Homemade Cranberry Sauce

Fresh Cranberry Sauce:

I was a huge fan of that nasty canned cranberry sauce when I was a little girl. Hopefully needless to say, I am no longer. I haven't tried many homemade cranberry sauces I like. My Grandmother made one that I loved but trying to extract a recipe from her is liking prying a secret from a stoic spy and I didn't feel like applying any torture techniques.

I found several recipes online and decided to concoct one of my own as follows;

Preheat oven to 350*

Place 3 cups of fresh cranberries in a 9X13 pan.

Grate the peel of one orange over the berries

Add 3 whole allspice berries, 1 cinnamon stick, a pinch of cloves, and a bit of ginger

Dice one apple in very small pieces over the cranberries

Pour 1c. of Gingerale and 1c. of orange juice over everything

Add 1 tsp. or Tbsp. of flavoring of your choice or 1Tbsp. of cognac

Sprinkle 1/2c. sugar and 1/2c. brown sugar over the cranberries

Bake for 1 hour.

Remove from oven and play I spy to find the hidden allspice berries and the cinnamon stick and remove them.

It will set up as it cools. Refrigerate after you eat a warm spoonful of heaven. It keeps for a week or can be frozen.