blackberry compote ingredients: - enough blackberries to fill a saucepan - one cup of sugar (more or less to taste) after picking or otherwise obtaining a holy heckton of blackberries (yes, I know blackberry season has practically ended by the time I've written this, but it'll be back next year), wash them all in a colander, VERY GENTLY. these are berries and they can get squished easily if you don't watch out and they will get washed away in this stage if you're not careful. that being said, you can still jostle the colander to shuffle the berries around for easier access to stems and stuff that may have ended up in there. remove those, you do not want to have a cronchy stem in your sauce. after this step, transfer the berries to your saucepan. make sure it's bigger than you think you might need. that small one you used to make a brick of stovetop ramen in is probably too small for this. also, mind the berry juice stains. after that, set the stovetop to like, medium high or something. this is the part where you need to add the sugar. I'm not really into making super sweet stuff, so I usually only limit to one cup of sugar. I find limiting the sugar brings out the natural flavor a lot better. let it sit for a while, probably with the lid on. check it every few minutes. you can probably stir it after a while. after a bit, you can probably turn it down to medium low heat. additional items for flavor: I've found that adding one (1) fresh mint leaf is enough to add intrigue to the flavor. you only need one. it doesn't even have to be very big. you could have a tiny mint leaf and it'll be just fine. if you know any friends that desperately need to get some wildly growing mint off their hands, take them up on the offer, but I'd suggest using most of it on a tea. can you use a dry mint leaf? probably? just make sure it has time to soften up in the saucepan with the rest of the compote. I've only tried this for cranberry sauce, but I think adding some amount of citrus might make a blackberry compote pop. lemon? lime? orange? something that looks like an orange but isn't actually an orange? experiment! juice or zest? whichever one you have access to. if you can get some fresh citrus peel to grate with one of those fine grain graters for the zest, go for it! after a while, once the consistency is to your liking, you can transfer it to glass jars. do note, this sauce WILL stain your plasticware. it will stain everything you don't clean. it will stain your carpet, your face, and your favorite shirt. but you can just drink it and it will be delicious. you can pour it on pancakes and waffles and feel a little fancy. you can add some to a drink and look cool. more importantly, you can gift this stuff to your friends and family! just make sure you look up proper canning techniques so they don't get botulism or something. or not, I'm not you parent.