This is the season for wonderful cranberries. One year I decided to make a garland of them for our Christmas tree. I ran out of patience long before I ran out of cranberries. My advice: even though a cranberry garland is beautiful, it is just not worth the effort.
There used to be a restaurant on the Georgia Road called McClure Millhouse, or something similar. There, I was served the most delicious cranberry sauce I had ever had. I asked for the recipe, and the chef gave it to me.
I hope you know by now I am not up to a zillion ingredients and steps in a recipe. Even if I was, my mama’s words, “I read a recipe to sorta see what goes in it” come back to me. She had a way of making a recipe her own for the better or for the worse. That particular trait may be genetic. This is, more or less, the recipe:
Buy a package of fresh cranberries. Sort and wash them. Place them in a microwave safe dish, and use a big one so you won’t have to deal with a boiled over mess. Measure two cups (yes, I know it’s a lot, but if you cut back, you’ll be sorry) of sugar and pour on top of the cranberries. Grate the rind of a lemon and squeeze the juice right on top of the sugar.
Microwave on high, stirring occasionally, until the cranberries pop open. The juice from the berries mixes with the sugar and thickens into a delicious cranberry sauce. It keeps in the refrigerator for a long, long time.
I understand some of you only like congealed cranberry sauce with can ridges, but give this a try. I think you’ll like it.