I make tartar sauce similar to Country Sunshine's, but I put chopped stuffed green olives in mine. Here is my recipe for Shrimp Gumbo. I don't measure anything, but this is the basics. 2 ribs celery 1 bell pepper 1 onion Chop and set aside. In heavy skillet or stock pot, make roux of approximately equal parts flour and oil. Bacon grease is actually best...so if you have that...use that. I'd say about 1/3 cup each or a little more. Stir without stopping over medium heat until roux is very brown, but do not burn. Don't stop stirring either. Add chopped celery, onion and bell pepper. Stir it in and turn off the heat. Transfer if using a skillet to pot or if using a stock pot, add 3 to 4 cans chicken broth. Stir until the roux is dissolved, and on low heat, add a small can of tomato sauce. You can add more or chopped tomatoes. I don't like tomato pieces in mine....so I go with the sauce. I just want it to color the gumbo. The gumbo will not have a pretty color at this stage, but will as you finish it. Bring to a boil and when the celery, onion, bell peppers are cooked done, add a bag of frozen, chopped okra. When the okra is done, add shrimp. I use a lot of shrimp...and if I have crabmeat, I put that in too. You can put in any kind of seafood. Some people put in sausage, but I don't because it over powers the flavor of the gumbo. When I don't have seafood, I use chicken. Season to taste. I use Tony Chachere's creole seasoning and thyme. Tony's is flavored salt, and I use it like salt when cooking. Do not over cook the shrimp. As soon as it turns pink, or the liquid starts to boil, turn it off. Sprinkle a liberal amount of gumbo file and stir in well. That will also change the color a little bit. Stir it well so it doesn't kind of make strings in the liquid. A handful of minced green onions is good to add now too...or parsley. Serve over hot, cooked rice. (When you make the rice, put a big lump of butter in it to give it richer flavor.) My husband shrimped for 45 years...we still have couple of shrimp boats. I have cooked hundreds of pots of gumbo and this is recipe that I have worked on over the years. You could make stock from the shrimp shells, but I have found that chicken broth gives it more flavor. It doesn't taste like chicken...so no worry there. A lot of people don't like okra because they think it is slimy. Frozen okra has been blanched...so it isn't slimy. You can use fresh okra too, and it won't be slimy but I doubt any one who doesn't eat okra would believe me...so I say use frozen.

I'm not a salmon expert but we live in Seattle and eat fresh (summer/fall) and frozen salmon (winter/spring) weekly. We only eat wild caught salmon from the Pacific. I have always been disappointment in the flavor of Atlantic salmon I've eaten. From my experience the color varies across species. For example, sockeye has the richest darkest color. King is often lighter. The color does seem to affect flavor, but I think the most important factor to my palette is freshness. The fresher the wildcaught pacific salmon is when eaten or frozen the better it tastes. We buy frozen from a local vendor that fillets and freezes on the boat so the frozen when defrosted still tastes great. The other thing is not to overcook it. I find defrosted frozen salmon takes less time to cook. If you live somewhere that does not have good access to really fresh salmon then I'd buy frozen and try and source boat processed salmon. I haven't tried Costco salmon but they are a Seattle company and I do think they source, in general, pretty good quality products. If you like it then really that's all that matters. Also, largely you get what you pay for with salmon. The exception is that if it's the first of the season it's a rip off and if it's the height of the season it's a great deal. But wild will typically cost more than farmed and Pacific probably more than Atlantic and those price differences are worth it IMHO.

I haven't looked at Costco prices for probably 5 or 6 years so I won't comment on their current pricing. But when I was there the last couple times I did some random price checks on some common things I purchased. Examples: Dawn Dish Liquid, huge jug, must be cheaper right? Nope. Cheaper (per ounce) at Walgreens! Plus Walgreens would accept a coupon for it which made it substantially cheaper, plus I wouldn't have to buy a gallon at a time. Another plus, the bottle is much more manageable. Tide laundry detergent. Cheaper at Target and K-mart, plus they had more varieties if that's important to you. Shampoo? At the time I was buying the bonus size White Rain for $1. ) Not even close. Coffee? Limited brands, larger size came to about the same price per ounce or slightly more. These were just some staple item examples that I did to get a feel for their "great prices" that so many people raved about. For me, I didn't see it as a viable option. Others disagree of course so they're doing quite well! I will also say that prices can be deceiving there. With the huge quantities it's hard for many people to really compare prices. Many items aren't conducive to unit pricing comparisons. Number of sheets of paper towels might be a different size or weight. And nobody has really mentioned spoilage and your potential losses there on the bulk purchases. Nor do people factor in the cost of the extra refrigerator or freezer to buy the bulk. It's part of the cost. And of course, instead of buying one or two candy bars, you buy a box of them! There's almost a cult-like following for certain stores, this one included and when you're almost brainwashed into thinking "everything is a bargain!!!" some can't wipe the rose tint off their glasses. So, while there can be some savings, the fact is it can easily be offset by overpurchasing. I was at the other warehouse store and needed some paper plates so I bought a pack, WAAAAAAY more than I needed at not a great price either. But I've had paper plates for about 5 years without buying more. Aldi would have been a better choice but I happened to be there. I hear the "I'm saving SO much money" but they don't know what they're actually paying so how would they know? LOL Gas usually is cheaper. (Occasionally it's not.) It's true you'll probably spend a lot more than you expect. But when you look at what's happening, you'll understand why. You buy way bigger sizes than you generally need and usually want. So the price of paper plates is $15 instead of $2! (And yes I know you're probably going to have more plates so you don't buy them for a while but the point is, $100 doesn't go too far at these places!) I'm not criticizing Costco or the people who like it, but if your goal is to save money, be prepared. Have a price book and/or know your unit prices. Compare it rationally. If you normally buy store brands, and/or use coupons factor that in when you compare. And don't go there hungry! :) If you don't care what you spend, then enjoy your shopping. The warehouse stores have become almost a "fashionable" place to some people and I think that's why some shop there. One question for the Costco members with their cashback card: Out of curiosity, is Costco like Sam's in that the cashback earned on the card is in the form of a check made out to the store? Once I saw that you had to spend it there, I threw out the card application.

We don't have BJs around here, just Sam's for a long time and Costco arrived a few years ago. Is BJs virtually the same in price, products, and policies? I never joined the Sam's because is was not convenient, and just not nice inside, kind of gloomy! The Costco is a nice experience to get to and shop in. Leaving is a pain with their checking your receipt, card, and cart, ugh. Just let me go! Re: the Sam's Club, why does the notice on the door say they will reopen the next day? Weird.