Costco offers cash cards to members who join at new Teterboro store

At the Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, a large banner shows what the bigger Teterboro store is expected to look like when it opens Oct. 14. The Hackensack warehouse store closes on Oct. 13.

Today, employees in Hackensack handed out pamphlets offering $10 or $20 cash cards to new members who sign up in person in Teterboro.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Costco Wholesale in Hackensack is offering a $10 or $20 cash card to new members who sign up in person at the bigger warehouse store 3 miles away in Teterboro.

The store, in the Teterboro Landing Shopping Center off of Route 46, is scheduled to open on Oct. 14 at 8 a.m.

A Costco membership is $55 a year ($10 cash card) and an Executive Membership is $110 a year ($20 cash card).

Most members get the annual fee and more back in cash rebates on credit-card purchases at Costco as well as at gas stations, restaurants and other stores.

Executive Members get a higher 2% reward (up to $750).

A corner of the parking lot at the Hackensack Costco has been fenced off for construction of a large pump for the city's water system.

Costco Wholesale's new store in Teterboro to open ahead of schedule

At the Costco Wholesale in Hackensack today, this member took advantage of the liberal return policy by seeking a refund for a dozen items, including a large wedge of cheese, a bag of lettuce, a carton of creamer and other food piled on the counter in front of her.

The line for returns formed quickly right after the store opened at 10 a.m.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Costco Wholesale is scheduled to open its bigger store near Teterboro Airport on Oct. 14, an employee said today.

That's about a month earlier than expected.

The new store is 3 miles from the Hackensack warehouse store, which opened on July 21, 1994.

The new store will have a Costco gas station and a liquor department with wines from its private label, Kirkland Signature, neither of which are available in Hackensack.

In recent years, the Hackensack store has become so crowded on weekends many members avoid the place at all costs.

The Hackensack parking lot is regarded as a zoo on almost any day.

Costco owns the 14.8-acre Hackensack site.

The new Costco will open in the Teterboro Landing Shopping Center near Route 46.

Does the new Costco Wholesale in Teterboro look like it will be ready for members on Oct. 14?

The canopy over the Costco Wholesale gas station in Teterboro is complete.

Update

At Teterboro Landing, Costco Wholesale's new store and parking lot are surrounded by fences, looking very much like a work in progress.

The exterior of the building isn't complete and doesn't yet have the "Costco Wholesale" name on it.

Although the drive to the shopping center is only 3 miles longer than a trip to the Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, there is a lot more traffic and the main road, Route 46, is being repaired and resurfaced.

More heart-healthy meals at home from ingredients that can't hurt you

Heart-healthy wild salmon two ways -- a grilled sockeye fillet accented with chopped fresh mint, front, and smoked sockeye in a frittata with pesto and fresh tomatoes. Both fresh and smoked wild salmon, as well as prepared pesto, are available at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In northern New Jersey, food shoppers enjoy an embarrassment of riches.

Fresh fish are abundant, such as Atlantic cod from Iceland and salmon from the U.S., both wild caught and available at Costco Wholesale for $7.99 a pound and $8.99 a pound, respectively.

Organic eggs, spring mix and whole-wheat pasta are three more components of a heart-healthy diet. 

When mashing sweet potatoes, always choose extra-virgin olive oil over butter, and don't stint on fresh California garlic.

With ingredients like these, assembling heart-healthy meals at home is a snap.

Fresh tomatoes from our garden and smoked wild salmon were layered on top of an egg mixture as it set over medium heat on the stove. The 10-inch frittata finishes under the broiler, and Costco's Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto and chopped fresh mint are added once it is out of the oven.

Wild sockeye salmon can be prepared on a preheated grill pan with spray oil. For medium rare in the center, cook serving portions for 6 minutes.

A wedge of frittata and two small baked sweet potatoes with nothing on them make for a hearty breakfast.

Costco's smoked wild sockeye salmon is from Alaska. It is sold under the Kirkland Signature label and comes pre-sliced in two half-pound pouches for $15.99.

