You know, making cranberry juice really isn’t that hard. When you make it yourself you can really make it extremely tart or so sweet it’s oversaturated. Also, it’s funny how cranberries are treated like a vegetable yet still considered a fruit meanwhile eggplant, tomato, peppers, squash, cucumber, and somehow watermelon are considered vegetables. Also, if you wonder about the last bit, just ask Oklahoma.

Ingredients:

• Cranberries
• 1 Cinnamon Stick
• Lemon
• Sugar
• Optional: Honey

Cooking Time: 1 hr. 30 min. (If you don’t count the cooling time in the fridge)

Instructions:

1. First, bring 1/2 a pot of water to a boil
2. Insert the cinnamon stick and slice the lemon into quarters. Dunk that into the water too.
3. Once the water picks up the hues from the cinnamon, you can now wash and pour in all the cranberries. You know, it’s funny how Ocean Spray really made a monopoly on cranberries of all things. Then again, I shouldn’t be surprised considering POM already has a monopoly on pomegranates.
4. Also, don’t be concerned if the cranberries sound like their popping –that’s supposed to happen. Just hope it’s not popping out of control because then that means I probably have a lawsuit on my hands, so maybe keep on a medium flame.
5. Apply sugar/honey depending on how tart or sweet you like your drink. Honestly, I should’ve added more in mine because it still has bitter notes.
6. Once the berries are soft enough to be mashed against the side of the pot with no resistance, strain the water from the fruits and let it cool down.
7. After, funnel it down into a jug and let cool in the fridge.
8. And there you have it. A simple yet customizable recipe for the holidays.