Cranberry Sauce

On the fourth day of Christmas my kitchen gave to me, Homemade Cranberry Sauce!

A while back I went to Costco and I saw a 3lb bag of cranberries for pennies.  Since I'm addicted to canning I bought two bags and came home ready to conquer the world (well, the cranberries that is).  I had never made cranberry sauce but it seemed simple enough, and in the end I concluded that it was way easier than the Hot Pepper Jelly and requires no pectin!
Cranberry Sauce

1) Wash cranberries.  Discard the unripe cranberries (they will be almost completely white in color).

2) Put the 48oz of washed cranberries in a pot and add: 4 cups of sugar, 4 cups of orange juice (you could use water too), a splash of rum.

It should look something like this when the sauce is done.

3) Cook until the cranberries start to pop (about 10 min)! Note: you can cook longer and blend up the cranberries to remove chunks if that is what you prefer.

4) Pour cranberry sauce into jars, clean the rim of the jar to insure proper sealing, add lid and ring, and process in a boiling water bath.  If using pint size jars, precess for 15min.  If using quart size jars, process for 20min.  If you're above 1,000 ft, add 5 min.
5) Remove from boiling water and allow to cool.

Note: 4 cups of sugar made the cranberry sauce sweet enough to add to a muffin recipe, scone recipe, or to a turkey sandwich after thanksgiving.  However, it still had a very tart flavor to it so if you're the type to eat it by itself in large quantities, I would advise you to add a little more sugar.