I have been obsessed with making something with tater tots for over a year now. It all started with a lobster tater tot dish that I had in New York City. It was glorious.

I ordered it because it looked so interesting and a little bit off-kilter. It was by far the best dish that we had that late night.

I look forward to having it again when I return to the city, but until then I am going to experiment with making something simple that includes tater tots.

Lobster is out, as no matter what someone tells you, lobster in Maine and Massachusetts is better than anywhere, and it can be great in NYC. But everywhere else, it’s been out of the water too long.

For me, testing recipes - that’s what I call it - is a haphazard process. It goes like this: Idea. Concept. Thinking. Find historical recipes. Choose ingredients. Attempt. Modify.

And I like to try new fusion ideas or add my own fusion to an idea or recipe. The reality almost always ends up in con-fusion - and is occasionally worth eating.

Inedible is also part of the mix. And that is what happened this week.

Though initially a failure, something good came about. I was trying to make the classic ground beef with tater tots. It has beef, onions, cheese, canned mushroom soup, sour cream, bacon, and tater tots on top. Except I left out the soup, the cream, the bacon, and I wish I had dropped the cheese.

The result? Well, it was way too salty, and way, way too greasy. The cheese overpowered everything and not in a good way. The individual parts were good, like the tater tots…

The result should be a fusion version of the 70s packet food, hamburger helpless (not really).

My recipe is a work in progress, without the Tots for now, so when you test it and make it better let us know!

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Even though this started out as a tater tot desire, the concept ended up being a great extender for a bigger meal, since you get lots of flavor to spread over your mashed potatoes or a bowl of rice.

Simply, it is onion, ground beef, Ketjap Manis, Sesame Oil, Shoyu, Sesame Seeds, and Harissa.

Fry the ground beef, add the onions and sesame seeds, then add the liquid and finally the Harissa. Add this to top mashed potatoes, rice or Tater Tots!

Crazy easy, simple and delicious!

See the Updated Hamburger Helper Recipe here!

Olives are old. Cultivated olive trees spread from Asia Minor to the Mediterranean Basin 6000 years ago and predate written language.

Many of us grew up knowing olives by color or by being either, pitted or stuffed. And we knew them as this delicious soft vegetable placed on salads or pizza.

As our culinary knowledge expanded we learned that olives, by the time they arrive in the palm of our hands, come in many colors.

These colors are based in part on when they are plucked from the tree: green is sooner, black is later, or riper. Riper is not better, just different. There is no such thing as a green olive tree - or a black one for that matter. Like humans, olives all start the same, same structure, they just look different when they ripen, and depending on the brining, taste different, too.

And then there is variety. The big four - green, black, pitted, and stuffed, are not varieties. In fact, there are over 2000 varieties of olives grown in warm climates around the world.

We have learned that the mighty olive is a drupe, a fruit (not a vegetable) with a single pit like a peach, or a cherry.

Unlike their sweet brethren, olives contain a compound called oleuropein. This is the bitterness that fills the olive. Olives off the tree are not filled with joy, instead they are filled with bitterness from the oleuropein. To achieve the desirable love you know, you have to cure them. A fermentation of sorts.

Curing removes the yucky taste of oleuropein and phenols from the olives, resulting in quite a tasty treat!

Understanding the curing process may result in knowing which olives you prefer. The curing of olives can happen in the sun, in salt, in lye, water or brine. Lye is the fastest and water takes the longest, and brine-curing can take up to a year.

In the end, olives should never be mushy; soft can be okay, firm is good, and color will vary. Stuffed olives are delish and have a dedicated shaken and stirred following.

These giant green Cerignola olives are from Cerignola, Italy and have recently been crazy super popular!

They are big and beautiful!

If you have a small mouth you might have to bite a little off at a time.

The pit itself is as big as some olives are. The saltiness of the brine and soft firm flesh are delicious and satisfying, so much that one olive, plus sucking on the pit, lasts longer and is more satisfying than a bag of potato chips!

This is one of my all-time favorite olives. The big, mouth-filling olive is firm, with a great crunch, lots of meat to eat, and just the right brine; they are soooo gooood! Get some giant green olives here!

Shop now for Fratepietro Bella de Cerignola Green Olives in Brine!

This red-in-color wine vinegar is delicious. Thin in viscosity, when it first reaches your lips it feels luscious, rich, and thick. The tip of the tongue feels the vinegar but the flavor comes to the senses via the lips and a bit of a sting (acid of the vinegar) at the back of the throat.

Unlike some vinegars, this gentle bing at the back of the throat dissipates quickly and is more akin to a nicely-aged Balsamic. The round flavor of its red wine origins lives in the “nose” and in the “taste”. There is a complete roundness to the flavor of this red wine vinegar, which draws you in and one spoonful is not enough!

Perhaps, and even though it is a gourmet wine vinegar, it makes you feel like it is a sweet wine or an aged balsamic, and yet its notes are different than you expect.

