Mashed potato pancakes

Mashed potato pancakes make for an easy lunch, especially if you have leftover mashed potatoes, but even if you don't (if you use instant mashed potatoes, that is).

We get instant mashed potatoes from Costco, in a box full of packets. (Mice absolutely adore Costco instant potatoes, by the way. We have to take them out of the box and put them in a heavy-duty plastic container. Now that the mice are gone, we don't want them to discover any new reasons to return.)

One packet makes eight servings, mixed with nearly three cups of water, 1/4 cup of butter, and a cup of milk. I suppose you could make your mashed potatoes dairy-free if need be.

To make our potato pancakes today, I mixed a batch of mashed potatoes with a cup of gluten-free flour mix and two eggs. I heated up some coconut oil in the frying pan and when it was sizzling hot, I put three dollops of the potato mixture in and flattened them slightly. The trick, then, is to leave them alone until they start to brown, and then flip them and brown them on the other side. If you try to flip them too soon, you end up with mush and pieces of pancake stuck to the pan -- in other words, a mess!

Somehow the eggs and flour help to keep the mashed potatoes together in cohesive cakes, rather than turning to mush.

We eat them with applesauce and sour cream. Yum!

Next time I'll try to remember to take pictures -- my phone doesn't have the best camera but at least it's there, unlike the "good" camera that has been misplaced somewhere in the house. (At least I hope it's in the house.)