Finish the frittata under a broiler on a low setting for about 15 minutes or until it browns on top.

A 3-pound net bag of sweet potatoes from ShopRite in Paramus is $2.99, but bags often weigh more.

I boil sweet potato sections and peeled cloves of Christopher Ranch Monviso Garlic for about 45 minutes or until a fork goes through the sections easily, then mash them with extra-virgin olive oil and numerous seasonings, including curry powder, cinnamon, red-pepper flakes and black pepper. A 3-pound bag of California garlic was $6.39 at Costco.

Garlicky mashed sweet potatoes with an egg-white omelet (stuffed with reduced-fat Swiss cheese, smoked wild salmon and Kirkland Signature Organic Salsa, plus a pesto finish).

Serving portions of skinless and boneless Atlantic cod fillet coated in a homemade Super Spice Mixture -- just about every spice and seasoning I have, mixed in a plastic container and kept in the refrigerator. I splashed the fish with fresh lime juice before breading. The side dish is fresh callaloo, a green that originates in the Caribbean. Depending on thickness, serving portions of fish are ready after 7 minutes to 12 minutes in a pre-heated, 375-degree oven.

Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix, the best salad in the world, is always under $5 a pound at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, lower than at any other store I know. Here, I added tomatoes from our garden and dressed the salad with organic Spanish extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Look for Earthbound Farm packages without condensation or your salad could rot before the use-by date on the label.

Sugar or worse in bottled pasta sauce, great products you can't eat

Bottled pasta sauces with added sugar are bad enough, but these jars of Colonna Tomato Basil Pasta Sauce at ShopRite in Paramus list high fructose corn syrup as the second ingredient. Colonna has the nerve to label them, "Classic Italian Taste."

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I add a lot of things to bottled pasta sauce -- red wine, extra-virgin olive oil, anchovies, garlic powder, dried herbs -- but never start with one containing added sugar.

Still, more manufacturers seem to be adding sweeteners to pasta sauce, giving the resulting product an off taste.

Pasta sauces from Victoria and Kirkland Signature, the house brand at Costco Wholesale, are never sweetened with sugar.

Two of these ShopRite Imported Pasta Sauces, Puttanesca and Arrabbiata, which are made in Italy, contain added sugar.

Colonna's Vodka Sauce lists artery clogging heavy cream as the second ingredient. Victoria's Vodka Sauce contains no cream at all.

A GREAT PRODUCT YOU CAN'T EAT: Michelin Defender tires come with an astounding 90,000 mile warranty. I bought four 185/65R 15 tires for a 2007 Toyota Prius for $113.99 each at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

Tires, 3-in-1 for shower

You'll find a great product you can't eat in the tire store at Costco Wholesale.

The Michelin Defender tire comes with an unusually long 90,000 mile warranty.

I bought a set for our 2010 Toyota Prius a few months ago, and a second set for a 2007 Toyota Prius we are selling.

The Michelin tires give both cars a firm footprint and sharp handling. 

The first set replaced the original tires on the 2010 Prius, and we bought the second after a disappointing experience with Bridgestone Ecopia 422 tires, which didn't last anywhere near the 70,000 miles covered by the warranty.

We had to replace two of the Bridgestone tires on the '07 Prius prematurely because the Toyota dealer in Hackensack repaired them improperly.

Trader Joe's Shampoo, Conditioner and Body Wash.

At Trader Joe's in Paramus, I picked up Formula No. 3, an all-in-one shampoo, conditioner and body wash.

A 32-ounce bottle with a pump seemed pricey at $7.99, but it's a good value, if you normally buy two or three products for the shower.

Trader Joe's combo lathers well, but doesn't have much of a scent.

Update

I've tried increasing the amount of Trader Joe's Formula No. 3 I use, and found the resulting lather and scent more to my liking.

I use two pumps for my hair and two to three pumps for my body.

