Cranberry Sauce

1/2 c water

1/2 c apple cider

12 oz fresh cranberries

heaping 1/4 c brown sugar

2 tbsp cocoa powder

Put the water, cider, cranberries, and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Stir occasionally.  (I used a non-stick saucepan, you may need to stir more consistently if yours is not non-stick).  Let boil for a few minutes, then add the cocoa powder and stir it in well.  Cranberries are officially done when they have "burst."  I cooked mine until I liked the thickness of the mixture.  I taste-tested it with some bread this evening, but my real plan for this sauce is to use it as a pancake topping.  I'll have to wait til morning for that. I'll probably add some pictures of that in the morning after breakfast.  And of course I'll let you know how it tasted on top of a chocolate-chip pancake.  Side note: I am super-excited to make my pancake with apple cider tomorrow!  I've been missing cider pancakes since...cider disappeared from grocery stores at the end of the last cider season.  

As for this evening's taste-test, the sauce is pretty tart.  I know I didn't add nearly enough sugar, but being the sugar-hater that I am, I was willing to risk tart.  Much better than sickeningly sweet.  It's a lot easier to add sugar than take it out!  I'll see how it tastes on the pancake tomorrow, and I may decide to add a bit more sugar, who knows?

I had fun taking pictures of the water while I was rinsing off the berries.  My camera actually managed some cool pictures.  Usually it drives me crazy by not focusing on what I want it to.  These pictures aren't perfect, but they're pretty stellar for my little point & shoot!

Breakfast is Served:

this

 plus this

equals this

Pretty tasty.  I would say that this experiment is a success.  I almost like cranberries now.  I think I forgot to mention earlier that I don't really like cranberries.  But you may have noticed by now that I like to find ways to change my mind about foods I don't like. Tis the season for cranberries, so I'm sure there will be more cranberry-filled things appearing here in the near future.