Leftover frosting? Roll it into quick truffles.

• Normand Laprise urges cooks to not ignore the truffle in hard times -- suggesting how far an ounce can go -- from flavoring your in-shell eggs, to truffle ice cream (recipe included), scrambled eggs, risotto, and bread with a truffle center.
• February is the perfect time to indulge in bitter-lettuce salads, like a Simple Winter Salad of radicchio, watercress, frisee, and endives.
• Daniel Boulud opens DB Bistro Moderne in Vancouver, offering freshly ground burgers, a refusal to massacre meat to well done, and delicious and warm Madeleines -- plus the new Lumière restaurant.
• There's little as delicious as a strong beer, and Stephen Beaumont runs through the regions and beers that offer strong flavor in your brew.
• A look into Jean-Georges Vongerichten's new Vancouver restaurant and his in-kitchen process.
• Eating in the Year of the Ox, recipes for: Barbecue Pork, Sesame-Hoisin Sauce, Potstickers, Ginger Vinegar Dipping Sauce, Shrimp Dumplings, Salmon Spring Rolls, Spiced Soy Dipping Sauce, and Stir-Fried Noodles with Duck

Remember that truffle contest I told you all about earlier this month? Well, holy crap! Our reader Scott won! How amazing is that? Congratulations!! It just goes to show you that when these things come around, it doesn't hurt to try -- especially when winning gives you a whole 1/4 lb of truffles!

Scott won Black Winter Truffles (aka Perigord, black diamond) which are durable, slightly bigger and tougher, and best used fresh. (However, that doesn't mean that you can't freeze them!) These are the little guys that thrive when you cook them -- unlike white truffles that will dance on your tastebuds raw, black truffles are great for cooking, especially with cook times that give the truffle time to blend with other flavors.

One of the most beloved and rampant uses of truffles in the home is eggs. Just about every truffle piece I've ever read talks about the magic that happens when truffles come in contact with eggs -- and thinking about how good truffle oil is in eggs, I can just imagine! Truffle butter is also a good idea -- you can whip it up and put it on anything and everything, rather than paying a steep price of $50 for your own. Perhaps a rub inside fowl? Pappardelle? With vegetables?

Basically, Scott, go wild with simple and rich flavors that will be improved with the earthy flavor of the truffle. But if you want even more ideas, check here and here, you lucky duck, you! And Slashfood readers -- please share your tips and beloved recipes. We have to help him on this delicious truffle experience!

You might think it's too early to hear about turkey, but here are a few reasons to check out the video above: Canadian Thanksgiving is this weekend, doing a practice round just means more gobbles for you, and finally, it's got truffles!

The above is a quick run-down of Gordon Ramsay's roast citrus turkey with truffle butter. Personally, I can't imagine eating turkey without a lot of turkey juice-laden stuffing, but at least there's a breadcrumb saute to accompany this mighty fine bird, which comes out of the oven with a deliciously crispy crust and buttery flavor.

But if you don't want to add another turkey to this year's meal plan, try it with a chicken!

I feel like there's a new "World's Most Expensive Burger" story every year. Made with Wagyu beef, topped with foie gras, buns studded with diamond dust (OK, not really), it's a gimmick that never fails to elicit gasps. The rank-and-file shake their heads in disapproval at the decadent rich - "a $50 hamburger, what's the world coming to?" while those with money to burn get to feel very ironic and high-low (the pinnacle of this attitude can be found at Las Vegas's Palms casino, where they'll serve you a $6 Carl's Jr. burger with a 24-year-old bottle of French Bordeaux for $6,000).

For a brief history of the trend, see this story on Forbes Traveler. There's a slideshow of haute burgers, from the six-pack of Kobe sliders at the Continental in Atlantic City to the $150 truffle-stuffed version at DB Bistro Moderne to the $5,000 burger n' 1990 Chateau Petrus combo at Fleur de Lys in Vegas.

If you're unfamiliar with these disgusting-looking fungi called truffles, there's a good reason for that. Truffles are among the most expensive foods in the world, along with caviar and saffron. Up until recently, though, they could only be grown in Italy, Spain, and France.

That's all changing, though. Over the last ten years, farmers in Western Australia have been working growing the precious mushroom and they've finally succeeded. The truffle producers are understandably proud of their achievement: they say that several other places have tried and failed to grow truffles.

