It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Yes, I love pie and sweet potatoes and Fair Isle sweaters and reindeer… but what I REALLY love about this time of the year is cranberries.

I’m not talking about the gelatinous canned situation, although I kinda like that, too. I’m talking about legit cranberry sauce made with actual berries. The combination of cranberries, orange and sugar makes for the perfect sweet-tart flavor.

It’s super easy, it’s very quick, and it’s incredibly delicious. I think most normal people would put it on turkey sandwiches or just spoon a bit onto their Thanksgiving plate. Or maybe even stir it into some yogurt or oatmeal. I tend to put it on rolls, like jelly, or just eat a bowl of it for breakfast.

I’m a weirdo. But I’m a weirdo with a big bowl of cranberry sauce in my refrigerator, so I don’t care.

Cranberry sauce (Serves 8-10, or me)
1 12-ounce bag of cranberries* (frozen is fine, and you don’t have to thaw them)
1 orange
1 cup sugar
1 cup water

Rinse and pick through the cranberries to get rid of stems. Peel the orange and cut it into quarters.

Place the sugar and water in a medium saucepan over high heat, and stir until the sugar dissolves. Continue cooking until the sugar syrup boils, then add the cranberries and the orange quarters.

Stir the mixture and allow it to come to a boil again, then turn the heat down to low and cook for 5-10 more minutes, until it seems like all the berries have popped (you may have to cook a bit longer if you started with frozen berries). Allow to cool, then squeeze the orange quarters into the sauce and throw them away. Chill before serving.

*My grocery store doesn’t have bags of cranberries, oddly, so I used two cartons, which added up to about 15 ounces of cranberries. If you do the same, use 1 1/4 cup water and 1 1/4 cup sugar or your cranberry sauce is likely to be too tart.