Cooking Baking Eating

I love things that are not too sweet and rather tart. It would explain my love of blackberries, raspberries and cranberries. Since I cut out soda and cut back on my sugar intake, I am much more susceptible to the sugar highs and everything tastes sweeter to me.

So when I discovered this I knew I had to start making changes to my diet. Mostly to make things at home that I can cut back the sugar on. One random thing that I’ve been craving is a Cranberry Turkey Sandwich. They sell them on the break trucks that come by my work early in the mornings, which strikes me as weird since I’m trying to copy something off of a roach-coach.

One of the main ingredients to the sandwich I’m trying to make is cranberry sauce, obviously. Unfortunately most of the store bought varieties are VERY sweet. So I decided to make my own!

Cranberry sauce is VERY simple. Cook berries in liquid until bursting and add sugar. Most people cook them in water or juice, I decided to go with unsweetened, unfiltered gala apple juice. That in itself is quite sweet so I knew I would have to cut back on the sugar, and I did by almost a half cup. The apple juice also added a very subtle note of apple in the background of the tart cranberries. You can also use orange juice instead.

It was quite fun, realizing that strange popping noise I heard while cleaning up was my berries exploding and releasing all of their deliciousness into the pot.

And then, because that’s how I roll, I decided I want to have a nice, almost smooth consistency for spreading over my sandwiches. So in comes the masher, and I mashed away for a while, making sure I got EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM!!!!!! *evil laughter*

Yeah don’t mind the crazy lady doing her crazy laughter in the corner. She’ll calm down eventually. I never have actually used my masher for mashed potatoes, only for anything BUT potatoes.

I also really love the colors that my spoon started turning while I made this, also delicious to lick the spoon too!

In the end I was left with the wonderful cranberry sauce/jelly. I think I will also have to start using this on some bagels with cream cheese! Its sufficiently tart and sweet at the same time. Yum!

Cranberry Sauce
Makes 2 cups

• 12 ounces frozen or fresh cranberries
• 1 cup apple juice
• 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar (up to 1 cup depending on what type of juice you use)

1. In a medium sized pot add the cranberries and juice.
2. Bring to a simmer and wait for the berries to start popping and have completely popped, about 10 minutes.
3. For a smoother consistency mash with a potato masher or puree in a blender.
4. Add the sugar and test for sweetness, add more if needed.
5. Let the sauce come to room temperature before storing in the fridge, it will thicken as it stands.