Essential Oil of the Month--Cinnamon

Cinnamon essential oil smells so good! It is a wonderful fragrance for the winter months. From an aromatherapy perspective, cinnamon helps introspection and reflection.

I recommend using cinnamon to scent the home environment rather than on your skin. It is a powerful oil and many people have reactions to it on their skin. It can be used in a highly diluted form, if desired, but keep away from mucous membranes and eyes.

I used cinnamon oil in SoapWerks' soy wax candles and potpourri. Visitors to your home will think you've been baking! Cinnamon blends well with clove, pine, lavender, and patchouli essential oils.

Here's a recipe for a simmering potpourri. This is excellent to simmer on top of a wood stove:

1/4 cup whole cloves
1/4 cup whole allspice
1/4 cup broken cinnamon pieces
1/4 cup dried orange peel
1/4 dried peppermint leaves
10 drops cinnamon essential oil

Mix all ingredients together in a simmering pot, fill with water, and simmer. This may be used several times and freshened with more cinnamon oil.

Getting Creative With What's On Hand

We have an apple tree in our backyard. The number of apples this year is amazing! But, they are the tartest apples I have ever tasted. My girls, ages 8 and 9, have been picking them up off the ground by the buckets-full and feeding them to our goats (a few at least). It seemed like a shame to let them go to waste. So, we decided to make some applesauce tonight.

Part of being creative is letting go of the outcome. It wasn't important to us (though it would be nice) if our applesauce was delicious. What was important is that we spent time together in the kitchen, thinking up a recipe using ingredients we had in our refrigerator and cupboard.

Here's what we came up with:

Spiced Tart Applesauce

3 pounds tart apples, stemmed, cored, and sliced

2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger

2 cups strawberry/mango fruit juice

4 drops cinnamon essential oil

2 drops clove essential oil

Stir everything together in a pot and cook on low for 1 hour, stirring frequently. Start mashing the apples up with a spoon as they cook.

I had to add 1/2 cup sugar to this because those apples were the tartest ever! With less tart apples, I think you could skip the sugar.

Let cool and serve.

The girls gave this a thumbs up.