Fresh wild Alaskan salmon with roasted green salsa and garden herbs

Fresh Wild Copper River Sockeye Salmon with Roasted Salsa Verde and chopped herbs from the garden.

Editor's note: Cooking at home gives you the most control over what you're eating, and pricey ingredients like fresh wild salmon can be put on the table for surprisingly little when compared to a restaurant.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

If you have the makings of a salad and a leftover side dish, such as organic brown rice, you can put a wild-salmon dinner on the table in 10 minutes for about $5 a person.

That's what I did on Tuesday night after my wife came home with a 1.5-pound fillet of Fresh Wild Copper River Sockeye Salmon from Costco Wholesale in Hackensack ($13.99 a pound).

Costco's price for this wonderful Alaskan salmon dropped $1 a pound since it first appeared at the end of May.

I cut the fillet into five serving pieces, and added a little sea salt from a grinder. Then, they went on a pre-heated grill pan for 10 minutes.

I could have poached the fillets in Whole Foods Market's 365 Everyday Value Roasted Salsa Verde, but decided to heat up the contents of a 16-ounce jar separately and spoon it over the salmon, when I plated it, and over the side dish of organic brown rice.

A fresh 1.5 pound skin-on fillet of wild salmon was $13.99 a pound on Tuesday at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, a drop of $1 per pound.

While the salmon was grilling, I warmed up MSG-free Roasted Salsa Verde with fresh lime juice. Whole Foods Market in Paramus sells the medium-spicy green salsa in 16- and 24-ounce jars.

The serving pieces of salmon spend 8 minutes to 10 minutes on a pre-heated grill pan sprayed with oil. My All-Clad grill pan straddles two burners and I turn the heat on both of them to medium.

Another home-cooked dish is Cabbage and Salt Fish with a side of okra and Valentina Mexican Hot Sauce (Black Label).

More home cooking

Want to know what you're eating?

Buy the ingredients yourself and prepare them at home.

Two Costco Wholesale organic eggs -- fried in olive oil sunny side up -- with leftover organic brown rice, a great bread substitute. I seasoned them with Aleppo pepper, a spicier form of paprika; and chopped parsley, oregano and mint from the garden.

The chewy Armenian lavash I brought home from a new Hackensack restaurant, Lavash City Grill & Bakery, makes a wonderful snack spread with no-fat Greek yogurt and za'atar thyme mixture. I store the flat, unleavened, preservative-free bread in the refrigerator.

For breakfast, I supplemented a simple egg-white omelet I made at home with leftover falafel, tahini, muhammara and hummus from restaurants.

The last piece of wild salmon, right out of the fridge, made a great light dinner with a pile of organic greens dressed in Spanish extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

An organic-egg omelet using ingredients from Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, including reduced-fat Swiss cheese and Mexican salsa. I had it for breakfast with leftover organic brown rice, fresh chopped callaloo, bottom left; and leftover Chinese broccoli with fresh garlic from Lotus Cafe in Hackensack.

Fairway Market's wild salmon costs $7 more a pound than Costco's

At Fairway Market in Paramus, fresh wild Copper River salmon fillet was $21.99 a pound on Tuesday, compared to $14.99 a pound at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack for fresh sockeye from the same Alaskan river, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I stopped at Fairway Market in Paramus on Tuesday to check out two promotions on the purchase of groceries -- the store is offering a $10 off coupon and American Express will give you $15 statement credit on your registered card.

In both cases, you have to spend $75 in a single visit.

I haven't visited Fairway since last October, and I noticed a number of changes:

More fixtures in the produce department and a new wine department make it harder to maneuver your cart through the store.

"Big Sale" signs are everywhere, but as with Fairway's fresh wild Alaskan salmon for $21.99 a pound, you'll find few bargains or even good buys.

After looking around the store on Tuesday, I decided I couldn't spend $75 on groceries to meet the American Express threshhold.

