Spiced Cranberry Sauce

I LOVE cranberry sauce.  I've combined a few different recipes to come up with the mixture I always make.  One of the challenges for me of posting my recipes online will be measurements, I don't measure anything (except when I bake).  So feel free to tweak measurements any way you please.  I usually go heavier on the spices myself.  I also like my cranberry sauce thick and more jellied, so I mash the heck outta' those berries!

Look!  There's my cranberry sauce!

Ingredients:

1/2 c water

1/2 c orange juice

1/2 c white sugar

1/2 c brown sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp allspice

1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ginger

1 orange, zested

1 (12-oz) package cranberries

Instructions: 

1) In a medium saucepan, combine water, orange juice, sugars, spices and orange zest (everything but the cranberries).   Heat on low, stirring to dissolve the sugar.

2) Add the cranberries and bring to a boil.  Cook over medium heat until the berries pop, about 10 minutes.  Mash the berries with a spoon (or fork or masher) to pop any unpopped berries.  The more you berries you pop, the thicker the sauce will be.  Reduce the heat to low and simmer up to 10 more minutes (the longer you simmer, the thicker it gets).

3) Remove from heat, pour sauce into a bowl and chill until serving time.  The sauce will thicken more as it cools.

enjoy!
 ~ j