Cabernet Cranberry Sauce

Everyone’s faces light up in amazement when homemade cranberry sauce is on the dinner table. I seriously have no idea why. I guess everyone is just used to the canned stuff that gets passed around and never ends up on a plate. Okay, in all honestly, I loved the wobbly, canned “cran-jelly” as a kid and probably ended up eating the majority of it.

Homemade cranberry sauces has a little extra pizazz.

Fresh cranberry sauce taste amazing, look pretty, and they’re SO easy to make. I’m not joking guy, SOOO easy. Sure it takes a little more prep work and time than buying the canned variety, but you can make it a day or two before and you know exactly what’s in it.

Friends and family request this recipe at EVERY Thanksgiving I host. People even ask me to bring it when I go to their Thanksgiving. Really, it’s the cranberries and the spicy yams that people just can’t get enough of. If I skip it, I’m pretty sure I would get an earful (or worse). So try them both, you won’t regret it.

Okay, let’s talk about the recipe!

Here we have all the ingredients! Now I’m going to let you in on a little secret…

I’m allergic to oranges.

Not terribly, but it still causes me irritation. If you aren’t allergic to oranges, USE ORANGES. I used the lemons here so I could actually eat the sauce and for people like me. I’ve supplied both options in the recipe.

As you can see, there’s not a ton of ingredients to this dish. That makes it even better.

Zest your orange/lemon and juice the fruit to get the required amount of liquid.

Pop those berries in a pot, and add your honey, wine, juice, zest and spices. Turn the heat on medium high.

Now we’re going to sit and listen to all the cranberries pop!

I love listening to them pop. It’s like a happy dance. Your sauce should be thickening while the berries are popping. When that’s done (about 10-15 mins), you’re going to turn off the heat, add your cold water to the cranberry sauce and mix. Let it sit for a while, then remove the cinnamon stick. I prefer this dish cold, so I make it a couple days ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!