fired! Just kidding, I don’t have an editor. Can I use the Holidays as an excuse? Thanks for the heads up.
Looks good enough to eat!!! LOL!
Thanks for that post on the living nativity in Utah. I’ve starred it in case we get out that way so I can look it back up.
I’m hosting a giveaway of a nativity set on my site if you are interested in popping over and leaving a comment. It ends tomorrow.
http://autumnaskswhy.blogspot.com/2009/12/how-about-christmas-giveaway.html
This probably is a dumb question, but what do you store it in? You don’t just leave it in a pan on your stove all season right?
Laurie, I just keep it on the stove all season. I am careful to only turn it on when I am home. And it really does last. I’ve never had any trouble with it going bad… and I’ve done it last several years in a row. I do use it everyday, so maybe getting heated at least once a day keeps it from going bad.
That looks wonderful. Thanks for sharing, I can’t wait to try it out!
I want to know too–does it just stay on the stove?? Won’t it rot? Or something?
I would love to make this! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
[...] of Make it Do shares how to emanate a delicious-smelling stovetop potpourri to move a wintry, spicy, fruity aroma to your [...]
One of those mini dipper slow cookers would probably work well too! Great idea. Thanks.
This looks divine! Tomorrow morning I am off to buy cranberries and cinnamon sticks! And what a cool gift idea. Thanks!
[...] I am planning to finish the stockings, and make some of this, it looks quite [...]
Cranberries are not so easy to find here in Italy.. so what can I use as a substitute? Thanks!
Lorena, do you have dried or frozen cranberries available? I think either would work really well. If you don’t have those available you might have to experiment. I personally would try apples (sliced up) with the orange, cinnamon and cloves. It’s all about the smell… and few things smell better than apples cooking.
Thanks Calli, I think I can find dried cranberries. Anyhow, I have added a little quartered apple and it really smells good! I was considering making another little pot with some fennel seeds and some anyseed too…
I’m so excited that I actually have all these things on hand. I usually just let some water and drops of essential oil simmer (or I just light one of those smelly –in a good way– candles), but I’m definitely up to trying something new.
I think it I might try this in my dehydrator for the fruits to make it more non-perishable for gift-giving! Thanks for the idea!
I could also see that hanging form the rear view mirror in a mesh bag as a natural car-deodorizer.
I have been doing this for years. I keep a pan of water on the back of the stove that I throw orange peels, apple and pear cores, and leftover chai spices in. When it gets sludgy it goes in the compost and I start another pot. Nothing ever gets wasted around here.
[...] of Make it Do shares how to emanate a delicious-smelling stovetop potpourri to move a wintry, spicy, fruity aroma to your [...]
Thanks so much for the recipe. Not only will my little house smell fresh and Christmassy, this will reduce the dryness in my little house by providing some needed humidity!
[...] in the works is lots and lots of Stovetop Potpourri. Who knew that finding cinnamon sticks in bulk would be such a challenge? ‘Tis the season [...]
Such a lovely idea. I am in the process of making some for a friend and might as well make some for myself too! Thank you!
LOVE this! I featured you here.
I wonder if adding some evergreen sprigs would smell nice. I know they sell candles/tart melts with all these scents mixed. I’ll have to give it a try:)
This is really lovely!..I’m going to make this up this year.
Thanks so much for sharing..;o)
We received a cute little bag of this potpourri last year from a friend. They only thing different was that they added a lemon to it. I loved simmering it all season and am planning on making a bunch of these for neighbor gifts this year! Thanks for posting!
mmmm, i can smell it through the laptop! YUM!
How would you package this up as a gift? I think I may do this for a few family and friends.
Hi Liz, I’m glad you asked. I wrote a post about packaging for the potpourri, and I should put a link at the bottom of the post. Here it is: http://www.make-it-do.com/celebrate-it/one-gift-three-ways/
Anyone try this in a tiny crockpot yet or shall i be the trailblazer?
I think you should be the trailblazer! :)
Question: How do you keep the oranges from going bad? The ones in my pot look really gross and brown right now!
Ditto on this. My oranges looked pretty scary just a day later. Do people who use just the peels avoid this problem?
It does go brown and looks bad, but it continues to smell wonderful. I make it every year and usually keep the same batch for 2 or so weeks. Sometimes I make it with the orange peel and the mix still goes a brown color. Since no one eats it I’ve never worried about the color… I just love the smell.
Thank you for this recipe! Bought the ingredients today and have it simmering on the stove now! Fabulous smell and the family loves it! I could only find dried cranberries, they seem to work just fine.
Found this via Pinterest. Bought what I needed this morning & immediately put it all together. I’ve got it in my small crockpot on the low setting & my house smells fantastic! Thanks for sharing!
I’m definitely going to try this, I just love the smell of Christmas.
I was so excited when I saw this post that I ran out right away and bought everything to make it. Well, I was pretty bummed after that. My kitchen smelled just ok the first day but I couldn’t smell anything in the rest of my apartment (note, APARTMENT, not a 5 bedroom house or anything). The next day I lit it back up and the same thing. I kept trying different options for a few days, getting to to boiling then turning down to a simmer, just starting on low, smooshing the ingredients to release scent. Nothing seemed to work. After about day 3 I was getting hardly any scent anywhere. Any thoughts or tips / tricks on this?
I’m not sure what could be wrong. It makes my home smell like heaven for several weeks.
Thanks for sharing!! I just made it last night, and posted it on my blog http://gabhousewife.blogspot.com/2011/12/natural-christmas-potpourri.html
My home smells wonderful! I’m so grateful.
I just made this and it’s on my stove right now. My house smells amazing! I had to bring it to a boil first to get the scent to come out, and then I turned it down to a simmer (about a 2/3 on an electric stove). Thanks for the how-to. :)
Is there any possibilities that the cranberries being replace with other fruits or else?
Hi I’m new to trying this out and needed some advice. I have everything accept the cloves. Should this be a problem? Also if I put it all in a pot on the stove should I be covering it with a vented lid or is it okay to leave it without a lid all together? Thank you so much.
Why just for the holidays? Why not use it as potpourri in your house through out the year, using citrus fruits? Orange, lemon, lime, whatever. Shouldn’t have to be just for holiday season.
Mmmmm….we make a potpourri similar to this, but without the cranberries. I will have to try this recipe.
I use a tiny crock pot (little dipper) for potpourri and it works great. I have it on my windowsill near the front door and the whole house smells wonderful. The good thing about it, is that I can leave it on when I leave the house. When I come home, the whole house smells so good!!