inside
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Spring
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salmon strips for an easy main dish; also
great as a side dish with meat or seafood.
Traditional Coleslaw
A coleslaw of green cabbage, carrots
and celery seeds in a creamy mayo-like dressing.
Whole-Wheat Tuscan Salad
Whole-wheat fusilli pasta, black olives,
and red and yellow peppers with a
white balsamic vinegar dressing. Enjoy
as a cold pasta salad or add cooked
chicken for a complete meal.
Potato Salad
Buttons and Bows Pasta Salad
Red Rice Salad Stonemill Kitchens Potato Salad
Basmati rice, red rice, chickpeas, corn, lima Potatoes, mayonnaise, hard-cooked eggs,
beans, red wine and balsamic vinaigrette. celery, onion, pickle relish, vinegar, mus-
A good complement to grilled pork. tard and salt. Serve with burgers, barbe-
cue meats and seafood.
Seafood Salad
Surimi (pollack and Pacific whiting), Thai Sesame Salad
shrimp, celery and onion in a tangy mayo Long noodles with stir-fried onions, celery,
dressing with lemon and spices. Great as carrots and red and green peppers in a
a side or as a sandwich filler. light soy sesame dressing. Toss with
cooked shrimp, sliced chicken or cooked
Syrup for connoisseurs
AS YOU PREPARE your pancakes or French to be more than 200 years old. After the sap
toast this weekend, consider this fact: Not all has been collected, it is boiled so that its sugar
maple syrups are created equal. In fact, like content can be concentrated.
other fine food products, maple syrup comes Boiling, done in sugar shacks, increases
in a variety of grades that designate quality. the sugar content of the sap from about 2 per-Costco has introduced a high-quality, cent to 66 percent. It takes about 40 gallons of
100 percent pure maple syrup under the sap to make one gallon of pure maple syrup.
Kirkland Signature™ label. As with all Removing this much water requires a great
Kirkland Signature products at Costco, sub- amount of heat and generates clouds of steam.
stantial time and effort went into creating the That’s why sugar shacks were traditionally
product to offer Costco members a great built with a small cupola to allow the steam to
value, says Charlene Knight, the Costco buyer escape. The last step is to filter the syrup.
who oversees the program. The finished syrup intended for com-Pure maple syrup is made in Eastern mercial use is then graded according to
Canada and the northern United States in late colour: No. 1 (with extra light, light and
winter or early spring when the days become medium subcategories); No. 2 (amber) and
warmer yet the nights remain below freezing. No. 3 (dark). Generally speaking, the lighter
The temperature fluctuation at this time of the syrup, the higher the quality. Some man- Costco’s Kirkland Signature Maple Syrup is
year makes the sap flow within maple trees ufacturers mix harvests from previous years a high-quality syrup at a great price.
from the roots to the crown. And that means with the current year.
the trees are ready for tapping. In working with Canadian manufactur- syrup and in its freshness,” she says.
Through small holes or taps that have ers, Costco specified that only No. 1-grade So try some at your next special break-been carefully drilled into the tree’s lower syrupfromthecurrentyearbeusedinmaking fast. Real syrup lovers don’t restrict their
trunk, the sap is collected into pails or drawn Kirkland Signature maple syrup, explains usage to just pancakes. They add wonderful
out using a pumping system. Either way, col- Charlene. The result? “You can tell the differ- flavour to eggs and hash browns, as well as to
lecting sap is safe for the maple, which can live ence in the pleasant light color of the maple a variety of other recipes.—Tim Talevich
60 The Costco Connection MAY/JUNE 2007