Instead, I purchased three pounds of coffee beans and had them ground Turkish style: 

French Roast ($7.99 a pound); Brazilian Arabica, a dark roast (on sale for $6.99 a pound); and Fairway Supreme Blend (also $7.99 a pound).

I brewed two small pots with the Fairway Blend, a light-to-medium roast, and no one in the family liked the weak brew that resulted.

Today, I returned the Fairway Supreme Blend for a full refund.

I grilled Costco Wholesae's sockeye salmon fillets on a grill pan placed over two burners on my stove, skin side down, then turned them. I added mint and oregano from the garden, Aleppo pepper and fresh lime juice.

Tonight, I had a leftover portion of wild salmon over salad, including green- and red-leaf lettuces from the garden. It was delicious right out of the refrigerator.

A long wait for fresh wild salmon

The fresh wild salmon we enjoyed on Tuesday night was the first we've had from Costco Wholesale in Hackensack since the season ended last October.

The 1.57-pound fillet yielded six serving portions, and they grilled on the stove top in under 10 minutes.

Although I cooked them through, they remained juicy.

There's no shortage of hype in Fairway Market's produce department.

A liter of pricey Fairway Extra Virgin Olive Oil is labeled "imported from Italy," but if you look carefully, you'll discover it is a blend that might include oil from Spain and Greece.

At Fairway, you won't find any bottles of red wine for $5 or under, as you will at Whole Foods Market, also in Paramus.

The $7.99 Fairway Supreme Blend, front, contains beans that are noticeably lighter than darker roasts in barrels next to it. The resulting brew is pretty weak.

No Fairway would be no loss

I could care less if Fairway's store in Paramus remains open.

The small chain, based in Manhattan, delayed the opening of a New Jersey store for many years, fearing it couldn't compete with low-price leader ShopRite.

Then, Fairway chose the least popular shopping center in Paramus, the so-called Fashion Center, for its first store.

Now, Fairway's competition is Costco Wholesale, Whole Foods Market and H Mart, the Korean supermarket chain, and compared to them, it falls short in so many ways.

No pasta sauce? You can still make a flavorful pot of organic spaghetti

This pot of organic whole-wheat spaghetti is bursting with flavor from extra-virgin olive oil, lots of chopped fresh garlic and a few other items.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Red wine, anchovies and capers are just three of the ways to boost the flavor of organic whole-wheat spaghetti when you don't have or don't want to use bottled pasta sauce.

Other essentials are lots of fresh garlic and extra-virgin olive oil.

I started the sauce by cooking several fistfuls of peeled garlic cloves, roughly chopped, in enough olive oil to cover the bottom of a large oval black-and-white speckled pot.

When the garlic became fragrant, I added a can of organic diced tomatoes and several ounces of inexpensive red wine, and brought them to a boil.

Then, I added a can of anchovies and two or three tablespoons of capers, both drained and rinsed under the faucet to reduce their sodium content. 

I allowed the sauce to come to a boil again and reduce, then covered the pot and turned down the heat while I boiled the pasta in a separate pot without adding salt to the water.

I used a 1-pound package of Luigi Vitelli Organic Whole Wheat Spaghetti ($1.25 at ShopRite in Paramus) that cooks al dente in 7 minutes.

Of course, any shape will do, including Whole Foods Market's Organic Whole Wheat Shells from Italy.

The shells catch the garlic, capers and other ingredients ($1.49 a pound).

For breakfast, leftovers with a simple egg-white omelet made with a little grated Pecorino Romano Cheese and Aleppo pepper.

Drain, mix, enjoy

Drain the pasta, add it to the oval pot and mix well, making sure to spoon garlic, capers, tomatoes and other ingredients you could use, such as chopped sweet peppers and onions, over the spaghetti.

You could garnish the spaghetti with chopped mint, oregano and other herbs, and then serve it with grated Pecorino Romano Cheese, red wine and a salad.

Peeled California garlic, capers in brine and anchovies in oil are available at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

For cooking, I use Don Simon Shiraz ($3.99 a bottle at Whole Foods Market in Paramus), and it's drinkable enough to serve with your meal.

