Festive, Simmering Potpourri Recipe

Scents are one of my favorite things about the holidays. The smell of pine needles and mistletoe. Peppermint sticks and hot chocolate. Sugar cookies and cinnamon pine cones. All of it. As a young girl, when our family decorated the house we always had a pot of potpourri simmering on the stove.

This year I tried my own recipe. It was kind of a 'find-anything-you-have-in-the-kitchen-that-smells-festive' kind of recipe, but oh did it smell yummy!

First, I peeled some Cuties, then added a couple cinnamon sticks. Then I cut two sprigs of evergreen from our Christmas tree and sprinkled in some allspice. I usually like to throw in an apple cut in half, but there weren't any at home and I wasn't all about running to the store for an apple.

Heavenly, I tell you. Honey came home and the first thing he did is ask what smelled so good.

To leave it simmering all day, I suggest making your potpourri in a small crock pot and leave the lid off. Just remember you'll need to add water at different intervals, please don't forget about it!

Have you tried this before? What do you throw in your pot?

Am I allowed to say it?

It's fall!

Boom. There. I said it.

There's one thing that really marks the start of the fall season, and that's the county fair. It's been one of my favorite places ever since I can remember.

When I was a little girl, our family lived in a small neighborhood close to the back entrance of the fairgrounds. When the fair wasn't in town, my girlfriends and I would occasionally crawl through the dirt under the gates and explore the empty fairgrounds. We'd dance on stage pretending we were Britney Spears, pet the velvet noses of the racehorses in the barn, and sometimes have to make a run for it if we saw any adults.

Since my mom sponsored the baby animal barn during the week of the fair, she was given free entry tickets for the week. There was a little trail across the street from our house that cut through the woods and we'd end up at the back entrance to the fairgrounds. Every night, our parents would take us for fries, a corn dog or some other fair delicacy. Some days, my best friend's dad would take us down to get us ride tickets then let us lose. We always knew we would find him back at one of the two quarter games with an ice cream cone in one hand and prizes in the other. 

We'd walk past Bozo the clown in his dunk tank who was always yelling something vulgar, forcing our chivalrous dads, uncles or brothers to whip a baseball at the bulls-eye. Or walking out of the cattle barn past the creepy little monky on a leash who would take your coins and scamper away. How about paying $1.00 to see the largest alligator on earth? We never knew if he was real or fake, I don't think any of us ever saw him move. Seeing my first crush, Billy Ray Cyrus, in concert. Then when I got a little older, seeing the Backstreet Boys where I am most certain that Brian Littrell was crooning solely to me.   

After my grandfather passed away in 2001, I remember hearing the sweetest story about how my grandparents met. He worked for the carnival and operated the ferris wheel, one of the old-time ferris wheels that sat two people and your feet kind of hung off. My grandma's shoe fell off and my grandpa stopped the ferris wheel to retrieve it for her. The next year, she went back to that ferris wheel and he was still working there. He asked her on a date and it must have went well because on their second date, he asked her to marry him. They started their life together in this little town and, year after year, they drove their motorhome down and camped for the week at the county fair where they fell in love.

This place is full of so many great memories (and food!). What are some of your favorites?