Recipe of the day: leftover mashed potato cakes

Do you have leftovers right now? I sure do. I figure the best way to use them up and not begin to loathe Thanksgiving is to do something new with them. On Monday I made tasty potato cakes from our leftover mashed potatoes. These were lovely side for the savoury crepes that we also made (I'll post the crepes recipe one day soon). But these are also great serve the potatoes cakes as a side dish for dinner too. To make them, I stirred in a handful of chopped chives. Then formed the leftover purple potato mash into small cakes, about 2 in. (5cm) wide and 1 in. (2.5 cm) thick. Don't worry about using purple potatoes, this recipe will work just as well with regular mash. I had purple ones because they're easy to find right now and they have a wonderful nutty flavour. Here are the patties: I beat an egg in a shallow bowl and poured some panko bread crumbs into another shallow bowl. I used about 11/2 cups (375 mL) panko but it's always good to have a little extra on hand if you run out. My tip: pie plates work really well for holding the egg and breadcrumbs when you're dipping. I dipped each cake into egg then panko. Make sure to coat all over with each. Then I filled a large frying pan with oil about 1/4 in. (1 cm) deep. I cooked them for about 3 to 4 minutes per side. I did this in two batches so that they would cook quickly. Otherwise, too much food in the pan causes the oil temperature to reduce. This means the cakes sit longer and absorb too much oil. Two tips: don't crowd the pan and keep your eye on the oil temperature – make sure it's hot enough to cook quickly but reduce it cakes begin to burn. Here are the finished cakes with crepe (I promise I'll post that recipe soon). It was a killer breakfast! What do you do with your leftovers? I'm hoping for inspiration on how to use my other leftover dinner dishes.