After a nice helping of pasta and a couple glasses of wine, you can end your meal with a salad of red- and green-leaf lettuces, which we grew in our garden from plants purchased at H Mart, the Korean supermarket in Englewood. I dressed mine in extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

How did I miss first shipments of wild salmon to my Costco Wholesale?

In my basket at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack today, organic quinoa, reduced-fat Jarlsberg Swiss Cheese, fresh blueberries and sweet peppers -- but no fresh wild salmon.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

My wife is sticking to her story.

She shopped at Costco Wholesale twice last week, and couldn't find any fresh wild salmon from Alaska.

This afternoon, however, I spoke to an employee stocking the refrigerated fish case, and he said the Hackensack store received wild salmon fillets on three days last week.

He said some might come in tomorrow.

My Costco usually receives salmon from the Copper River in Alaska in late May or early June, and then wild-caught fillets from other U.S. rivers through early October.

I've seen wild-caught king, sockeye and coho salmon available at my Costco.

Skin-on wild salmon fillets from Costco Wholesale on my stove-top grill last September, above and below.

Let them eat bread -- while you maintain your hard-won weight loss

A 10-inch frittata with smoked wild salmon, sweet potatoes and fresh spinach (folded into the egg mixture) starts out on top of the stove and finishes under the broiler. After you remove it from the oven, add Kirkland Signature Basil Pesto from Costco Wholesale, where you can find most of the other ingredients.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Sweet potatoes, baked or mashed. Organic brown rice and organic quinoa prepared in an electric cooker. Organic whole-wheat pasta imported from Italy.

Let me count the substitutes I've enjoyed since embarking on a no-bread, no-pizza diet several years ago, and shedding 40 pounds.

I put back about 10 of those pounds after I gave up one of my two part-time jobs and became less active.

But the bread substitutes still work to help me maintain my weight loss, and they can be enjoyed at any meal where bread is served, even breakfast.

Of course, I don't drink soda, never touch dessert, eat reduced fat cheeses and try to avoid pasta sauces and other products made with added sugar, which is linked to the obesity epidemic.

A wedge of the frittata with baked and mashed sweet potatoes, the latter made with extra-virgin olive oil, cinnamon, curry powder and other seasonings.

Organic brown rice joins mashed sweet potatoes at another meal with a wedge of frittata.

Luigi Vitelli-brand Organic Whole Wheat Capellini, an Italian import available for $1.25 a pound at ShopRite in Paramus, complements an egg-white omelet stuffed with spinach.

Mateo's Gourmet Salsa and Earthbound Farm Organic Baby Spinach, both from Costco Wholesale, are perfect for stuffing a 10-inch omelet made with Kirkland Signature Egg Whites.

Mateo's Gourmet Salsa has no added sugar. A 32-ounce jar was $4.97 at Costco in Hackensack.

Some Kirkland Signature spices now have a new top, above, replacing a top that would sometimes come off, below, dumping ounces of black pepper, red-pepper flakes and other seasoning into the food you were preparing.

Here, I was seasoning the frittata egg mixture (16 ounces of whites and three whole organic eggs) after folding in the fresh spinach with a spoon.

Here, organic brown rice makes a nice foundation for a light dinner of salted fish prepared with sweet peppers, all accented with Valentina Mexican Hot Sauce, below.

Organic quinoa (prepared in an electric cooker with organic black beans, organic diced tomatoes and olive oil), with Roasted Chipotle Salsa I used tonight to poach wild-caught Icelandic Haddock Fillets, below.

The fresh haddock was $8.99 a pound at Costco. A 16-ounce jar of the salsa was $2.69 at Whole Foods Market in Paramus. I used most of the jar to poach 1.8 pounds of the fish in under 10 minutes. Tonight, I added the fresh juice of a lime and a little red wine to the salsa, and brought them to a boil before adding the fish and covering the pot.