Leftover Mashed Potatoes

If you’re anything like me, you always make too many mashed potatoes.  Always.  Most often, they end up just hanging out in the fridge until they grow fuzz and turn colors, and then they meet the garbage disposal.

Not this time.

I’m afraid I don’t have a real recipe, just some steps, and I also don’t have a photo because all that was left last night was an empty dish.  But this was so good, it might just be worth making mashed potatoes to have the leftovers for this one.  Use whatever you want for the herb blend- and if you happen to have fresh on hand, by all means use them.  That would give the potatoes a nice springy flavor.  In that case, I might be tempted to top the potatoes with Swiss instead of Cheddar…

Start with about a quart of leftover mashed potatoes.  In my case, mine were red-skinned potatoes, but they should be leftovers so that they already have some milk and butter and seasoning blended into them.

Warm them up in a microwave for a minute or two- just so that they are pliable and you can mash them up again.

Add an egg, 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese, 1/4 cup of milk (or more if you need it), and two strips of really good bacon that you’ve crumbled up. (Fresh scallions would also be wonderful here- but I was out.)  Mix well with a beater or a wooden spoon.  If you’ve just cooked the bacon, go ahead and add a teaspoon or so of the grease.   Now dig into your spice drawer and pull out some garlic powder, black pepper, and a lighter herb blend that has onions or shallots in it.  (I used Penzey’s Sunny Paris.)  Give a few shakes of the herb blend, a light dash of the garlic, and a good grind of pepper.  Beat it up again, adding milk if it’s still pretty chunky, but not too much milk.

Now spread the potatoes in a baking dish and top them with about 1/2 a cup of shredded cheddar cheese and 1 tablespoon of butter cut up into pieces.

Bake in a 350ºF oven for 30 minutes.  Serve piping hot and enjoy!