• Everybody is on a fortune cookie kick these days. I’d bring out Fortune Candies, with corny, crazy fortunes on them.

• I’d do what the cosmetic people are doing. They bring out shade promotions: Rue de la Pink and French Spice and Red Tape. I’d bring out taste promotions: exciting one-shots that are here today and eaten up tomorrow.
• I’d bring out special summer candy…to be chilled and served ice cold. Bought in the freezer department in a supermarket.
• Why isn’t candy on every restaurant menu as a dessert? Why isn’t it packed in TV dinners? Why isn’t there dry candy, like dry wine and dry beer?

• I’d find candy boxes that turn themselves into toys or lunch boxes or something. Inventive packaging has sold my wife one helluva lot of (ugh) cottage cheese. And she buys vitamins the same way: to end up with a handsome jar. She buys soap in plastic bags just to wind up with the bags. You’d like my wife.

• Give her Monday bars and Tuesday bars and Wednesday bars to put in lunch boxes and she’ll buy a whole mess of ‘em.

• Give her a box of candy for a long motor trip: each kid gets one of the small pieces every 50 miles, a larger piece for every 100 miles and a special red piece every time you cross a state line.

• Give her a big bag of un-birthday candy to serve tonight at an un-birthday party…just for the fun of it, because it isn’t someone’s birthday.

Photos courtesy ofAnnedore's Fine Chocolates

• Truffles (see recipes below)
• Silicone mats
• Plastic wrap
• Foam block
• Parchment paper or aluminum foil (optional)
• Round toothpicks
• Tempered chocolate
• Foam cone
• Wrapping paper or fabric (preferably coordinating with the color of your truffles)
• Flathead pins
• Scissors
• Ribbon or tree topper (optional)

1. Prepare truffle centers using your own ganache recipe or see recipes below. Pipe ganache onto silicone mats. Cover the mats with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 12 hours. Transfer mats to the freezer for 12 hours. Remove mats from the freezer and pop out ganache balls (Note: Balls may be returned to the freezer for future use). Cover balls with plastic wrap and allow them to come to room temperature.
2. Cover a foam block with parchment paper or aluminum foil, so it can be reused. Glue a toothpick into each ganache ball by, first, dipping one end of the toothpick into tempered chocolate and then inserting that end into the center of the flat side of the ganache ball. Allow toothpick to set up firmly in the ganache ball.
   
   
3. Once the toothpick is firmly set in the ganache ball you are ready to dip each ganache ball in tempered chocolate. Dip each ball carefully and then insert tooth-picked end of the ball into the block of foam. This will allow for perfect-looking, uniform truffles to create your truffle tree. Allow chocolate to set up. Truffles may be decorated while standing in the block of foam.
   
   
4. Before you begin to build your tree, first, wrap the foam cone completely with wrapping paper or fabric – secure with flathead pins, as needed.
   
   
5. Beginning at the bottom of the cone, push the tooth-picked truffles into the cone working your way around the cone to create the first row. On the second row, stagger the truffles by placing them in the open spaces created by the first row. Carefully work your way up the cone row by row until the entire cone is covered in truffles. Toothpicks may need to be cut as you reach the top of the cone.
   
   
6. Crown the top of your tree by inserting a tooth-picked truffle vertically on the top of the cone. Experiment with different tree toppers, such as a large bow or a chocolate initial or number (birthday idea). Use your imagination.