Let’s Get Comfy

In preparing for this blogging adventure I wrote down a list of topics I wanted to cover and to insure I’d have plenty to write about as time goes on. I chose comfort food as my first topic, because who doesn’t need some comforting now and then? When most of us think about comfort food our memories take us directly to family, whether it be our mothers, grandmothers or a special aunt. My daughters have their go to favorites that they are always asking me to make when they visit from college, chicken and dumplings, macaroni and cheese, and the number one requested dish – potato soup – all of which I plan to share with you in future posts. A comfort food and treat for my Reed cousins and I growing up was the heavenly yeasty soft and delectable homemade rolls my Aunt Lynn would make. These rolls were warm pillows of baked goodness and to this day no matter where I am at, when I smell fresh yeast rolls baking I’m instantly taken back to my childhood in Liberty, West Virginia, wishing I had one or two or five of her rolls. Aunt Lynn not only made the best rolls ever baked on earth, she could also deliver the goods on meatloaf and her meaty delicious stick to the noodle spaghetti sauce, I think the secret was her use of tomato paste. My mom, God Bless her, wasn’t the best cook, she was however a great cookie baker and could can or preserve anything she put her mind to. She was however; always the cook to take short cuts and she often used powder packaged gravy mixes, instant potatoes and yes… Chef-Boy-Ar-Dee boxed spaghetti dinners and I must say the driest macaroni salad this side of the Sonoran Desert. She always put lots of love though into whatever she cooked and each year she treated her children to a special birthday menu of whatever we chose. I always chose the exact same thing year after year; meatloaf, oven roasted potatoes and creamy coleslaw. The meatloaf was filled with instant oats, onions, green peppers, and spices then covered in a thick ketchup and brown sugar topping that when baked to perfection was bubbly, sliding down the sides of that delicious loaf of beef – simply put, and hands down my most favorite comfort food of all time. The potatoes were simple too, cut into wedges (scrubbed never peeled) tossed in some olive oil with salt and pepper and then roasted, but when served alongside her hand grated creamy sweet coleslaw with the meatloaf, it was a symphony to the taste buds. I always looked forward to another year of being older. My mom passed away in 2011 and I continue to make meatloaf like hers – with a few changes but with each bite I feel that she is right there giving me a big hug of love. So no matter what you find comforting always remember those who made that a comfort food for you or the memories that food sparks for you. I have included my meatloaf recipe in the Recipe section, nothing fancy – just delicious. I would love to hear what your go to comfort food is. Again…I look forward to joining you on this blogging road, wish me luck.