Fruit filled cranberry sauce

Here is an easy cranberry sauce recipe to use during the holidays for Thanksgiving and/or Christmas if you do a turkey to celebrate. Some years I have done a turkey for both thanksgiving and Christmas. Its easy, fun, and well that means I don't have to put all the pressure on "THE" Thanksgiving dinner. If I want to try a new turkey method or turkey recipe, I can, and my hubby knows that there is more turkey just around the corner. 

One year I did a duck for Christmas and wow it didn't turn out well. It was a huge crash and burn. It took HOURS to get the smoke out of my kitchen, and about a week for it the smell of the duck fat leave the house. So after that embarrassing confession... lets just go back to the cranberries. Juicy, red, round, tart fruit. I promise even if you don't follow the recipe you won't end up with a huge mess of fat and grease everywhere like I did with my holiday duck experiment. I make the sauce the day before Thanksgiving or Christmas to save room on the stove for something else, the day of. After the big Turkey meal this semi tart, semi sweet, beautifully red sauce will keep in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. Bring on the leftover turkey sandwiches (wink, wink).  

Recipe was adapted from a Rachael Ray cooking magazine November 2007. The original recipe is here, but I think my variation with the apple & orange juice is better.  Either way cranberry sauce is super easy to make and very portable if you have to travel for the holidays. 

Ingredients:

 1 cup white sugar

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger (finely chopped fresh ginger would be lovely in this 1-2 tsp)

2 tsp grated orange peel

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp ground cloves

One 12 oz bag of fresh cranberries

1 finely chopped and peeled apple

Juice of half an orange 

Directions:

1. Combine everything in a sauce pan except cranberries with 1 cup water (med heat)

2. Stir until sugar is dissolved

3. Add cranberries and bring to a boil

4. Reduce heat and simmer about 8 minutes

That's it. Super easy. You got this. Stay away from the canned stuff. It might be cheaper but has little taste compared to homemade. 

Keep enjoying the holidays!

From my kitchen to yours