Monday, January 7, 2013

instant fancy

I wish you could stand in my apartment and inhale with me. It smells so good. And I'm not even cooking anything! Well, cooking anything edible.

I'm not a DIY kinda girl, but I recently pinned a recipe for a three-ingredient room fragrance that Williams-Sonoma supposedly uses in its store to entice people to buy, I don't know, stand mixers. I couldn't remember what Williams-Sonoma actually smells like (Peppermint bark? Apple cider? Overpriced small appliances?) but the ingredients: a handful of rosemary, one sliced-up lemon and vanilla extract sounded like a delicious combination. I might not be able to upholster my own headboard, but I can handle dumping three things into a pot with a few cups of water and turning on the heat.

And now, as these magic ingredients bubble away on my stovetop, I am hooked.

The dominant fragrance is rosemary, of course, but the citrus and vanilla extract (don't use your good stuff here) add bright and sweet notes that balance out the piney herb scent. It smells like an expensive candle -- made from a handful of things already hanging out in your crisper. Is there a better recipe than that?
When I have people over for a meal, I want the house to smell like food: garlic, butter, caramelized onions, roasted chicken, chocolate cake, whatever's in the oven. But if I was serving a room temperature menu, or not serving any food at all (although I can't think of why that would be), this is a brilliantly easy way to make your house smell friend- and family-worthy. Or just freshen up your home when it's too cold outside to open a window.

Other intriguing combinations I'd like to try:
1 sliced grapefruit + knob of peeled ginger + 1 sliced lemon
Cinnamon sticks + whole cloves + 1 sliced lemon
Thyme + rosemary + bay leaves + 1 sliced lemon
Bay leaves + rosemary + knob of peeled ginger
1 sliced orange + cinnamon sticks + knob of peeled ginger

1 comment:

Daniel said...

This really worked. I felt a sudden urge to pay Lisa for our blender.

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