Salmon Croquettes

In my house as a child, the meals were a bit, shall we say, predictable. The basic meal was an overcooked meat, salad (pieces of lettuce, celery, tomatoes, carrots, and green peppers with no dressing), potatoes, and canned peas, string beans, or corn. On Monday and Wednesday we had milchig, which was the same meal with fish instead of meat. On Sunday mornings we had pancakes and on Sunday nights we had hot dogs and baked beans.

While I am not as adventurous a cook as my children, and admittedly have not ranged far in the choice of ingredients, there are still very few dishes from my childhood that I incorporated into my repertoire. It is ironic, therefore, that one of Bob’s favorites does come from Bubbe. On rare non-potato days, she made salmon croquettes with spaghetti, and that is the only meal combination that I continue to make.

I once made salmon croquettes using some leftover salmon that we had grilled on the new barbeque the day before. I thought the real, fresh fish made these way more tasty, but Dad hated them — apparently only the canned stuff satisfies him.