How Do I Love Thee?... Like Family

Not everyone grows up in a household that includes seven siblings. This can be a good thing of a bad thing. In my case, I feel very lucky that I had so many brothers and sisters around and two loving parents who raised us to be individuals and to use our talents as much as possible. Education was valued, as was reading, family time, the value of work well done, and puns. My Dad, the ultimate punster, has been dead for many years, but I still have eight wonderful family members, my Mom and seven sibs, to love and they know me from the beginning, which is special. I love each of them in different ways and wish that we were together more often.

Growing up with so many folks to gather 'round the dinner table, it was only a matter of time until we not only learned to cook, but took on one night's dinner so that Mom had a break. Somehow my night was Friday. Occasionally that meant that Dad showed up with a couple of jars of shucked, fresh oysters which had to be breaded and fried. When you're doing it for three or four, it's not too bad, but for eight, nine, or ten, that's a lot of oysters to cook. And that's not even talking about the hush puppies that went with the oysters.

One of my favorite meals to cook for Friday was Salmon Loaf Supreme. If any of my sisters or brothers reads this, they will probably groan remembering. It wasn't exactly everyone else's favorite. One of the reasons I liked it was because it goes together very quickly and so did the whole meal. Along with the loaf I usually cooked baked potatoes, since they could cook in the oven with the salmon loaf, plus green beans or peas from the freezer and gingerbread or pudding cake for dessert, which could also cook in the oven with the salmon loaf. That way, once the entree and potatoes were in the oven, I had about a half hour to do homework before I mixed together the dessert and heated up the veggies.

Because the Salmon Loaf Supreme didn't get rave reviews from my family, I never cooked it for Sweetie and the kids. Little did I know that Sweetie would like it, but a month or so ago I made it up into patties which I pan fried (added a little extra bread crumbs and it worked fine). He was very complimentary, so I made up the actual loaf for this post. He liked that even better. Salmon is one of my favorite foods. All this time I had denied myself the canned variety and this recipe thinking that I was the only one who would enjoy it. Silly me. Now a can of salmon will be in the pantry all the time for the occasional Salmon Loaf Supreme...just not every Friday.

The photo at the top is how it looks as a loaf. The second photo shows the onions, pepper, eggs and mayo. The colors just look so pretty. Hope you'll give this a try and let me know if you agree with my brothers and sisters or with Sweetie.

Salmon Loaf Supreme
Not sure where this one originated

½ cup mayonnaise
1 cup undiluted condensed cream of celery soup
1 large egg, beaten
½ cup onion, chopped
¼ cup bell pepper, green or red, chopped
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups salmon, canned or cooked, pink or red, flaked
1 cup fine bread crumbs, plain

Combine mayonnaise, soup, egg, onion, pepper, lemon juice and salt in a medium bowl. Mix well
Add salmon and bread crumbs. Mix well.
Pack into a greased 8”x4”x2” loaf pan.
Bake 1 hour in a preheated 350 degree F oven.
Remove from oven and turn out onto a platter. Garnish with lemon wedges and serve.
Serves 6-8

How Do I Love Thee
Salmon Loaf Supreme
canned salmon