Crock Pot...Air Freshener

There is a long and strange story about how I came to own a crockpot, heavy with guilt and moral dilemmas.  I tried, several times, to give it back to it's rightful owner, Eugene being the kind of town where you run into everyone you've met or wronged at least once every 2-3 years.  During my last attempt to return the crockpot, I ran into the lady at the Whiteaker block party.  "I still have it, let me return it! I have a car! I remember where you live! What's your phone number - here I'll call you on my cell phone so you'll have my number. Call me ANY night when you are home from work or on the weekends I don't do much, I'll bring it right over!"

The call never came, and 2 or 3 years have passed.  Finally, last Sunday, I said "fuck it" - it's mine now. 

So after SEVEN years of owning a crockpot, I used it!

To kill odors in my home...

Although I have bookmarked recipes for crock pot brownies and polenta and lasagna and soups, I filled mine with baking soda, water, cinnamon, cloves, "guilt apples"* and lemon juice and left it on all day, moving it to different rooms of the house.  The house did indeed smell better, but I don't know if I believe that the baking soda disappeared the odors. 

At any rate, it's totally worth it to make your house smell like an apple pie.

*Guilt apples are apples you buy but don't eat and they get mushy so you don't want to eat them.

Here are the two "recipes" I used:
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/crock-pot-air-freshner.htm 

and this exceedingly obnoxious blog:
http://www.aboutamom.com/2011/09/crock-pot-air-freshener.html