Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I love making skillet pastas like this one. Mac and Cheese in all forms is such a great go to. I've found that you can just make the white sauce, freeze it, and use it at any occasion. I usually just throw together this Skillet White Pasta with Veggies if I'm too lazy to make a beautiful topping like you did above. Looks great!

Pomegranate Juice has been my one of my most recent enthusiasms and it's now a staple in my refrigerator. It's great in sauces and marinades and, while it doesn't seem to insinuate it's particular taste to a dish, it adds a richness or a depth of flavor when used judiciously.

In addition, it's full of antioxidents, etc and serves as a substitute when one wants to add wine, but chooses not to because it's not desired for any number of reasons.

It's good and good for you.

Various vinegars; I grew up only being familiar with distilled white and apple cider. Now I have about eight different kinds. I love how adding a splash of vinegar at the end of cooking stews, beans, etc. just lifts the flavors and makes it all come together.

Paneer. I have always loved eating Indian food at restaurants but recently ventured into a local Indian market and discovered you can buy paneer already made! Paneer is Indian cheese that is more like a really firm tofu and is pretty much a vegetarian staple for Indian food. It has really emboldened me...:)

Fresh Ginger grated into almost everything I cook recently!

Freshly cracked black pepper for desserts and sweet items. I cube cantaloupe, shred prosciutto and basil, squeeze some lemon on top and crack lots of fresh black pepper on top. I would analogize it to adding salt to baked goods. You wouldn't expect the synergy to work but it does.

First press Greek olive oil, almost straight from the orchard!

Or a lemon.

Or the humble corn torilla.

Sriracha!!

As someone who grew out of being a picky eater in a meat-and-potatoes kind of household, anything that isn't American "comfort food" was revolutionary. Wine, capers, curry, olives, mushrooms, za'ater, and fresh herbs made a world of difference for me, as did learning to make my own dressings and sauces. I don't know if I could pick just one kitchen item that made more of an impression than another.

thats easy - good salt.

Fresh picked basil. I made Haalo's recipe for Basil Ice Cream recently, and it is delicious!
http://cookalmostanything.blogspot.com/2007/01/basil-ice-cream.html

Very carefully deployed fish sauce.