A fun use for leftovers

So Monday night's salmon dinner provided me with plenty of leftover mashed potatoes and broccoli. Since I think that reheated mashed potatoes are absolutely gross, there was no way I was just going to heat them up. I have to thank my step dad for this recipe -- up until he came around my family just threw out any leftover mashed potatoes, but he began keeping them and making potato cakes out of them the next day. Using this basic concept I made potato cakes out of the leftover potatoes and broccoli and with the addition of some bacon, cheddar cheese, and bread crumbs I ended up with a fantastic dinner. P.S. this dish would be even better with the addition of crab or lobster meat (just use less potatoes)!

Potato Cakes:

Leftover mashed potatoes

1/2 to 1 cup leftover steamed broccoli chopped up

4-5 slices bacon cooked extra crispy and crumbled up

1/2 to 1 cup shredded cheese

1/4 cup Italian style bread crumbs (optional)

Salt and Pepper to taste

Olive oil for cooking

Cook the bacon. Heat the mashed potatoes in the microwave until just warm. Add the crumbled bacon, cheese, broccoli, salt and pepper. Mix well either with a hand mixer or a wooden spoon. Heat a nonstick skillet to medium. Add the olive oil. Put a couple of spoonfuls of the potato mixture in your hand and form a ball and make a patty. Optional: coat the patty in the bread crumbs. Carefully transfer the patty to the skillet and cook for about 5 minutes per side. Serve with a salad.

One note of caution -- if the mashed potato mixture is too runny add some bread crumbs to the potato mixture to thicken it up. Also, be very careful when transferring the patties because they do fall apart very easily, especially when turning them in the pan.

Enjoy!