Jef and I always try and make a little homemade gift for the holidays - we've made homemade cocoa mix, infused vodka and a 'cookie in a jar' mix. I love the idea of making something and so far they've all stayed w/in a relatively low budget (the vodka was the most expensive - still not much - and it was soooo good).

I been dying to share this year's gift with you, but had to wait until today to post so I didn't ruin the surprise for people receiving it. This year I wanted to use my new found knowledge of canning, so we decided to make cranberry jam! Canning is actually REALLY easy. In fact, this jam is... get this... 3 ingredients! The hardest part is getting yourself organized.

Here are some pictures from the process. I encourage anyone to try it. Even if you can't can it properly in a water bath, you can still make it and pop it in the fridge. It's de-licious.

Homemade Cranberry Jelly

Here's where I got distracted and stopped taking photos, but the next steps are pretty straight forward. Let the cranberries boil until it's a thick sauce (~15 minutes). Straining is optional to remove skins / seeds (I did). Pour the jam into the jars and follow the directions on Ball's website to process in a water bath.

Viola! Jam in jars: