Sweet memories of Sunday mornings and salmon cakes

The taste of a particular dish has the power to evoke flavorful memories. As we gather with family and friends over food this holiday season, WNYC's Community Partnerships Desk is asking New Yorkers and all of us to share stories about recipes with special meaning.

Lisa Wade lives in Addisleigh Park, Queens. WNYC's Community Partnerships Desk talked with her as part of a collaboration with the Queens Memory Project.

The transcript of Lisa Wade's story has been lightly edited for clarity.

My name is Lisa Wade, and I live in Addisleigh Park, Queens.

The recipe that sticks out for me is salmon croquettes or salmon cakes, depending on where you're from. It was a breakfast, like a Sunday morning breakfast, that we would have, my great-grandmother would make for me, and especially with grits, it was the best thing ever.

We're from Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina. So I share that love of rice. What floods back for me that memory is me sitting in our dining room on a Sunday before church. So she made it very early and gobbling it up and just thinking about how good it is because it's usually very crispy, and I like the crispiness of the salmon cakes.

My great-grandmother died when I was 11, no, no, 15, and she was particular about not sharing the recipe with me because she was a cook and she wanted me to get an education, and she did not want me to cook in someone else's kitchen or living. So it's like a double-edged sword for me because I don't have a recipe, so I just have to remember enough to make it.

And her pantry was very slim. Somethings are hard to figure out what she made, and other things I think I come very close, or I actually surpass her. She didn't always use green peppers. Green peppers was my addition. It was onion, salt and pepper, a little flour, egg. She'd put it together and throw it in the skillet.

The grits would already be in. I can make grits. Grits are easier, and there would be a wonderful breakfast and hot sauce on the side. It's a tradition I'm passing on to my son and my friends, who bug me for it. It's just happiness because it's some of my southern lineage, you know, that I've brought to the North.

So, it makes me happy because of the memories of the South. It's about family. I always think of a lot of people around the table when I think of salmon croquettes, salmon cakes really, for me.