Sweet Tart

In honor of Turkey Day, here is my simple recipe for homemade cranberry sauce. One of the best things about this recipe is that it makes the house smell truly wonderful!

• 1 bag cranberries
• 1-2 cinnamon sticks
• 1 orange, juice and zest
  
• 1/2- 1 cup sugar
  
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 cup water
  

Rinse and sort thru your cranberries discarding any that are mushy or too bruised. Zest the orange. Add all ingredients to a pot, squeezing in the orange juice. I usually start with 1/2 cup of sugar and add more as needed, since I like my cranberry sauce pretty tangy. Turn on high until the pot comes to a boil - the sugar should be dissolved and the cranberries should pop. Turn to medium-low and simmer until it has thickened (45 min or so) and coats the back of a spoon. Let cool and store in fridge.

This is about how it should look when done.

I like a little cranberry sauce with my turkey as much as the next girl, but I find that it is even better in the following applications:

• serve as an accompanyment to brie or another soft cheese with bread
  
• use store-bought puff pastry and make little cups in a mini muffin tin. put in a dollop of brie and a tsp of sauce and bake until golden and melted (or you could make a brie en croute with a layer of cranberry sauce and nuts)
  
• Spread on pumpkin bread or other bread like jam (even better with a schmeer of cream cheese)
  
• warm it up and serve over vanilla ice cream (oh so good!)