Cinnamon and Oranges

photo credit

I have a terrific pen pal who I exchange letters with every so often. Among the many great things I've gained from our friendship is a tried and true homemade holiday potpourri recipe. I had the best of intentions to post this about four weeks ago so you could enjoy it through the holidays, but better late than never! 

This is really complicated so read carefully: 

Cinnamon and Orange Potpourri

1. Fill a small saucepan with water.
2. Peel and eat an orange. Then dump the peelings in the water. 
3. Open your spice cupboard and shake some cinnamon and ground nutmeg into the water. 
4. Turn the heat on and wait for the water to simmer and fill your home with one of the sweetest smells in the world. 

You can keeping adding water to the pan for about a week before you need to toss the orange peels, rinse it out and start over. My only warning is that if you leave the potpourri cooking at a rolling boil you'll have an empty, scorched pan in about an hour. Total fire hazard. I'm not saying I made this mistake, because you'd have to be an idiot to leave a small pan of water boiling on the stove and go upstairs for an hour or two. I'm just saying it's a scenario you probably want to avoid. 

Enjoy!