After much tasting, I still cannot describe the flavor as I would like. Like many, if not all red wines, if you suck in a sip your nose will pucker at the tip, and hints of red wine vinegar will be present.

But if you are willing to savor the flavors and the gourmet wine vinegar slowly, you will feel the hints of a red strawberry (creaminess) laced with vanilla and hints of little tiny violets!

I can tell you that it is a wonderful, joyous surprise and one can imagine that it makes everything taste better. What a wonderful treat this is. Agrodolce!

Shop now for Espelt de Garnatxa Red Wine Vinegar!

This recipe is really an amalgamation of two recipe from Marcella Hazan's cookbook, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - our go-to cookbook for Italian recipes - and a recipe from Letitia Clark’s new Sardinian cookbook, Bitter Honey.

You can think of it as taking Marcella's "Butter and Parmisan Cheese Sauce" (one of our favs!) and adding fresh sage. Marcella would make this dish in a well-warmed mixing bowl, but we prefer Letitia’s method of mixing it in a hot pan with the melted butter. One less bowl to wash, and the added heat helps ensure the cheese melts well and covers the pasta.

We’ve chosen the classic Sardinian Malloreddus Saffron Pasta and Parmigiano-Reggiano.

At the end of the day this is a quick, beautiful to look at (because of the saffron Malloreddus pasta), and distinctly Sardinian tasting "adult" mac n' cheese without having to make a béchamel sauce. It is so easy!

See the Saffron Malloreddus Pasta with Butter Sage and Parmigiano-Reggiano Recipe!

It is an interesting exercise to taste common salt alongside Maldon Sea Salt Flakes. The common salt sits uncomfortably on the tongue and has an underlying bitterness. This English sea salt is milder, has the flavor of sea spray and is free from the chemical tang of common salt.

Unlike most salts containing additives to stop them caking in damp weather, Maldon Salt is a completely natural product, retaining valuable sea water trace-elements.

Salt has always played an important role in the everyday life of man for both flavoring and preserving his food.

The offering of salt became a symbol of friendship and trust. To describe someone as 'salt of the earth' or 'worth his salt' shows something of the respect with which this magical white substance is held. The word 'salary' comes from the Latin 'salarium' when Roman soldiers received part of their pay to buy salt.

The English coastal town of Maldon, Essex, has been the centre of a salt producing area since the middle ages, although legend has it that the secret of salt-making from sea water was discovered here over 2,000 years ago when the Romans ruled Britain.

The Maldon Crystal Salt Company is still a small family company operating from a riverside site it has occupied for more than a hundred years. They continue to develop the traditional saltmaker's craft to produce the soft, white flaky English sea salt unique to this area.

The attraction of Maldon for salt-making remains the same today as it did hundreds of years ago. The combination of low rainfall, strong winds, bright sunshine and low-lying marshland produces good salty water. Early salt-making was carried out by boiling sea water, caught in shallow pools set in the marshland, over wood fires. These fires acted as beacons for the local fishing fleets making their way up the coast.

Today, the manufacture of Maldon Sea Salt still relies on the favorable conditions which have enabled the salt industry to develop and flourish here for many centuries. The Maldon Crystal Salt Company's success is due to the production of a unique, high quality sea salt, using traditional methods.

The pyramid-shaped salt crystals, characteristic of Maldon Salt, are fragile enough to crumble easily between the fingers and have a totally different taste from the regular grains of table salt. Try this Maldon finishing salt today!

Shop now for Maldon Sea Salt!

Distinct aromas of super-fresh cut grass, raw artichokes, and a peppery edge.

Castelas has been awarded gold medals at the Concours General Afticole in Paris for eight years in a row!

Castelas, Provencal for "old castle", is also the name of the olive groves in the Callee des Baux de Provence where Castelas olives are grown and pressed.

Castelas' 111-acre olive grove is in the Vallee des Baux de Provence Appellation d'Origine Controlee (AOC) area.

It's in this magical place - hundred-year-old olive groves, the Chateau des Baux, among the great landscape of the Alpilles hill range -- that Catherine and Jean-Benoit Hugues built their mill.

They grow several olive varieties typical of their terroir - Aglandau, Grossane, Salonenque and Verdale - and cultivate them according to each tree's needs, the soil, and the rhythm of the seasons.

Every tree receives careful attention throughout the vegetative cycle. Additionally, the oil is extracted within 12 hours of harvesting, producing an olive oil of impeccable freshness, expressing the green and fruity character of this exceptional terroir.

Shop now for Castelas Olive Oil - Green Label - A.O.C.!

The Salt and Pepper Toasted Corn are not just plain with pepper. Instead they deliver a punchy peppery pow that adds a third dimension to the salt, oil, and corn. What you will find, just like the other two flavors, is some kind of “special sauce” – aka technique – that makes the seasonings stick to the corn so that each and every kernel is flavored with just the right amount of magic.

Shop now for Salt and Pepper Toasted Corn!