Cranberry-Pomegranate Sauce

I always try to figure out a new way to make plain old cranberry sauce interesting this time of year. Maybe it's seeing the towering wall of gelled cranberry-in-a-can at the store is what always motivates me to try something completely different.

Making cranberry from scratch is super-easy and only takes about an hour at most. Since whole (huge!) pomegranates seem to be popping up everywhere for cheap right now, I think this sauce will be a good addition to this year's Thanksgiving table.

I'm going to experiment today with cranberry-clementine and triple-ginger cranberry-apple. Basically, you can make up any combination of juice, zest, sugar, spice, and cranberries -- it's sure to be better than whatever is hiding out in those cans.

Cranberry-Pomegranate Sauce

2 pints cranberries (organic ones taste sweeter)

1/2 cup pomegranate juice

1 whole pomegranate

3/4 cup cane sugar

1 tbsp. honey

Meyer lemon zest

pinch of salt

dash of clove powder

Rinse cranberries and pour them into a tall-ish saucepan. Pour in pom juice. Turn heat on medium-low. Cut the whole pomegranate and remove the seeds; you can run them through a food processor and strain out the seeds. Pour that into the pan along with the sugar, honey, lemon zest, salt, and clove. Cook for about 30-40 minutes until the cranberries pop and the sauce thickens.