cranberry sauce

Homemade cranberry sauce!

Take a small box of frozen cranberries; dump them into a pot of boiling water. Add sugar. Boil on high until the berries begin to split. Reduce to medium-high; keep boiling. Boil until the pectin in the berries begins to thicken the whole thing into sauce. Add citrus toward the end—lemon juice, lime juice, or—as I did—orange juice. Thickening will continue when you turn off the heat and allow sauce to cool to room temperature. Voilà—cranberry sauce. Easy.

If you prefer the jellied version that comes in a can, I suppose you can strain out the berries and seeds (are those seeds?), then let the remaining liquid cool down until it stops boiling, at which point you can add a sheet or two of gelatine. Stir the gelatine in until thoroughly mixed, then pour the liquid into a half-pipe-shaped container to cool further. Stick in fridge; allow liquid to harden into that familiar jellied shape. Pop out of container at serving time, slice, and serve. Voilà—easy.