The farmers are predicting a crop of 600KG to a ton this year and up to 8 tons in coming years. Who knows, maybe they'll produce enough that prices will come down and foodies everywhere will be able to indulge on a regular basis.

Last week, Shayna showed up how to make our own chocolates for Valentine's Day. Her chocolates are sure to be delicious, but they are, admittedly, a little time consuming to make. However, there are chocolates out there that you can whip up in your own kitchen in less time and with fewer pieces of specialty equipment.

Over a Su Good Sweets, Jessica recently tested three truffle recipes for ease and taste. She came to the conclusion that simple is best and offers her readers the recipe she used (Robert Linxe's cream truffles) to make easy and delicious truffles just in time for the biggest chocolate holiday of the year. Over at Culinate, Melissa Lion wrote about nearly the very same recipe, giving readers an entertaining step by step narration of how to make rustic truffles for Valentine's Day.

On Monday, I was lucky enough to go to a demonstration by a Certified Master Pastry Chef named Frank Volkommer. There are really only a handful of CMPC's in the country so to see one at work is quite a treat. Chef Volkommer has taught at the Culinary Institute of America and is currently the corporate pastry chef for Cargill Cocoa and Chocolate.

Quite often these demonstrations are dressed up sales pitches for a brand of chocolate or other product. This one was no different, but that didn't make it any less interesting or relevant (at least to pastry professionals). While Chef Volkommer was using only Cargill brand chocolates, the demonstration was really about how to air brush colored cocoa butter into truffle molds to get colorful truffles.

Chef Volkommer made a tasty passionfruit ganache filling first. He then went into detail about a couple of different air brushing machines and how to use them for cocoa butter. The trick is to keep the parts of the air brush gun warm while using cocoa butter, if you're interested in trying this. The Chef went about finishing the truffles and set them aside to cool for later.

• Make your next party a little more fancy with these gougeres (French cheese puffs).
• The oldest game supper in Vermont.
• Frank Zappa has inspired a Boston restaurant to change its name.
• Everyone likes to hang out at Bickford's.
• The world of contraband foodstuffs.
• Absinthe is available in Boston.
• The Brookline restaurant Lineage makes Kobe Meatballs.
• Rachael Ray is everywhere.
• More recipes: Southern-Style Shepherd's Pie, Italian Pork and Beans, Creamy Mushroom Soup, and Cardamom-Infused Dark Chocolate Truffles.

Apparently the pressures and rivalry that come with being one of Britain's leading chocolatiers sometimes cause men to do strange things. Witness the case of Barry Colenso, the erstwhile master chocolatier of the prestigious Thorntons who was forced to resign after a "truffle-squishing" incident at a rival store.

That's right folks. We said, gasp, "truffle squishing." Actually it's no laughing matter. The man who has been likened to Willy Wonka and who you see standing before a chocolate billboard he created last Easter went on a truffle vandalism spree at rival store Hotel Chocolat where he mangled some $130 of confections. Store staff knew something was up when they noticed him pawing at the various truffles. Hotel Chocolat issued a statement saying, "This was an extraordinary act of truffle-squishing. We can only guess at what provoked it."

I know said something about this not being a laughing matter, after all it was highly unprofessional behavior, but I can't help thinking of the scene in Tampopo where the elderly female shopper roams through a store squeezing and destroying a wide array of items. It also begs the question, did they sell the damaged goods at a lower price or remake them or what? Personally, I'm not above eating a squished truffle or two.

[via Boing Boing]

Though I usually enjoy watching shows like Iron Chef and the like, I often get jealous frustrated because of the vast array of food, seasonings, and condiments they have at their disposal. Let's face it, truffles, foie gras, and cinnamon oil don't exactly line my shelves on a regular basis. What is even more frustrating though is when I actually do want to buy some of these exotic ingredients, I can't seem to find them in any of my local markets.

After a bit of a search, I discovered this website which is helping to eliminate that problem - StarChefs.com has compiled a list of chef-recommended "secret ingredients" and where to buy them, making it easier to locate such items as avocado leaves, Mexican chocolate, black mustard seeds, white or black truffle powder and cream, duck confit, chestnut jam, rare cheeses, orange flower water, Tahitian vanilla extract, and smoked Sicilian tuna. Fortunately, even if you don't live near the specified stores (mostly New York or East Coast) many of the shops offer courier service so you can have the ingredients shipped right to your door.

