So it's not quite fall yet...but 'round these parts eager beavers always start sipping the PSLs from Starbucks, putting pumpkins and scarecrows out on their front porches and posting happy fall weather thoughts on Facebook right around the first of September.
Here in Central Florida the weather is still hot and humid like a sauna and without fail every summer by late August we're all so fed up with it, we start eagerly anticipating the morning when we leave our house and are met with a cooler temperature and a breeze. That morning actually happened last week, as the hubs and I left at 7:15am to bring our offspring to school and we were met with a beautiful temperature of 64!!! It was like all of us here in the middle of this hot state sighed a collective breath of relief together. I counted 13 statuses about it, many of them (raises hand) including home screen snapshots of the temperature for emphasis. It was like a choir singing "HALLELUJAH!" in unison.
So even though we all know there will still be plenty of hot and humid days ahead of us before our state fully gives up its firm grip on summer and allows the cooler temperatures of fall to take over, we love to get ahead of ourselves and break out the autumn everything.
So in honor of that beautiful morning last week and the promise of more to come, I gleefully started my favorite stovetop potpourri this morning and it's happily simmering away on my stove right now. And it smells AMAZING! Give it a try--super duper easy stuff here and much better than all the chemicals you'll find in most of the plug-in type things.
Stovetop Autumn Potpourri
Skins of 2 apples
4 cinnamon sticks (you can substitute 2 teaspoons of ground if you don't have the sticks)
2-3 whole cloves (1/8 teaspoon ground)
2-3 drops vanilla
Water
Directions:
Fill a small saucepan with water--about 4 cups of water. Bring to a boil and add in the apple skins, cinnamon sticks, cloves and vanilla. Boil for 1-2 minutes, then lower the temperature and simmer all day long, adding water as needed.
**[Disclaimer: Do not leave unattended or allow to boil dry!]**
I let mine go all day long. I turn the heat completely off if I need to leave my house for school pick-ups or grocery store runs or what have you, but if I'm home this baby is happily simmering away. You can cover the pot and store on the countertop overnight or put it in the fridge, either way works. I usually get 2-3 days of use out of the same potpourri before I toss it and start fresh. Now go forth and make your houses smell delectable! :)
