Make this cranberry sauce. You will be so glad you did.

No one on my side of the family serves turkey with cranberry sauce. I'd never even heard of it until I got married and the first time I served turkey my in-laws were like, "Where's the cranberry sauce???" My husband had to run down to the corner store and buy a can of this revolting jellied cranberry stuff. I had a hard time looking at the stuff. but it made my in-laws happy, so whatever.

But there's still a part of me that just squirms at the thought of serving something that plopped out of a can to a guest, so a few years ago I went hunting for a cranberry sauce recipe. I found a good, basic recipe (cranberry sauce is ridiculously easy to make from scratch and soooo much better than revolting-jellied-plops-canned stuff) and over the years I've tweaked it until I have what is possibly the world's most delicious cranberry sauce. I even eat it. It's that good.

So for your upcoming Thanksgiving, please, I beg you. Put away your can opener. Spend 10 minutes making this stuff. You will not be sorry!

Basic Cranberry Sauce

1-1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
4 cups fresh cranberries

In a saucepan, cook the sugar and water until the sugar dissolves and the mixture boils. Add the cranberries and simmer for about 5 minutes until the cranberry pop. Remove it from the heat and let it cool completely. It will get thicker as it cools.

To Die For Cranberry Sauce

1-1/2 cups sugar
1 orange
1/2 t grated ginger
1 peeled and chopped pear
1 peeled and chopped granny smith apple
3 cups cranberries

Put the sugar and ginger into a saucepan and grate the peel of the orange into the pot. Then cut the orange in half and squeeze all the juice you can into the sugar mixture. Cook until the sugar dissolves and the mixture boils. Add the apple and the pear first and cook for one minute then add the cranberries and cook until they pop. Cool the mixture. It can be served cold or room temperature, but I prefer it warm.