If you're cooking for the first time this Thanksgiving, or if you're intimidated by the whole menu, you may be tempted to open up a canned cranberry sauce. Don't. Cranberry sauce is by far the easiest part of the Thanksgiving spread to make yourself, and there's a big payoff in taste.
Cranberry sauce also usually tastes better the day after it's made, so you can make it ahead and have one less thing to worry about. Cranberries are high in pectin, so a quick simmer with water and sugar is all you need for a basic sauce. This recipe doesn't include the fancy fixings some people add like walnuts or coconut. I'll leave that up to you. If only the turkey would be this easy!
Since you're already using the zest of the 2 oranges, you might as well juice them and replace the water in the recipe with orange juice.
2 oranges doesn't give you a cup of juice? Make up the difference with water.
2 oranges gives you more than a cup of juice? Drink it! Freshly squeezed orange juice... yum.
I made this last night. It was really easy, thanks for the inspiration. Also I used the suggestion from the comments about replacing the water with the juice of the two oranges. Excellent!
I made this yesterday, with just the water & sugar & cranberries. The flavor seemed to explode from the cranberries, absolutely delicious. I'll try it another time with the other ingredients as well.