These warm olives are like a giant warm hug from my friend Amanda at Heartbeet Kitchen. Amanda is one of the most creative flavor masters I know. This girl infuses flavor into her clean healthy recipes and isn't afraid to push the envelope with new unique ingredients to create dishes like ghee braised radishes and thyme and fluffy gluten-free tigernut flour pancakes. And if Amanda hadn't already won me over with her cooking, baking, photography, and cat-whisperer ways, she came to visit in the middle of one of the most stressful weeks of my life - the week before I filed my dissertation - and she's STILL my friend. The kind of friend who keeps my baby stylish with the sweetest kicks and steps in to guest post while I'm over here putting on a 24-hour circus act (holding a 12lb baby over my shoulder, while patting her back, singing the chorus to Ingrid Michaelson's You & I, and dancing in circles around the kitchen island with the lights off and the KitchenAid stand mixer running) with only brief intermissions for things like restroom breaks and laundry. And she's sharing this post with a broken hand. So basically: she's the best kind of friend. When she was here, Amanda made dinner while I stood by and ate olives. I now only wish they were warm olives with citrus, rosemary, and a splash of gin.