Our family Thanksgiving dinner is small by comparison to some.  We usually have less than ten people total.  I still love all the cooking and togetherness that comes during this time of year.  Because most of the people that attend live in our house, I am always the host.  That means most of the cooking falls to me.

One secret to a successful holiday meal, big or small, is proper planning.  A couple of weeks ahead of time I sit down and plan the menu, grocery lists, and cleaning that need to happen.

This year our menu will consist of:

• Turkey
• Stuffing
• Candied Yams
• Mashed Potatoes With Gravy
• Cheesecake
• Pumpkin Pie
• Ginger Cookies

Given our busy schedule this year, we chose to purchase our pumpkin pie and cheesecake at Costco while grocery shopping the weekend before the holiday.  The turkey is lounging in the refrigerator to thaw since early Monday morning.  The yams, stuffing and potatoes will be cooked on Thursday.  The cranberry sauce will be made Tuesday while I cook dinner.  The ginger cookies will be made on Wednesday while we clean the house.

Today I would love to share my super easy recipe for Homemade Cranberry Sauce with you.

Are you ready?

Here it is….

Homemade Cranberry Sauce:

Ingredients:
‎1 Cup water
1 Cup sugar
4 Cups Fresh Cranberries.

Directions:Put in a pot and bring to a boil. Turn down and simmer for approximately 10 minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat and let cool. It will thicken as it cools.

Yep.  It really is that easy.  Just three ingredients and ten minutes gives you beautiful, delicious, fresh cranberry sauce.  Once you try this, you will never want to eat the factory canned stuff again!  You can make it a couple days ahead of time and store in the refrigerator.  Another option is to home can it.  You can water bath can this sauce just like a jam or jelly.  Ten minutes of processing in the water bath canner makes it shelf stable.

What is your favorite recipe to cook for the holidays?  Comment below and let’s start a conversation!

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