CRANBERRY JUICE - MAKING MY OWN

For as long as I can remember, cranberry juice has been my juice of choice.  With my eggs and toast at breakfast, or with my chicken and potatoes at dinner, I love cranberry juice!  This Thanksgiving, I bought more bags of cranberries than I needed, and the idea of making my own cranberry juice sounded interesting.  How hard could it be?  I searched recipes on the internet and found a basic recipe that came out quite tasty! 

Now, the point of making my cranberry juice is not to save money.  The cost of a bag of cranberries is the same as a bottle of juice, not to mention the cost of the other ingredients such as sugar, lemon, and any other juice you may want to add, plus the time of prep and clean up.  On the other hand, the process is really not that big of a deal, and I think there is something refreshing about making your own juice rather than buying it at the store.  Did you ever notice that sometimes you buy juice and it says "from china" right on the container!

Here is my experience making cranberry juice followed by the recipe I used.

Like ruby red marbles, I empty a bag of cranberries into a strainer where I rinse them clean
Their color is so intense it's hard to imagine they are so bitter.  They look and feel like you could pop them in your mouth and they would taste like candy.

Into the blender with some water and a spoonful of lemon juice they break down quickly and effortlessly into a dark red thick liquid.  Into the refrigerator for some steeping over night (or several hours).

The next day, strained through a fine mesh strainer, thin red liquid pours into a saucepan.  Now resembling something drinkeable, next sweetened with sugar, tempered with water and cooled to a tasty delight. 

The benefits of cranberry juice are well known especially if you can put in as little sugar as possible.  Cranberries are a powerful antioxidant, have good vitamin C and fiber and are good for urinary tract health.  Making your own cranberry juice is natural, no plastic bottle, no shipping from china, no extra preservatives.  Now, I do realize that those little cranberries probably had a chemical shower before being packaged, and they did travel in the back of a truck before being tossed onto the gorcery shelf....but hey, its a start.  Besides, I just discovered a few websites where you can obtain organic cranberries.  Fresh cranberries are harvested in September and October and available through December.  Off season, they will have been frozen.

RECIPE
Add 2 cups of water and 1 Tblsp of lemon juice to a blender
Add 4 cups of cranberries
Blend on medium speed for 2-3 minutes until thick liquid is achieved
Place in refrigerator over night.  (I did for 8 hours)

After it has chilled, strain through a fine mesh strainer into a saucepan and add 1 cup of sugar (yikes! this was too sweet - I recommend starting with a half cup) and heat over medium heat stirring for 1 minute until sugar is dissolved
Tansfer juice to a driking pitcher and add 1 cup of cold water (you may add more if you like it more diluted)
Chill and serve and Enjoy!