Homemade Cranberry Sauce

cranberry sauce 2

Today is mine and Greg’s wedding anniversary.  Yep, 28 years with the man I love.  😍 Because social media has made me skeptical about sharing “too much”, I will not go on and on about what an incredible husband Greg is and how we have this whole marriage thing figured out.  He is a great man, but I still get mad at him sometimes.  We have made it 28 years, but that doesn’t mean we have all the answers.  I love Greg more today than I did 28 years ago.  I’m proud of the life we’ve built, the home we have, the kids we’ve almost raised.  I would do it again a million times.

Thanksgiving day can be stressful.  Spending time with family and friends is nice, but preparing for the feast is a job.  The list of things to do can be daunting. Make a menu, clean the house, do the shopping, and then there’s the cooking.  As I prepare for Thanksgiving, or any big meal, I like to make a schedule and check it off as I go.  I learned from Greg’s grandmother, years ago, to do as much in advance as possible.  Many groceries can be purchased weeks in advance.  I  make my cornbread dressing a few weeks ahead of time and freeze it.  Vegetables can be chopped, and cheese can be grated the day before, and this delicious cranberry sauce can be made several days in advance.

I’m a whole berry cranberry sauce kind of gal but if you aren’t you can add the cooked cranberry sauce to a food processor and pulse a few times.  This cranberry sauce is so tasty and much better than anything you’ll find in a can.  It’s fast and easy to prepare.  Then, all that’s left to do is refrigerate and forget it until Thanksgiving day, if you can. I tend to do a “taste test” once or twice a day…you know, just to make sure it’s not spoiling.

Homemade Cranberry Sauce
 
Author:
 
Ingredients
  • 1 (12-oz.) bag fresh cranberries
  • 1 c. granulated sugar
  • ½ c. water
  • ½ c. freshly squeezed orange juice
  • ½ c. peach schnapps
  • juice of ½ lemon
  • zest of 1 orange
  • zest of 1 lemon
Instructions
  1. Rinse the cranberries, picking through them to remove any stems or bruised cranberries.
  2. Add cranberries to a large saucepan. Add sugar, water, orange juice, peach schnapps, lemon juice, and the orange and lemon zest. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil, stirring occasionally until cranberries start to pop and sauce starts to thicken, about 10 minutes.
  3. Remove from heat, cool, then refrigerate.