Apple and Orange Cranberry Sauce

Everyone and their mother has a go-to favorite cranberry recipe, or they (shudder) use canned. I realize that if what you know of cranberry sauce is canned then you'd easily overlook it every single year. But here I am imploring you to pay some attention to it. You won't regret it. Now, if you've made cranberry sauce or want to, let me share my recipe with you. It's dead-easy and fool-proof (and maybe a third word with a hyphen even). My cranberry sauce recipe comes from Williams-Sonoma (HYPHEN). I realize I don't have much of a spin here other than saying this is the only cranberry sauce recipe you'll ever need or want. I do hope that my photos will help you, and that my words make you laugh (and also help). And now, the recipe.

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Williams-Sonoma Apple Orange Cranberry Sauce

1/2 orange

2 cups of water

1 granny smith (or other tart apple, I prefer green but you do you)

3 cups of fresh (I originally wrote "frash," and I'm wondering if I need to sleep more) cranberries*

1 1/4 cups of sugar

1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon (or, more, 'cause it's fall, y'all)

1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves (don't do more, okay?)

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Squeeze the orange juice from the orange half and set aside. Scoop the remaining flesh away with the edge of your knife, until you have a flesh-less rind. Cut the rind into a small dice. In a saucepan, add the rind, the water, and bring to a boil. Cook for ten minutes, until the rind is soft (I've noticed a slight orange tinge to the water as well), drain, and set aside. I want to say that the first time I made this I was a little confused about the recipe. I wondered if I needed to keep the water I boiled with the orange rind and discard the rind. But nope, nope, nope. Keep the rind, discard the orange trash water. Hope this helps.

Peel, core, and quarter the apple. Dice and place in saucepan along with the cranberries, orange rind, orange juice, sugar, (too much) cinnamon, and cloves. When you first add all of this in it will seem like it needs more water. Resist the temptation, it's going to be okay. If I were there I'd hold your hand and tell you it was all going to work out because it is. Bring to a boil on high heat, then reduce to low and cover. Simmer until thickened. The apple will be tender and the cranberries will burst, ten to fifteen minutes. This is going to smell so good that you maybe won't be able to take it. You're going to want Yankee Candle to make a scent of it. Do they already? Someone tell me.

Transfer to heat-proof bowl (what is with the hyphens, amirite?), and serve at room temperature.

I make mine ahead of time, as in, I made mine today for my family's Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. It's currently in the refrigerator. I can serve it cold (and I will for leftovers) but I'll warm it up a titch for tomorrow's dinner. I think warming allows you to really taste all of the flavors.

I hope you adore this recipe as much as I do, and can we promise to not only make this sauce twice a year at Thanksgiving and Christmas? It's too good to only have twice. Pinky swear?

Happy holidays to you and yours!

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* Olivia told me that fresh/frash cranberries (or c-berries, as no one calls them) are hard to come by in Switzerland. If you live in a country without them, you can rehydrate dried cranberries with hot water. I'm not sure how similar in taste it will be to fresh ones but hey, you probably have better health insurance than here in America so count your blessings.