Cranberry Jelly with Orange Zest

I grew up eating cranberry sauce from the can and gobbled it up every Thanksgiving. When I first married my husband, his father and step mother came for Thanksgiving dinner. I made my first batch of homemade cranberry sauce and fell in love. It's so easy to make and it tastes fantastic. I can't even look at canned cranberry sauce anymore. I love this sauce with my turkey dinner and with leftover turkey sandwiches. You can make it two ways, whole cranberry sauce or jellied sauce and they are both excellent. My daughter really wanted no chunks this year, so we made the jelly. I also throw in some orange zest and a bit of fresh orange juice to add a little extra flavor. It's a delicious accompaniment to our turkey dinner.

• 1 12 oz bag of fresh cranberries
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of water
• 1-2 tsp orange zest, chopped
• 1-2 tbsp juice from an orange

Heat water and sugar in a saucepan until boiling. Add the cranberries, orange zest and juice then reduce heat to medium. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, cover and cool completely at room temperature. Refrigerate until serving time.

For jellied sauce, prepare like above but put the sauce through a strainer over a mixing bowl. Mash the cranberries with the back of a spoon until there is little pulp left. Make sure to scrape the outside of the strainer to get the sauce off. Stir, cover and let cool completely at room temperature. Refrigerate until serving time. Enjoy.

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