Cranberry Sauce and Muffins

     Greetings, viewers.
    
     A few days ago, my mum decided that she wanted to try making homemade cranberry sauce.  She hunted in vain for a recipe, but then finally found one on a package of cranberries, and surprisingly enough, it is gobsmackingly easy to make.

     Here's how you do it -

• 1 package whole cranberries (located seasonally in the produce section)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water

     Add the sugar and water to a small saucepan.  Bring to a boil, and cook for 5 minutes.  Add the cranberries, and simmer for 5 more minutes, until the skins burst.  Squish them a bit with a potato-masher, and voila.  The pectin in the cranberries does the rest; as it cools, it becomes thick, and cranberry sauce-like, no corn starch or corn syrup required.

     I found a recipe for strawberry muffins, and decided to use a batch of my mum's cranberry sauce to make cranberry-walnut muffins instead.

     Here's my recipe -

• 1 2/3 cups cranberry sauce
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 cup (more or less) walnuts, chopped

     Heat oven to 425 degrees F.  Grease bottoms of cups in a twelve-count muffin tin, or line with paper baking cups.  In a large bowl, add the cranberry sauce, stir in sugar, oil, and eggs until mixed.  Stir in other ingredients until moistened.  Spoon batter into muffin cups.  Bake about 15 minutes, or until light golden-brown, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool 5 minutes, and remove from muffin tin.

     It occurs to me, viewers, that many of my posts are about food.  You all must think I do nothing but eat.  Haha.  This is not at all the case.  I like trying new foods, but I eat very little.  I prefer making food, and feeding it to other people.  The neighbors have absolutely no problem with this.  They quite enjoy receiving various baked goods from their little apron-clad neighbor lady. ^_^