What would Thanksgiving be without homemade cranberry sauce? It’s the quickest & easiest dish to make, and tastes soooooo much better than canned. You can even make it a day or two ahead of time. Go ahead & make a test batch now, and see how easy it really is! You’ll find a printer-friendly version of the recipe at the bottom of this page.

I took advantage of the early cranberries that are in the grocery store now to make this batch. It’s destined for Cranberry-Orange Pork Roast. 

Ingredients:

1 (12-oz) package of fresh cranberries

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

Preparation:

1.) Carefully pick through the berries, removing any that have gone bad & checking for stems or other stray matter. Then rinse & drain the berries. Most times, I find a few berries that have gone bad, but not this time. I did find some stems, though.

2.) Combine sugar & water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil, and stir until sugar is dissolved.

3.) Add the berries. Bring to a boil once again, and then turn down to a gentle simmer. (Keep a close eye on the pan, because this stuff is pretty messy if it boils over. And then you’d have to start all over. ) Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Most, if not all, of the berries will have popped open. (Please forgive the weird cranberry color in these photos – and if you know what I did wrong to make it look like this, please leave me a comment.)

A gentle simmer looks like this:

4.) Remove from heat. Allow to cool to room temperature before refrigerating. Keeps for up to two weeks in the fridge, although I think it’s at its best if eaten within a few days of making it. That’s it! It really is that easy!