Basic truffles are not difficult to make in the grand scheme of candy making. They have a ganache center rolled in cocoa - simple. The tricky part comes in when you try to move beyond that very basic and unassuming plain truffle. One option is to carefully read the recipes of bloggers for tips and ideas. Another option, which could be used in conjunction with the blogger choice, is to read Truffles: 50 Deliciously Decadent Homemade Chocolate Treats. The relatively short book offers step-by-step tutorials and lots of great tips about every element of the truffle-making process, from choosing the chocolate to shaping the truffles to storing the finished product (assuming that they don't all get eaten up right away). Fruits, nuts, spices and liqueurs all show up at least a few times in this book, adding lots of variety to the treats so that every single one sounds impossibly tempting. Just take Champagne Bittersweet Chocolate Truffles, Matcha White Chocolate Truffles, Pumpkin Spice Truffles, Rum Raisin Truffles and Tiramisu Truffles as a sampling of the possibilities.

If you do embark on a truffle-making journey, make sure that there are people around to share them with you. The only thing worse than a waisted truffle is looking at the change in your waistline if you eat a whole batch by yourself.

Enric Rovira Chocolates has a line of chocolate drink accents that are designed to perch on the rim of a cocktail or a glass of champagne, providing and indulgent touch to the drink. The accents are very dark chocolate truffles (70% cacao) with carefully carved notches that are the width of the average champagne glass. They were originally intended to complement cava, a Catalonian sparkling wine, but will work with other sparkling wines, liqueurs or chocolate cocktails. The accents would be a beautiful touch at the end of a romantic dinner for two and would definitely make a splash at a New Year's Eve party!

Imported from Spain, these chocolates are sold at Dean and Deluca for $25 per box (20 pieces), but you can probably make up some yourself by carefully cutting a small slit into regular, cocoa-coated chocolate truffles. Just make sure to knock the excess cocoa off first to prevent any loose cocoa from falling into your cocktail.

Half of the sugar grown in the US comes from Louisiana, so it only makes sense that cooks down there know how to make good use of cane syrup and molasses in addition to regular sugar. The sugar alternatives are especially popular around the holidays, when there are so many sweet treats to be had, including Louisiana Gingerbread (Stage Planks or Mule Bellies) , Cane Syrup Popcorn Balls , and Cane Syrup Cake (Gâteau de Sirop) . (Incidentally, I didn't know that cane syrup over thickly buttered white bread is called a diaper sandwich. But the name would probably stop me from trying it.)

One of the world's largest groups of Hasidic Jews originated Hungary, so it isn't surprising to learn that there is a lot of traditional Hungarian-Jewish food that is popular around the holidays. Dishes like Cheese Danish Pastries (Delkelekh), Hungarian Stuffed-Under-the-Skin Chicken and Hungarian Eggs with Tomatoes, Peppers and Onions (Letcho) are especially popular and making them means not only getting good food, but spending time with family.

The "truffle truck" is the name that chefs have affectionately given to John Magazino's truck, which he uses to deliver truffles, caviar and other ultra-high end foods to the best restaurants in New York.

Au Pied de Cochon - The Album is a cookbook from Marting Picard and the staff at Au Pied de Cochon, full of crazy illustrations and some very high-quality recipes for those who take their pork seriously.

High-end magazines targeted at the customers of high end restaurants claim to be about "lifestyle," but they're really just full of ads.

Frank Bruni dines at Cafe Cluny and gives it 1 star.

Mark Bittman, the minimalist, offers a very quick primer on sugar.

If you attend enough holiday parties, you are eventually going to encounter those little chocolate bottles that are filled with a teaspoon or two of various liquors. The most popular bottles seem to be the ones filled with Grand Marnier, Kahlua, Southern Comfort or another fairly sweet spirit, but you'll find chocolates with everything from vodka to tequila, as well. Frankly, while they are fun and a little bit more "adult" than some of the usual holiday candies, they are not exactly the highest quality treats you'll eat this season. Perhaps a better alternative would be a box of wine filled truffles. They are more indulgent, richer and ultimately more satisfying than popping a quarter shot of tequila into your mouth. The truffles are enrobed in smooth dark chocolate and are filled with your choice of either cabernet, chardonnay, port or champagne. A dozen truffles come in each box and, at $25 per box, they would make a nice change of pace from the standard bottle of wine as a holiday hostess gift.