I'm envious of your black truffles! How and where did you score those?

awww no envy - you can do and get anything that I have! Actually everybody can :-)
my spouse bought it online as my Xmas gift...

Truffle Shuffle, Oakland

mailed in a jar with the outer insulated bag and 2 freezer sacks!

ive chosen to not look at the website (aside from a recipe) in order to avoid finding out the price. I’m getting the Costco $42 ounce of caviar if they still have it. That’ll be my spouse’s Xmas gift with the cooked blini and other garnishes... of course I’m a believer of eating caviar only with a spoon!

The caviar comes with an Ivory (looking) spoon :D

How fresh are the truffles?

I last had truffles in Italia in 2013 so I can say that they tasted good but I can’t identify their freshness.

alas zero caviar at Costco. I missed out this year. I’ll survive.

Thanks, freshness is usually correlated with aroma (and taste) so if these were very fragrant then they were fresh. Tasting good is the most important part.
You didn't miss much - the caviar was a bit mushy missing the wonderous "pop" that quality ones have. I wouldn't buy it again.

It is probably a mother of pearl spoon.

Sigh, no more likely plastic made to look like mother of pearl :(

I will say that there are some great places doing domestic paddlefish roe -- worth checking out. I may get some caviar for NYE. We typically do our big steakhouse dinner on the Eve of the Eve, and usually skip the steak in favor of a huge seafood tower. We're doing takeout from there this year, and the seafood tower isn't offered but a few individual items are. We'll get those, and then for NYE I think I'll make our own seafood tower and will pick up some caviar if I can find it.

I last had truffles at a market stall in Cassis, France. It was a sandwich with nothing more than a bit of olive oil, sea salt and truffle on some of the nicest bread you'll taste. It was 12 euros but worth every cent.

Christmas Eve supper:
red king crab legs with optional garnishes
oven-heated seeded sourdough baguette with salted butter
roasted Brussels sprouts
oven-baked steak fries
roast beef sandwich on japanese milk bread
olives
small bowl of curried chicken salad

assorted holiday cookies
hot chocolate

ah, then Truffle Shuffle black truffles are nicely aromatic and fresh. We didn’t eat our final bit today so I’ll change the unbleached paper towel :-)

I went to a friend's house and we stayed outside on her deck with the heater
salmon candy
Union Square cafe bar nuts (my contribution)

salad of romaine with Suzanne Goin's Green Goddess dressing recipe topped with blood oranges, sliced avocado and pomegranate seeds (also my contribution---red and green theme)
lobster mac and cheese

french apple pie

Probably some turkey meat tonight. :)

Filet mignon and baked potatoes with broccoli. Should be good even though cooking outside when it's 35 isn't going to be much fun.

Beef Tenderloin
Roasted potato medley
Jalapeno creamed corn
Green beans
Macaroni and cheese


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I had bacon wrapped scallops to cook but I totally forgot about them when making buffalo chicken dip for the afternoon.

Nice job on the beef....sous vide?