Cranberry Sauce

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  It's a day for parades, football, and food comas. My contribution to Thanksgiving dinner this year for Boyfriend's side of the family is cranberries and green been casserole.  First up, cranberries!  I decided that I wanted to try making non-canned cranberry sauce.  Don't get me wrong...I love the jellied cranberry sauce that comes in a can...I love it year-round. I just thought that it might be nice to put forth some effort, especially when it doesn't take much effort. I feed people to try and make them feel better.  I buy candy for my co-workers  when they seem stressed out and I like to show people I care about them with food.  This is my first year making cranberry sauce so you know I have some canned cranberry sauce in the pantry for back-up...just in case.  But this recipe is SO easy and it's straight from the Ocean Spray bag.

Ingredients You'll Need: 

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

1 - 12 oz bag of cranberries

Lemon juice, optional (per my opinion)

Combine water and sugar in a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil. Stir occasionally.  Add the bag of cranberries and stir.  Beforehand, remove any stems you might see.  I only saw one so hopefully I got them all! Also, be careful of splashing! My finger still hurts a little from the burn. Bring the mixture  to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Now, here's where my instructions don't come from the Ocean Spray bag. Taste the sauce maybe 6-7 minutes in (and don't burn yourself! It'll look similar to the photo below). If it's too sweet for your taste, squeeze some lemon juice into the mixture as it should help cut the sweetness and bring back some of the tart flavor. Next year you can then reduce the amount of sugar if you like.  If you like it sweet, don't bother with the lemon juice.  Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

After I simmered the mixture for 10 minutes I actually took a potato masher and mashed the mixture just a tiny bit.  I didn't mash it completely and left quite a few chunks.  I know, I know, it's supposed to be whole-cranberry sauce but thought mashing it would A) help me see if I missed any stems and B) make sure there weren't any hard cranberries left. 

At this point, pour the mixture into a bowl and cover. Cool completely at room temperature and then refrigerate until ready to serve.  It takes forever to cool completely! The bowl was still hot when I put it in the fridge but I just ran out of time to let it cool. I suggest doing these the night before and refrigerate overnight, or at least give yourself a few hours Thanksgiving morning to let them cool and then get chilled in the refrigerator.

They turned out really tasty! My two nieces (one is 1 year old, the other 10 months old) seemed to really enjoy them.  if you want to put forth very little effort (but looks like you put forth a lot of effort) then I say go for the homemade cranberry sauce!  This was ennough for 9 adults and two kiddos, but if you have a bigger family or people who really love cranberry sauce, you can easily manipulate the recipe to fit your Thanksgiving needs.

Until next time, Fire Away!