Laurie Smith

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.

Thumbprint jam cookies -- also called "Trios" -- are classics, and while they're especially popular during the holidays, Barb says that the impending arrival of spring is reason enough to dig out your baking sheet and gather a crowd of cookie cohorts. This recipe, which uses jams from Dagstani & Sons, a local company that sells their products -- fruit jams, preserves and marmalade -- at local markets, including Marczyk's, benefits from three combinations of jams: caramel apple, pear vanilla and peach cardamom. "These jams are classic with just a little bit of crazy," says Barb, adding that jams are becoming increasingly popular -- and this company, she insists, makes them right. When making the following recipe, you hold try to avoid using any large pieces of fruit. It's a bit time consuming, but "they're fun to cook and the presentation is beautiful," says Barb, noting that they pair especially well with a pot of hot tea.

See also:
- Cooking with Pete and Barb Marczyk: Chocolate bundt cake
- Cooking with Pete and Barb Marczyk: Preserved plum and goat cheese pissaladière
- Come to papas -- a perfect Peruvian party food

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Die! Die! Die until you are dead!

This year has been an interesting and generally productive one for food trends, with global tastes well-established, house-made fruit and vegetable pickles all the rage, gourmet burgers and craft brews holding steady, and Peruvian and Thai fusion cuisine everywhere. But with the good comes the bad, and there are definitely a few food trends that have outlived their usefulness, and need to be put out of our misery.

Here are the top five food trends that should end when 2012 does. Cupcake-sized caskets, anyone?

See also:
- Pie, the food trend of 2011, is still hot at these Denver spots
- Bugged by the Huffington Post's "11 Biggest Food Trends of 2011"
- Behold our 2011 food trend predictions

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J. Wohletz

Chocolate liquor bottles mean it's Christmas time!

Cost Plus World Market is usually a one-stop gift shop for foodies, but during the holiday season it becomes a wonderland of seasonal edibles, drinkables and everything to create and serve them, including winter-themed cookware and dishes that you'll only use once a year. The prices are reasonable for imported merchandise -- which explains why it's so frickin' easy to drop a few bills and not even realize it until that pesky cash register spits out the numbers.

So I went, I shopped, I bought a lot of stuff, and then discovered the answer to an age-old holiday question: Are those shelf-stable Christmas cakes in the boxes any good? I also came up with a list of twenty foodie gifts available at Cost Plus -- including guesswork-free eggnog, bacon-flavored popcorn, chocolate donkeys and yellow snow that you can eat.

See also:
-Five perfect holiday wine gifts for every budget
-Medical marijuana holiday gift guide: High ho-ho-ho!
-Our favorite local culinary gifts of 2012: Spuntino's hot chocolate mix and salted caramel marshmallows

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The Burnsley Hotel

According to a receptionist at the premises, The Burnsley Hotel will be closing next month. This weekend 9News reported that the Burnsley Hotel will be closing December 13. The building has been purchased by RedPeak Management, which plans to convert the seventeen-story hotel into apartments or condos.

See also:
- Forget the food: Just drink at the Burnsley Hotel
- Best Place for a Nooner - The Burnsley Hotel
- Best Boutique Hotel -- Near Downtown - The Burnsley

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Free food! Free food!

The generous, if opportunistic, folks at the California Pizza Kitchen at Park Meadows are offering costumed youngsters a free meal on Wednesday, October 31, so if you have no interest in cooking tomorrow, this deal could be just the trick you need to treat yourself to.

See also:

-California Pizza Kitchen rolls out low-cal items that deserve high praise
-Best Place to Score With a Twenty-Something Whose Parents Still Pay the Rent-California Pizza Kitchen

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J. Wohletz

The traditional Halloween Jello mold--fill it with cream of mushroom this year.

Colorado is home to the highest number of Google searches for Halloween treats, according to NBC's Today; fortunately, the Centennial State has plenty of places to get our sugar rush. And we just acquired one more: A second Rocket Fizz Soda Pop & Candy Shop (the original is at 1512 Larimer Street) has opened at 9567 South University Boulevard C-1 in Highlands Ranch.

Keep reading to see some of Rocket Fizz's more bizarre Halloween sweets and treats.

See also:
-Photos: Sugarlicious stocks scary Halloween treats
- Photos: Denver gets a Rocket Fizz Soda Pop and Candy Shop
- Think the election is scary? Try our grab bag of Halloween events!

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J. Wohletz

The ice sculpture, surrounded by mini-desserts.

The Downtown Aquarium's Nautilus ballroom was filled with all sorts of foodie-fun -- perfect, medium-rare steak; disgustingly good chocolate mousse layer cakes with edible pearl accents; mermaids and a guy in a giant shrimp suit -- last night for a Landry's showcase of the dining and entertainment venues it owns in Denver.

And at least for me, it was a recipe for a good time.

See also:
- Willie G's caters to the classes and the masses
-Tilman Fertitta of Landry's buys McCormick and Schmick's -- and Morton's could be next
-Landry's owner finally hooks McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant
-Oceanaire gets swallowed up by Landry's

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J. Wohletz

Aw, lawd: $12.99 for ice cream?

Thirteen bucks is more than twice the amount you'd pay for a pint of Ben & Jerry's or Häagen-Dazs at the grocery store, so how good would ice cream have to be to convince your average foodie to spoon over that kind of cash?

The answer? As good as Jeni's Splendid ice Cream, now in the freezer section at Cook's Fresh Market downtown.

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Photo by Pauline Stevens

The residents of Boulder have spoken: They want their cheese and wine. And a year after Cured opened in that town, it's now expanded its schedule to seven days a week.

"We hit that one-year mark which was pretty excited, and we realized we got the store where we don't need to do the behind-the-scenes stuff as much," explains owner Will Frischkorn.

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Frank's Kitchen will close temporarily, from September 2-9, so that owners Dina and Frank Berta can take a short "stay-cation." The restaurant will re-open Monday, September 10.

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