What to do with leftover cranberries - jam of course!

Last year we had a little bit of an over abundance issue at Thanksgiving, too much of everything.  With most things, that's not a problem - I can eat turkey sandwiches for days.  However, the 4 bags of extra whole cranberries in the bottom of the refrigerator were more of an issue.....freshly made cranberry sauce after Thanksgiving is just weird to me and throwing them out was just wasteful.  Luckily, we were up at Roy Ridge where all of our summer canning supplies were an arms reach away, so we decided to try making cranberry jam.  I have to say, it was very easy, took less than an hour, and is supremely good on the aforementioned turkey sandwiches!

2 12oz bags of whole cranberries
2 cups of sugar (I like my jelly tart, if you have more of a sweet tooth, up this to 3)
1 box pectin
Sterilize 5 canning jars.  (I usually just run them through the dishwasher, easy breezy!).

Drop the lids into a saucepan of boiling water, turn the heat off and let them wait there until you need them.Combine the three ingredients in a saucepan and simmer over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the berries have split open and you've got a good boil going.  I like my jam with chunks of fruit, so I don't bother chopping up the cranberries (plus it saves a ton of time!)Transfer the liquid to your jars with a ladle. Fill them to about 1/2" from the top.  The $3.00 investment in a canning funnel was well worth it!Pull the lids out of the hot water, place them on the jars and attach the rims.Once you've got that (okay, I'll say it..), somewhat messy, job done, lower them into a pot of boiling water and let boil for 15 minutes. We have a big pot with a rack that holds the jars which makes this super easy, but lowering the jars into a big pot of boiling water with a pair of tongs works just as well.  If you do this, I usually put a few jar rims on the bottom of the pot so the jars aren't resting on the bottom of the pot...but that's just me being paranoid about cracking the jars.Once they're done, pull them out and you're done!  Hmmmm......don't those look like they'd make nice Christmas gifts.... I love getting two birds with one stone!