Christmas Stovetop Potpourri

By Bernice Bitrus

With the Lights, the fir trees, the gifts, the candy cane, season greetings and compliments, the merry Christmases, the happy holidays, the happy new years in advance the same to yous and all the other stuff you’ll hear around this time of the year, comes the different kinds of food, that would result from baking, cooking, frying and steaming. A lot of which would require the use of different types of condiments and spices that would lead to some strong aroma, which is likely to linger in the air leaving your home with a rather unpleasant smell.

In this part of the world, the aftermath smell of cooking can be rather too pungent. You’d sometimes have to leave your windows open and perhaps doors too to rid your home of the lingering smell of food. I don’t know about you, I don’t like the smell of food in the air.

Well air fresheners and reed diffusers might help but you would have to endure the smell, unless it’s the kind of reed that slowly releases scent like smoke from a chimney. So if you’re like me who wants instant refreshers, then try making a stovetop potpourri aka simmer pot aka simmering spices. Stovetop potpourri has been in existence for ages and it is simply using fruits, spices, herbs and flowers to neutralize unbearable odors.

This recipe I’m sharing I nicknamed “the simmer pot 10” – just because I used 10 items (ingredients).

To make it, you’ll need:

Apples

Clementines

Lemons

Star anise

Cinnamon stick

Oregano leaves

Bay leaves

Cumin seeds

Drops of tea tree oil and

Drops of peppermint oil

The process…

Slice the fruits

Select your herbs

Place in a pot

If you want to use the oils, add them

Add water to cover the fruits

Allow to simmer on low heat

Please note that you can use your own preferred mix of fruits and herbs, and even fruit peels.

Also, PLEASE DO NOT CONSUME! Although fruits and herbs are healthy and absolutely delicious when made into tea, however DO NOT CONSUME this combination. Yes they’re edibles, but they are not meant to be eaten only; it’s delightful to know that the benefits of these stuff goes beyond just ingesting them.

In summary, simmering spices are a great way to get your home and spaces to smell fresh and delicious, and for a very long time too as the smell lingers on for hours.

Another thing to also bear in mind is that you can sieve the liquid (which I prefer to call juice tea but still doesn’t make it edible) and put in a spray bottle to use around the house as a room spray.

I can’t say if this is economically viable, seeing how some of these fruits are pricey, but you really just need one fruit or less and a tiny amount of spices and herbs. And when you get the extracted juice tea in your spray bottle you probably won’t have to get the conventional room sprays.

I hope you find this helpful. Do let me know if you tried it out; and if you have your own special potpourri recipe, please do share.

Stay positive.