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What Goes on Sale and What to Buy on Clearance in April

After really reading the grocery store sales fliers on line instead of just skimming them, I started to notice seasonal sales patterns, especially around holidays,  especially industry holidays like Earth Day. When I shop seasonally,  I’m able to keep my family in fresh fruit and vegetables for less when nothing is growing locally yet.  Shopping the April seasonal store sales doesn’t just apply to food. Many household items only go on sale in April too. It is a good time to start looking for that perfect Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, or Graduation gift because the prices will be higher on those items in May and June. If you are a thrift or consignment sale shopper, April is the time to hit the stores! Thrift store donations increase in April when people start their Spring cleaning. For extra savings, pair the sale with a coupon from my  printable online coupon database  (affiliate link) because money saving coupons often follow national sales cycles too! April Seasonal

Quick and Easy Spiced Cranberry Sauce Recipe

I grew up eating Thanksgiving cranberry sauce from a can. I figured cranberry sauce must be hard to make and that's why so many people buy the canned stuff.

Nope.

I learned just how easy it is to make cranberry sauce the year Husband and I threw a Thanksgiving dinner for some international grad students. We wanted the dinner to be as traditional as possible because we were introducing them to their first American holiday.

Cranberries. Water. Sugar. That's it.


Cranberry sauce yum!

We've been making cranberry sauce from fresh cranberries ever since. 

In a house with two daring foodies with a large spice rack, it didn't take long for Husband and I to start tweaking the basic cranberry sauce recipe into a fantastic and still easy spiced cranberry sauce recipe.

Easy Cranberry Jelly Recipe



You will need:

4 cups of cranberries (approximately one pound)
2 cups water
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground clove (or 3 whole cloves)
2 cups sugar

Make it: 

1. Bring the water, cinnamon, clove, and cranberries to a low boil in a covered saucepan until the skin on the cranberries start to burst. This should take about 3 to 5 minutes after the mixture starts to boil.


Boiled cranberries!


2. Dissolve 2 cups of sugar into the cranberry mixture and stir until it reaches a steady boil. Now it is time to make a decision on how thick (jelly) or runny (sauce) you want your cranberries to be.

  • To make cranberry sauce: Remove the cooked cranberries from the stove. 

  • To make cranberry jelly: Boil the cooked cranberries while continually stirring to keep the sugar from scorching until the spiced cranberry jelly reaches the desired thickness. This may take between 5 and 15 minutes depending upon how thick you like your cranberry jelly.


Cinnamon and clove cranberry sauce

3.  Skim the foam from the top of the cranberries with a spoon. If you leave the foam, it won't hurt anything or affect the flavor. This is clearly for looks.

4. Serve it up and make your guests think you slaved hours over your spicy cranberry sauce!

Which one do you like best? Cranberry sauce or cranberry jelly?


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