Thursday, February 08, 2007

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




5 comments :

  1. Anonymous7:26 AM

    As the youngest, I don't remember when you made it for dinner, but it's always been one of my favorite foods (and baked potatoes is the perfect side dish). It's a good emergency dinner, as I always have the ingredients in the pantry. I use mushroom soup, as I don't like celery. My sweetie loves it, too. When it's too hot to use the oven, I make it into patties and cook in a skillet.

    Love, Beth

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  2. i have some salmon that has been sitting in the freezer for a week now -- how perfect. i'll be making this over the weekend for sure!

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  3. Hey Beth, never knew that you like this. I'll try it with the mushroom soup...sounds good. Love you too.

    Hi Linda, I'd love to know how you like this. I've never tried it with anything other than canned salmon. Good idea.

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  4. Anonymous1:21 PM

    We make salmon patties a lot, but I've never thought about salmon loaf. That looks delicious! What a great recipe.

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  5. Anonymous4:36 PM

    Thank you Pat for emailing me the link to your Salmon Loaf Supreme. My Sweetie loves it as his mother was good at making this but we never had the recipe and now I do! Thank you so much as I want to make it this weekend for sure. I love hearing about your family as a child. You and I are both the third born child in our families. I was the last and for you four more came along after you. I think your parents did a great job encouraging you all to excell in any way you felt inspired! Thank you Pat for your blog site. Bye for now, Your friend, Paula

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