Sunday, November 28, 2010

Delicious cranberry sauce

Whenever I see a gelatinous heap of cranberry stuff with the can rib impressions still clearly visible I want to cry out in pain.  Why, for the love of all that is holy, would you eat that when it is so simple to make it from scratch?  I personally like mine chunky anyway.  I look forward to the post-Thanksgiving sandwich of turkey, lettuce, mayo and a generous helping of whole berry cranberry sauce on toasted hearty bread all year long.  It just isn't the same with the canned stuff.

This literally takes about 2 minutes of effort, 15 minutes of total prep time, and is easily made in advance.  I have made different variations each year, and was pleased with how it came out this year.  I used brown sugar instead of white, added some orange zest and juice, and my usual top secret pinch of cloves.  Good stuff.

Heidi's 2010 Cranberry Sauce

1 package fresh cranberries  (I'm guessing it's about 4 cups of fresh berries)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup water
zest of one orange
juice of one orange
pinch of cloves

Combine all of the ingredients in a medium saucepan  and stir.  Bring up to a low boil over medium heat and cook for 10 minutes.  Remove from heat and allow to cool at room temperature for at least an hour before refrigerating.  This may be made up to three days in advance, leaving you free to worry about other things on Thanksgiving day.

3 comments:

Shannon said...
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Shannon said...

I found you through Your Homebased Mom. I agree that fresh is best. Your recipe sounds good, I'll have to try it next year. I went the quick dump berries in, add sugar, water and boil method as we were getting ready to sit down to eat and didn't have cranberry sauce. Still my husband said it was really good and we've been eating the leftovers, yum! Thanks for sharing!

Nurse Heidi said...

Thanks for stopping in, Shannon! I'm still eating my cranberry sauce too - I made a double batch - but it's almost gone :(. Such good stuff!