Valentine Dinner Solutions!

02/13/2008

"Why can’t we give love give love give love give love?"

- Freddy Mercury and David Bowie, Under Pressure

News & Events

We will be closed all day Tuesday, March 4th for our 3rd Annual Ski Day at A-Basin! A little skiing, a little lounging, a lot of love.

Marczyk Fine Wines Tastings, featuring February's specials.

February 16th
Noon-2pm

All the wines in the store will be 15% off! Also, customers will be able to drop their card in a wine bucket to win a special wine of the day.

And join us as we welcome back photographer Evan Anderman and a collection of his latest works.

Slow Food Denver's Bison, Beer & Beardsley:
Celebrating the Northern Plains Bison, local beer and the fine art of Duke Beardsley

Thursday March 27, 2008
6:00 – 9:00pm

Duke Beardsley’s studio, 1626 Wazee St. Unit 2B

Members $40/Non-members $50

Slow Food Denver and Culturehaus are joining forces for one fantastic evening to bring local food and local art together. This event will feature:

• Bison from Slow Food Denver, presented by celebrity chef Troy Guard.
• Local beer from Bull & Bush Brewery.
• The fine western art of local artist Duke Beardsley.
• Happy Cakes will provide an interactive dessert station and Vodka14 will toast guests with Colorado vodka.
• Duke Beardsley’s work has been featured in numerous exhibitions across the U.S. He was the recipient of the People’s Choice Award at the Buffalo Bill Art Show & Sale in Wyoming and has been featured in Southwest Art Magazine. For more info: www.slowfoodusa.org.

What makes for a great Valentine’s meal, besides of course the person across the table?

A sensuous dinner should involve all the senses. The warm smells coming from the kitchen, the vibrant colors on the plate, the rich contrast of salty with sweet, crunchy and soft, the pop of the champagne cork, and something you can eat with your hands, like oysters or asparagus. Well, you can eat the whole meal with your hands if you want…

Begin with:

• Oysters for all the obvious reasons, .99¢ each. Transmontanus or Paddlefish caviar for the sheer luxury of it. Call to reserve, 303 894-9499.
• Conjure up the land of amore with a wedge of Parmigiano cheese drizzled with honey.

On to dinner. There is nothing less romantic than sweating your way through a complicated meal, so…

• Our beautiful halibut fillet, sautéed in butter, vermouth, and lemon, will make you a hero in the kitchen!
• Impress your date with the best tasting beef in Denver: Dry-aged Niman Ranch rib eye steaks, on special for $19.99/lb for boneless, or $17.99/lb for bone-in. Whip up a fresh Colorado oyster mushroom sauce with pan drippings and wine.
• North Australian lobster tails dipped in clarified butter, use your hands for this one!
• You’ll love our big, tasty king crab legs. Cover the table with newspaper and skip the plates for a hedonistic adventure in eating.

On the side:

• Half a ripe avocado dressed with lemon, a really good olive oil like San Damiano or Gomez, and salt & pepper, is impressive in its simplicity.
• “Melted” leeks (leeks sautéed in butter until they are falling apart soft), covered with a nutty cheese, like Gruyere, and melted under the broiler.
• Our mashed potatoes will be dressed up for the day with a touch of truffle oil, luxe!
• A fresh salad of blood oranges, walnuts, and goat cheese over baby greens will add a delicious shot of red to the plate.
• Tender asparagus roasted with brown butter hazelnuts or almonds and a little drop of sherry vinegar is easy to do while the steaks are cooking. Our buy it already roasted in the case.

Dessert

• Chocolate mousse pie, with its nut-alicious hazelnut biscotti crust and chocolaty filling, certainly fits the bill for soft and crunchy pleasures.
• Big luscious chocolate covered strawberries, $2.99 for 2.

What's Fresh Now?

Buying locally has always been part of our ethos here at Marczyk’s, and we are proud to report that we have several Colorado grown items, here in the dead of winter:

All of our organic potatoes; Hazel Dell mushrooms; red, white, and yellow onions; and the mini sweet peppers are all from Colorado farmers. Thank you for shopping with us!

Recipe

They say cinnamon is a favorite smell for everyone, sexy and comforting all at the same time. Here’s a simple recipe from Martha Stewart circa 1985:

2 pints strawberries, cleaned and stems removed.
¼ cup sugar
1/3 cup dry red wine
One 3 inch cinnamon stick
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Combine sugar, red wine, cinnamon stick in sauce pan, cook until sugar dissolves about 3 minutes. Add strawberries and pepper, cook for about 4 to 5 minutes or until strawberries are soft. Discard cinnamon stick, serve over ice cream or with mascarpone and vanilla cookies.

Around the Food 'hood

Earl Butz, Secretary of Agriculture under President Nixon, died last week at the age of 98. Butz was considered the architect of monocrop farming, and encouraged farmers to plant commodity crops like corn “from fencepost to fencepost”.

The New York Times wrote: “Mr. Butz maintained that a free-market policy, encouraging farmers to produce more and to sell their surplus overseas, could bring them higher prices. Farm income did rise during his time in office, in good measure the result of a huge grain shipment to the Soviet Union in 1972, but American consumers paid more for food… When environmentalists warned against pesticides and fertilizers, he retorted, ‘Before we go back to organic agriculture, somebody is going to have to decide what 50 million people we are going to let starve.”

Meanwhile, back at a different farm, Wendell Berry was interviewed by Gourmet Magazine. Berry has been writing eloquently for 30 years about the benefits of family farms and local food, and walks the walk on an 80 acre farm in Kentucky that he has farmed most of his life. Gourmet lauded him as “the man who saw the future” and who proclaimed that “eating is an agricultural act.”