Bubble, Bubble Toil...Potpourri

   I'm super excited to have you all back! Today we explore a cooking post. What this will entail is a brief over site of my past week, followed by one of my favourite seasonal recipes; so without further ado lets jump right in!

   Last week following my coffee catastrophe, things were quite uneventful until Saturday evening in which some hooligans decided to break into four of our vehicles and our shed. Ultimately this is what we think happened: these people drove past our house around 2 a.m., stopped their car just a ways down the road, and walked to our house. They preceded to enter four of our vehicles; they rummaged around the insides of them taking phone chargers and random things we had in the consoles. We phoned the RCMP the next day after discovering that our front yard had been violated by hooligans in the night. We found some of our items scattered along the ditch, putting two and two together, they obviously were just chucking things they didn't want, including my mom's nail polish (apparently it was new) into the grass. The RCMP officer spotted a fingerprint on a hand-sanitizer bottle that was in the console and she took it for fingerprinting, although I'm pretty sure it's only going to have fingerprints of my family on it considering we used it just the day before. We also carved pumpkins last weekend, mine being Stranger Things themed while the rest of my family opted for a more traditional pumpkin design.

   Tuesday was Halloween and it was my first one away from home (very different) and my roommates and I handed out candy in the good ol' #yeg. We only received 15 trick or treaters, which is substantial compared to back home, where last year I believe we didn't even breach double digits.

Slice your orange for immediate use.

   I'm sure you are all very excited about the cooking portion of today's blog and I assure you that I am too. So what we have for you is...Seasonal Stove-top Potpourri; this is a recipe that I made for a school bake sale one year breaking the traditional fashion of "baked goods" and it went over like gang busters. So let us go over the simple way in which we can make it. First it only takes six ingredients, many of which you probably already have in your kitchen/pantry. You will need:

•    1 whole orange (cut into slices if you are using right away)
•    1/2 cup frozen or fresh cranberries
•    4 cinnamon sticks
•    1 tbsp cloves (whole or ground, I use ground)
•    1/8 tsp nutmeg (ground)
•    3 cups of water for simmering

Add all ingredients into a pot and add the water.

Pretty simple right? Of course it is, this potpourri recipe is a fast and easy way to make your house smell ready for any seasonal occasion. All you have to do is as follows: cut the orange, measure out the rest of the ingredients, put them in a small pot, cover the ingredients with three cups of water, and put on medium heat to simmer. This mixture that you simmer can be used more than once; just keep filling it with water to allow the smell to fill your house, over and over again. I usually use mine two or three times depending on how long I allow it to simmer each time.

   There is an awesome little trick that you can do along with this recipe. Additionally, you will need a glass jar and lid. Assemble your ingredients, arrange them nicely in the jar (if doing this method Do Not cut the orange, leave it whole) and put a lid on it. Finish it off with a bow or homemade labels. This makes a great gift and can last in your fridge for about a week!

Finish it off with a bow for a great gift.

   Well, there we have it folks, the third blogpost from Cook, Create, and Contemplate, coming at you from this special week of Halloween. I hope you will continue to join me on this journey of expression, and check back every Wednesday for a new post. Leave a comment below and subscribe to join the Cook, Create, and Contemplate community.