Rockin Robin's
Cooking Blog

Doesn't this cranberry sauce look delicious? It is perfect for Christmas dinner and doesn't take much time to cook at all. In fact make it a day or two ahead and nobody will notice.

My friend Christina gave me this recipe, which I made and found to be very delicious.
It's much better than Ocean Spray's Cranberry sauce, in my opinion.

I always love it when I know what ingredients are in my dish. No preservatives, additives or artificial colors here.

Start by sorting the cranberry's and throwing out the mushy ones. You are looking for firm red ones.Toss out any white cranberry's. The more red, the more ripe they are.

This homemade cranberry recipe ingredients are:

• 1 cup water


• 1 cup sugar


• 4 cups of cranberries, come in a bag


• fresh squeezed orange juice from 1/2 an orange


• lemon and orange zest, about 1/2 teaspoon each


• 3 tablespoons of Grand Manier or other orange liqueur like Triple Sec


• 1 cup chopped walnuts


• juice from 1/2 orange


• 1 tsp. cornstarch

Directions

In a pot, add the water, sugar and cranberries. Stir well and bring to a boil. Soon you will hear the cranberry's pop. Cook for about 10 minutes over medium high heat.

Then add the juice from half an orange, the lemon and orange zest and the Grand Manier or other orange liqueur. Keep the heat to medium and stir frequently.

In a bowl add the juice from 1/2 an orange and add 1 tsp. cornstarch. Mix with a fork or wire whip until smooth. Make sure there are no lumps. Add this mixture to the pot and stir constantly for 5 to 7 minutes. You will see it thicken up.

Stir in the walnuts and let cool. You can eat this warm or cold.

If you want to give this recipe a little zip you can always add a little chopped up jalapeno. The sweet and hot flavors go nicely together. Feel free to add other ingredients like chopped celery, apples, pineapple or any thing else you can think of for added variety.

Want more great recipes? Check out my cooking website.

Cranberry Trivia

• Did you know that there are 4,400 cranberry's in a gallon of cranberry juice?


• The first person to notice that good cranberry's bounce was John Webb, a New Jersey grower. John had a wooden leg and couldn't carry his cranberry's down the stairs so he dropped them. He noticed that the firm cranberry's bounced down the stairs while the rotten ones stayed on the steps.


• If you buy cranberry's in a bag, they can go right in the freezer and will keep up to nine months.
  
  

Have a fun day,
Robin