Making The Most Of Leftovers

Potato Pancakes

 When we were growing up, my mother made this special treat for us occasionally. Now that I'm the one in the kitchen I know that she was really using up the leftovers! But to this day, I love the potato pancakes made when you have mashed potatoes left from the day before. 

You saw my supper on Monday night—pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes and asparagus. Tuesday night's supper was a leftover supper. (Forgive my lack of green on the plate. There was no asparagus left.) I froze one of the tenderloins for later. I made barbecue biscuits from the rest of the pork. And I made potato pancakes.

It had been quite a while since I made these, so my fingers were crossed. I smiled when I turned the pancake over in the pan and saw the lacy golden brown pattern. I knew I had done it right! Funny what things stick in your brain forever. I remember this was exactly how my mother's potato pancakes looked. 

Never in my life have I measured these ingredients. But this time I did pay attention to how I did it. The recipe amounts are pretty accurate for this night's cooking. But I wouldn't worry too much about following exactly what I did. It's not kind of recipe where "exact" matters much.

POTATO PANCAKES

2 cups leftover mashed potatoes

1 egg

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons minced onion

cooking oil

Combine all ingredients until well blended. Heat a small amount of oil in a skillet. Spoon potato mixture into pan. Spread out into patties. Cook these pancakes on medium heat. Brown on one side and carefully turn. Flatten with spatula and cook until brown on both side and pancakes hold together. Serve hot.

This made 8 pancakes.

My blog posts are a little out of order because we got distracted by the winter weather here. This morning we were looking for 8 degrees. But I woke up and it had only gotten down to 15. When you're expecting 8 degrees, 15 sounded warm. Now we are looking for the 8 degrees tonight.