Cranberry Sauce

Here is my version of homemade cranberry sauce. I don't like bitter cranberry stuff, so mine is pretty sweet and very jam-like. You can, of course, adjust things to your personal tastes. 

Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 package cranberries (3 to 3 1/2 cups fresh or frozen)
• 1 cup water
• 1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
• pinch of salt
• squeeze of lemon

Directions:

1. Bring water and 1 cup sugar to a boil. 
2. Rise your cranberries. Remove any leaves, stems or debris from your berries.
3. Add cranberries to the boiling water. Then add you salt and lemon juice. 
4. Stir and boil until cranberries pop and start to breakdown. 
5. When cranberry sauce starts to get to your desired thickness (jam consistency), taste test and add additional 1/2 cup of sugar or so, if desired. Some batches of cranberries are more tart than others. 
6. Once the flavor is where you want it, I just keep cooking and stirring until all the berries are popped (or I mash them against the side of the pan while I am stirring to help them pop) and the sauce/jam is thickened to my liking. 
7. Let cool for a few minutes off the heat, then pour into your storage containers. For me, this made two containers, so I put one in the freezer.