Thanksgiving wouldn’t be complete without cranberry sauce. When I was a kid all we had was the stuff from a can. Sometime later my mother started making a fresh cranberry relish with oranges. I like the relish but I missed the spreadable goo. So I headed to the kitchen and developed my own recipe. This recipe has the smooth spread of the canned sauce but also has fresh cranberries and just a hint of orange without any nasty chemicals found in canned sauce.

Homemade Cranberry Jelly

• 1 cup 100% cranberry juice
• 1 quart fresh cranberries
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• zest of 4 oranges
• 2 tsp orange liquor

In a large saucepan, mix juice and sugar over medium heat. Stir constantly until the sugar has dissolved. Add the cranberries, and bring the mixture to a simmer. Reduce heat. Add in the orange peels and liquor. Allow the mix to simmer, stirring frequently for 30 minutes. Don’t worry if the berries start to expand and crack, that is what is supposed to happen. Make your jelly a day or so in advance and refrigerate it until you will use it. Refrigeration will help the sauce gel and get the wonderful consistency of canned sauce without the chemicals.