Comfort Food

Our family had some sad news.  Our cat Ripley, an outdoor cat, was eaten by some kind of bigger animal.  He had been missing all day on Sunday and then my parents got the call that he’d been found in the neighbor’s yard that night.  Ripley was about 16 years old.  We’d had him since he was born in our garage when I was in middle school.  He was a bony tom cat with the longest fangs I’ve seen on a cat.  He would always welcome me back home to my parents’ house and would proceed to flop in my lap and purr.  It broke our hearts to say goodbye to him.  We’re going to miss him.

My mom decided to have a comfort food dinner so we could come together and say goodbye to Ripley.  Family and food are a good way to grieve.  My brother was able to join my mom, dad and me.

While my mom finished preparing everything, we ate chips and salsa.  Dinner was meatloaf from Tony’s meat market.  It was made with beef and pork.  My mom made it heart shaped in honor of Ripley.  The meatloaf was really flavorful.  We ate it with tomato country relish from Ballymaloe cooking school.  It’s a savory sauce that goes extremely well with the meatloaf.  On the side, we had some heated frozen peas, carrots and corn.  We also had my dad’s mashed potatoes.  My dad boils the potatoes whole and then scoops out the insides into a bowl.  He then adds butter, sour cream and milk along with Laury’s seasoned salt.  His mashed potatoes are the best I’ve ever had.  I’ve made them for my friends and they agree.  We drank Wiley Jack cabernet sauvignon from California.  It went well with the meatloaf. 

Goodbye, Ripley.  You were a good cat.  I miss you.