Friday, June 6, 2014

Stovetop Potpourri

So for the last year or so, I've had a little pot sitting on my stove.
Its always on my stove, to the point where my husband made me go buy one special for this because I was taking away one of our other pots. :) I got this cheapy from Ikea for a couple bucks:

People come over and give me funny looks and ask me what I'm cooking because while some of it may look like food, it sure doesn't look appetizing! haha

What I've got cooking, is some potpourri! I love the way this makes my house smell, I feel like a lot of candles or sprays or plugins don't last very long and don't always make my whole house smell good. But the stovetop stuff really smells delicious, its super easy, and its like a built in humidifier that smells wonderful!

There's quite a few different recipes I've used and they all smell pretty great, but this is one of my favorites. You only need three ingredients: vanilla, lemons and rosemary. (I used fresh rosemary this time, but I've also just used spice rosemary and it works just fine.)
Just slice up your lemons, pour in a tablespoon or so of the vanilla, throw in the rosemary and fill the rest of your pot up 3/4 of the way with water. Voila! (tip: don't fill it up too high, when it starts to boil it will get everywhere or boil over and you don't want that mess!)
Then just turn your burner on. I usually turn mine up to medium high and after it starts boiling I turn it down to simmer.
 After awhile the water will boil down, watch it so you can add more. If you leave it and forget about it all of a sudden the smell will get really strong and things will start burning soon. Not that I have experience with that at all...
This is what it looks like after a few times of it cooking: everything starts turning brown and/or mushy. Thats okay though, it still smells wonderful! Every once in awhile I'll put in a little more vanilla or some lemons or rosemary, whatever I think has cooked down too much and needs more. This will honestly last me for weeks and I LOVE it!

I'll post different "flavors" later on to share some of my favorites! Hope you enjoy this as much as I do!

linked up at Tatertots & Jello