Easy Peasy Cranberry Sauce

I was going to make a thanksgiving post before the holiday actually happened, but I got too busy. So here, is a recipe you can make for any holiday, and it's easy and smells delicious. I took the general idea from Ina Garten, but just messed around until it was sweet enough for me.

(On a side note, did anyone else watch Food Networks "Thanksgiving Live"? It is one of my favorite traditions, Bobby and Giada trying to talk over each other and Alton, weird live questions, and this year Giada cut her finger and it was like the world was ending...ain't no drama like Food Network Drama!!)


Cranberry Sauce
1 bag of fresh Cranberries, washed and dried.
1 C water
1 C brown sugar
1/3 C or to taste, Orange Juice
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 lemon zested, and then half the lemon's juice.

In a sauce pot bring sugar and water to a boil. Add the cranberries, OJ, lemon zest and juice, and cinnamon. Bring to a boil. Around this time you'll hear lots of little cranberries popping like rice crispies. Once it comes to a boil turn off the heat and allow to cool. I left it on the stove and continued to stir every now and then to cool it down. Do a taste test here, you can add more OJ if it's too tart for you. Cranberries are of course tart by nature which helps bring a zing to your turkey, but too much tartness isn't fun.

You can find Ina's recipe here, hers has raisins and apples in it, which was a little too funky for me.

Fun facts I learned this thanksgiving: when a cranberry is ripe is will bounce when you drop it! Also that the cranberry was once called “crane berry” by settlers because of its blossom’s resemblance to the sand hill crane. I should start calling this crane berry sauce... 

I hope you all had a wonderful safe and happy thanksgiving, and I am thankful for anyone reading this little blog =) Seeing page views go up makes me smile everyday to think of someone reading this!