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Looks harder than it is.

So. You’re tasked with helping prepare the Thanksgiving meal for your family/dorm/prison block. What dish do you immediately volunteer to make?

Answer: Cranberry sauce. Why? Because it’s pathetically easy, and looks awesome. In other words, it’s your perfect contribution piece to a large meal.

The reasoning of eating cranberry sauce with turkey at Thanksgiving probably has a long and complex history, but I didn’t look it up.

Instead, through diligent research, I found a recipe that works just fine, and only requires four-count them, four-ingredients. Or three even.

Cranberry sauce ingredients. Numerous, no?

This recipe comes courtesy of the blog savorysweetlife.com, with a couple of my own modifications.

CRANBERRY SAUCE

SERVES: Approx. 6 (depending on how much people take)

INGREDIENTS:

  • 12 oz bag of cranberries – go through and examine the berries. Wash them. Pick out the bad, shady looking ones. It’s a good habit to get into.
  • 2/3 cup orange juice – the original recipe calls for more, but I thought the end product would be sweet enough already. (It was) Also, I only had orange-pinapple juice. Worked just fine.
  • 2/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup white sugar – if you don’t have any brown sugar, just use one whole cup of regular white sugar.
  • The original recipe suggests an optional 2 oz of gold rum. Not this time.

DIRECTIONS:

Mmmmmmm...

Combine ingredients in saucepan

Cook on medium-high for 15-20 minutes to reduce the liquid. Don’t forget to stir the mixture every so often so it doesn’t burn!

It'll bubble. A lot. Watch for 'splash damage' around the burner!

During this time, the cranberries will start to “POP!” This is normal, expected, and pretty cool.

Once you’ve got your sauce to the desired consistency,  (I like mine pretty thick) take it off of the burner-you’re done!

You can make this ahead of time and refrigerate/freeze it. Some people like it cold anyway.

Just look at it.

Look at it. Look at it. That looks like you spent a lot of time and technical know-how, doesn’t it? Yes, it does! Now, just sit back, and accept all the flowery compliments that will certainly come your way!

P.S. By the way, some of you might say, “But Bakefor25minutes, I can just buy the sauce for 97 cents at the local grocery store! Why should I go to the limited trouble to make this?” To that, I say simply: because the stuff you make will taste 249% better (scientific fact) than the store-bought crap. I’m not kidding. Plus, this makes you look like a pro in the process, which would cost a lot more than 97 cents otherwise.