Mashed Potato Nuggets – as Micah calls them

I rarely cook. It doesn’t mean that I can’t cook – I just rarely cook. Why? Because its just the two of us — my little angel of a daughter and myself. Its not worth the effort, time and money to go through the preparation, cooking and cleaning up with only two mouths to feed. So most of the time, we get something from the “suki” neighborhood “carinderia” and we’d be fine and happy. No mess and no stress.

Everyone in the family cooks. My mom is a mean cook — cooks restaurant class fantastic Chinese dishes (and other dishes with questionable origins) without following a recipe. Her steamed fish, haaay (funny, found out lately that my mother doesn’t even like fish).

My dad’s humba and chicken feet — to die for. Literally too. You eat too much, you die (if you have high blood pressure). Its a recipe for heart attack but the oil … man, you’d wipe your plate clean with just rice and the oil from his recipe. Tried to replicate it but never been successful. But this will go to another post.

My younger sister tries to cook. 🙂 Didn’t say she can’t. I’m saying she is trying. And yes, we do eat what she cooks.

My younger brother is a turbo broiler expert. His ribs with nestea and mustard rub sounded weird until I tried it myself.  He too can cook.

The youngest? Well, he cooks enough to take care of himself. 🙂 I remembered a long time ago, when honeycured bacon wasn’t available in the supermarkets, he would fry his bacon in a caramel bath and finish one pack of bacon in one sitting.

See, everyone can cook – as per the movie Ratatouille. (did I get the spelling right?)

But this is not about my family. I just started blabbering there. This is about my leftover recipes and what I do with food I find in the ref for the day that I hated to throw out.

Today, a Saturday, the carinderia was closed and I had nothing in my ref. So creativity had to kick in and look what I found.

1. Leftover mashed potatoes from Kentucky Fried Chicken
2. A small block of mozzarella cheese (honest, I had this)
3. Some flour
4. Japanese breadcrumbs
5. An egg
6. Salt and Pepper
7. Canola oil

So what to do with these? My version of a mozzarella stick but Micah called them Mashed Potato Nuggets.

• Cut mozzarella into small cubes. Cover all around with the mashed potatoes. They would look like these.

• Coat the potato squares in flour all around. They do end up looking like mochis.

• Dip everything in the beaten egg (seasoned with salt and pepper by the way).
• Now, let them take a final coating in the Japanese bread crumbs.

• Time to fry them. Drain and serve.

Final verdict? Mama, you are the bestest cook ever! 🙂