​Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market's choicest ingredients home with them and cook up a feast.

If you can't find someone to make you a Super Bowl meat stadium to snack on during Sunday's showdown between the Patriots and the Giants, there's always the next best thing: chips and dip. "As football climbs the rungs to become America's favorite sport, so goes the Super Bowl buffet from craptastic to fantastic, so feed your friends great food, like homemade chips and dips," says Barb, who offers recipes for both. "They go great with beer, don't cost too much, and they're delicious." She found the chips recipe in an old copy of Gourmet magazine, and the home-made onion dip, she says, is a combination of several different recipes; you can find the ingredients for the herbed dip at Marczyk's. Oh...and Barb has one more thing to add: "Go Pats!"

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Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market's choicest ingredients home with them and cook up a feast.

Super Bowl Sunday is just a few weeks away, and while Tebow and the Broncos have been sidelined, there will still be plenty of Super Bowl parties where chips, dips, chili and, in some dire cases, frozen pizza, will be part of the potluck. But Pete, Barb and the crew from Marczyk's have another crowd-pleaser: Sausages, peppers and onions. "I walked around the market today, asking people what they thought would be good for an easy football food kind of dish, and of all the odd sources, someone said there was a great sausage and peppers recipe in the Sopranos Family Cookbook," says Barb, who admits that she had no idea such a cookbook existed. Nonetheless, the staff at Marczyk's insists the recipe is a touchdown. Barb recommends paring the dish with the Barocco primitivo, which retails for $10.99 at Marzcyk Fine Wines.

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​Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market's choicest ingredients home with them and cook up a feast.

During the month of January, Marczyk's is doing a superfood push, which, says Barb, "makes most people think of wheatgrass. And that, she insists, is not food. "The superfoods we want people to try," she says, "include nuts, citrus, avocado, sardines, black beans, wild-caught salmon, olive oil, quinoa, dried porcini mushrooms and dark chocolate -- see, not so bad, and certainly not monastic." Today's recipe, an orange, avocado and almond salad from the kitchen of Sue Burleigh, the mom of Marczyk's produce manager, is "a quick, light and healthy salad that's perfect for taking advantage of the variety of available winter citrus."

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​Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market's choicest ingredients home with them and cook up a feast.

Not that any of us here at Cafe Society headquarters have any intention of making New Year's resolutions, but if you, unlike us, are one of those people, then Barb says you might want to consider the benefits of salmon if your New Year's resolutions includes -- as they usually do -- some sort of wayward promise to eat better. "There's no better way to ring in the New Year than with salmon, which is healthy and full of all the right fat," Barb contends. But since today's recipe calls for a beurre blanc sauce, it's not exactly the diet equivalent of carrots and cucumbers. "The butter sauce is a fitting way to say goodbye to the season of rich food," she says. And while you're at it, you may as well toss in a few bottles of wine to usher in the New Year with dignity. Barb recommends pouring an Ingleheim Riesling from Alsace, France, which is $14.99 at Marczyk Fine Wines.

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​Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market's choicest ingredients home with them and cook up a feast.

Like Pete and Barb, I'm a soup fiend, especially this time of year, and the roasted tomato soup from Eli Varga-Ernst, a cook at Marczyk, is exceptional. "This is one of our best-selling soups; it's a big hit year-round," says Barb, adding that while the recipe calls for a hefty two cups of feta cheese, you can eliminate it entirely -- and instead make a grilled cheese sandwich and dunk it. If you follow the recipe and include the feta, be sure to have a good loaf of crusty garlic bread on hand. Varga-Ernst also recommends serving it alongside an arugula salad.

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​Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market's choicest ingredients home with them and cook up a feast.

If you're one of those people who has an obsession with turkey -- and not just on Thanksgiving -- this recipe is for you. It's not for the faint of heart -- in fact, says Barb, "If you're on a diet, look away." Still, she insists, it's worth every calorie. The hash, an adaption of a recipe originally published in 1984 in Cuisine magazine's last issue, is ideal for this time of year, and if you plan on serving turkey (again) for your Christmas dinner, the leftovers make for a hearty brunch the next day. Barb recommends pairing it with an Ingleheim Riesling, available at Marczyk Fine Wines for $14,99

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J. Wohletz

One of Black Star's luscious lavender chocolates.

​Andrew Starr is a choc-tease. He and his chocolatier partner, Jennifer Spielman, own Black Star Chocolates, and they create exciting, luscious and downright sensual confections. Since their chocolate creations are handmade, small-batch and filled with fresh, seasonal herbs and flowers, thought, they are available in limited quantities -- at limited times.

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​Pete Marczyk and Barbara Macfarlane do not leave their work behind when they leave Marczyk Fine Foods and head for their great old Denver house with the big, new kitchen. They often bring some of their market's choicest ingredients home with them and cook up a feast.

In case you've conveniently forgotten, Thanksgiving is tomorrow, which means that most of you will no doubt be a slave to your kitchen. But cooking Thanksgiving dinner is something that Pete and Barb look forward to every year: "The day is full of turkey and gravy and butter and sugar and wine, which we love," says Barb. In other words, what's not to love about gluttony? Still, if you're trying to maintain a semblance of dignity, Pete and Barb have a salad recipe that, promises Barb, "is a refreshing break, and perfect as a starter or even before dessert." Hell, it's even good the next day, she says, adding, too, that it's one of her customer's favorite Thanksgiving day recipes.

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J. Wohletz

​There are plenty of places to get your holiday trimmings, but the Whole Foods stores smooth over their Whole Paycheck nickname by serving above-average complimentary samples of holiday fare before they empty our wallets.

The Capitol Hill store is doing free samples every Wednesday from 5 to 7 p.m., and it takes its holiday food sampling seriously: These aren't just tiny paper cups of cheapo mixed nuts or those little toothpaste mints. Instead, shoppers are treated to small plates of fresh fruit, hot appetizers, chilled shrimp and warm bites of pie. It's like an informal tapas-train, so hopping on board means full bellies while you gear up for a happy (or at least somewhat organized) turkey/Tofurkey day.

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J. Wohletz

​With national cram-your-gut-and-pass-out-on-your-couch day approaching, many food-insecure Denverites may be wondering how they will squeeze a huge Thanksgiving din-din out of a lean wallet. But never fear: Whenever there are poor locals looking for a holiday feast on the cheap, the Dollar Tree is there. The store has everything you could want for a hearty and inexpensive turkey-day meal -- and, of course, every item is just a dollar.

Here's our photo tour of Thanksgiving dinner from the Dollar Tree. No need to thank us.

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