You perhaps look in the fridge on a regular basis and wonder how to use a certain leftover.  I mean, we try hard to be conservative with the food we buy or make  —  waste not, want not.  Some things are easy–pizza, for instance.  I like it just heated up, but I also like to take the toppings off a piece that has seen better days and use them with pasta or in an omelet.  Ham’s another.  Grind it for ham salad, make a sandwich, bean soup, or a chef salad.   But mashed potatoes sometimes get me.  I mean, I make gorgeous potato cakes, totally crispy in their hot butter.  But there weren’t enough for potato cakes for all of us.   If I had only thought of it, I could have thrown them in my potato soup last night.  But I didn’t. Think, that is.  There were just enough mashed potatoes for me.  (Actually it was colcannon — potatoes mashed with kale or cabbage-that I made with salmon the other day.) And I wanted them for breakfast. Why not?  You could be perfectly happy with these for lunch or dinner, too; after all, what are leftovers for?

Think of your eggs, desperate for you to try something new with them, next time you bring a scoop of mashed potatoes home from a too-big restaurant dinner:

mashed potato eggs — breakfast, lunch, or dinner  serves 2

You’ll make one serving at a time.  Keep one warm in the oven while you make the other.

• 2 teaspoons salted butter
• 4 tablespoons milk
• 2 cups mashed potatoes or colcannon
• 4 eggs
• Kosher salt, fresh-ground pepper
• Salsa or chopped parsley or scallions  for garnish, optional

Heat 1 teaspoon butter in an 8-inch non-stick skillet over medium heat.  Add 2 tablespoons milk and let warm.  Press 1 cup mashed potatoes into the pan and heat until hot and beginning to crisp underneath.

Push potatoes to the edges of the pan, leaving about a 4-inch diameter space at the center.  Crack two eggs, side by side, into the space and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Cover, lower heat a little, and cook until the eggs are done to your liking –about two minutes for runny, sunny side up.  Lift the whites a time or two to let the uncooked portions fall back into the pan.

Slide a large rubber spatula under the potatoes and eggs to loosen and slide the breakfast onto a plate.  Garnish with salsa or chopped parsley or scallions.  Serve hot.

Repeat for second serving.

Cook’s Notes:  If you like scrambled eggs, just beat your eggs together in a small bowl before pouring into the center of the pan. 

Just for fun, I thought I’d share a photo of my Irish Soda Bread from last night.  Instead of baking it in a heavy glass round dish, I baked it free-form and was much happier with the results.  It was scrumptious.  We invited our neighbor, Mary Pat, over for a serve-yourself potato soup and bread supper eaten in front of the tv so we could watch John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara in “The Quiet Man” for a family-style Saint Patrick’s Day celebration.  We didn’t eat all of the bread, but almost.

KITCHEN CHANGES:

This may be the last time I look at my kitchen in exactly the same way.  Dave and I have finally decided to commit to a kitchen re-do, though we’re not sure what it will mean for us.  Our first choice is to move our kitchen entirely to the sunroom so that we have a room that is twice as big and has windows!  If that proves unfeasible, we’ll revert to updating  the footprint we currently have, albeit with a few changes.  What we have is a one-butt galley kitchen that also serves as the hallway to the deck and the garage — read that how everyone gets in and out, including all of the dogs.  You see what I’m talking about.

The designer arrives today and will take more pictures (she has some), look at my likes and dislikes notes on houzz.com, measure the two rooms, and give us a couple of design choices and price points.  I would love for this to be done in time for our 40th anniversary, which is 14 July.  What do you think?  It could happen!  As I write and wait for her, the wind whips between 50 and 60 miles per hour.  On my phone are dust storm warnings for today :  DO NOT TRAVEL!  it says.  We’ve also had bouts of swirling dervish snow squalls.  To the north are white-out conditions on the interstate.  Yesterday afternoon, I drank my tea out on the front porch in the 70 degree F sun.

Miss Gab and Tucker with Blue, one of our two grand dogs staying with us just now.  Though Blue often looks hangdog, she is loving, caring, sweet, and quite a watch dog.

Sing a new song,

Alyce