Mashed Potato Pancakes

What is it they say? Necessity is the mother of invention? Well, I certainly didn't invent the potato pancake...I think that most of us have a version of this recipe... but I did come up with this version from the few ingredients that I found in my pantry and fridge. I used leftover mashed potatoes from Thanksgiving dinner (I used this recipe for Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes found at My Tasty Treasures. They were awesome!), finely chopped onion, Mexican 4-cheese blend shredded cheese (it's all that I had), an egg, flour, milk, salt and pepper. The next time that I make these I'd love to try them with some fresh chives and crispy bacon mixed in or even sprinkled on top. Maybe with some smoked Gouda or sharp white cheddar? As far as we girls were concerned, they were the perfect dinner, crisp from being fried in butter on the outside, soft and cheesy on the inside, topped with sour cream and served with steaming hot cocoa to warm us from our romp in the first snow of the season.

• Potato Pancakes
• 2 cups cold leftover mashed potatoes
• 1/4 cup onion, finely chopped or grated
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup shredded cheese of your choice
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons milk
• seasoned salt or kosher salt and pepper, to taste
• butter or oil for frying
• sour cream for topping

Combine all ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Heat 2 tablespoons of butter or oil in griddle pan or large skillet over medium to medium high heat. Drop potato cakes by heaping 1/4 cupfuls onto skillet. Flatten slightly with spatula. Cook until golden brown on bottom and then flip and cook until golden brown on the other side. Remove from skillet and keep warm while you fry the next batch. Serve with sour cream.

A couple of notes:

I had to live and learn a little with this one. First, I had to adjust the amount of flour. I began with 2 tablespoons, but my cakes didn't really hold together well and were difficult to flip. This is probably because the potatoes weren't super stiff to begin with. They were prepared with butter and whipping cream and cream cheese for a yummy Thanksgiving dinner mashed potato. If you find this to be the case, add a little more flour. Second, I started out with way too much butter in the pan. I guess I was still coming off of my Thanksgiving butter high and thought "the more butter, the better". You really want just enough butter on the griddle to keep those cakes from sticking. My first cakes were swimming in butter, making them a) difficult to flip because they were just soaking up that butter and gettin' gooey and b) greasy! I had to soak up the excess butter with a paper towel. So this is finally an instance when it comes to butter (the perspective of a healthy eater aside)where less IS more.

Once I got all of the kinks worked out, they were really a quick and easy meal. Totally delicious and satisfying.