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Deliciously creamy potatoes are whipped and combined with twice baked filling before turning them into pancake batter that is cooked in a waffle iron.  Waffled Twice Baked Potato Pancake Bites are a take on a family favorite potato pancake recipe.

There is no doubt that I love potatoes. 

I’ve got a slew of recipes that have potatoes in them on my blog.  I have a slew of recipes that feature potatoes.  I think of all the recipes I’ve shared, the Twice Baked Potato Casserole is my absolute favorite.  And that’s a tag team recipe with me and hubs.  Well, mostly the hubs.  The Potato Leek Skillet Pizza was pretty good, too.

This recipe, however, is one that is near and dear to my heart.  When I was little, I remember Nana making potato pancakes with the leftover mashed potatoes from the night before.  Man were they delicious!!  She’d add a little milk, egg, flour, salt, and pepper.  Then she’d fry them up in the bacon grease.  I’m drooling.  Are you drooling?  They were THAT good.

It wasn’t a recipe that we stopped making when I grew up. 

If there were leftover potatoes, we’d whip up a batch of potato pancakes.  We would either serve them up for breakfast or dinner!  Yes, potato pancakes can be a side dish for dinner, too!

We would add cheese and onion and top with sour cream.  Even if they were served for breakfast I’d still top them with sour cream.  They’re sort of like the poor man’s pierogie?  No dough and all filling which makes them delicious.  Don’t get me wrong, I love me a good pierogie, too!

So, now that I’m all grown up – yes that remains to be seen – I make them at home sometimes.  I don’t think the hubs has quite embraced the potato pancake that way I did oh so long ago.  Of course, he’s not a huge fan of sour cream so that might have something to do with it?  *shrugs*

He does, however, love twice baked and loaded potatoes.  I mean, who can resist that cheesy, bacon-y, chive-y goodness that is both of those dishes?  I know I can’t.  yes, there’s usually sour cream in those, too, but it’s not raw sour cream that he can taste.  He doesn’t like the taste of sour cream all by it’s lonesome.  Only when it’s an ingredient in a recipe can he tolerate it.  Yes.  He’s the same way with Greek yogurt, too.

He DID NOT like my Greek yogurt pops I shared the other day.  He didn’t really like the honey frozen yogurt, which I thought was divine.   Even when I topped it with bourbon caramel banana topping.  It’s the tang he just isn’t a huge fan of.  When go out to a Mexican or southwest restaurant I have to remind him to ask for no sour cream.  Of course, he doesn’t have to remind me to ask for no cilantro.  LOL

Now me, on the other hand, I LOVE the tang. 

I think it really does brighten your taste buds up for the rest of the ingredients in the dish.  It’s like that little shot of vinegar in a finishing sauce, or the drizzle of lemon or lime over fajitas or tacos.  It just brightens the dish in my opinion.

Did I tell you the story of that baking sheet?  No?  Well, I have this coworker tuned friend.  I mean we’ve worked together for over 8 years now?  So, for me it was inevitable that we become friends.  She lived in Alexandria and I lived in Alexandria.  Not close to each other, but still…

When the hubs moved from Cleveland we moved to a different part of Alexandria before finding a nice little complex in Centreville.  Well, J was having issues with her snootie landlord company so I suggested she move to Centreville with us.  And she did.

We lived in that area for one more year before buying the house we live in now.  Well, she loved the idea of not having to pay rent.  So, I handed her over to our amazing realtor at the time and she bought a house, too!  Ten minutes from where we lived.  Of course, she knew we were looking to move to the Manassas area because the houses are reasonable for the size.  It only makes sense.  It’s an up and coming area that has an actual railroad commuter train to get to work.  But I’ve talked about that before.

Well, when she moved from the apartment to the house, she was giving away a bunch of pans and what not.  She said they weren’t the best pans in the world and I thought, “Well, we have a few of those that we leave under dishes like lasagna and quiche just in case it cooks over.  Why not?”  So, I said I’d take the two sheet pans.

And there ya have it! 

That sheet pan is one that I inherited when my friend moved into her house after we moved.  He’s the kicker to the story.  When she was in the apartment she was dating a D-head.  I told her so.  She broke up with him and I said, “What about T?”  That sparked a love interest that turned into a marriage.  And marriage that has her ending with the same last name as me.  It’s sort of creepy, but she’s a good friend.

Now I have to brag about these Waffled Twice Baked Potato Pancake Bites.  They’re AH-mazing!!  They have that great potato pancake flavor with hints of chive, bacon and cheddar cheese.   These waffles are crispy on the outside and nice and moist in the inside.  And that horseradish sauce is TO DIE FOR!  You could use that for steaks, dip, dressing, eating with a spoon.  Oh wait, that’s just me.

Have you ever turned family favorite into a new recipe for your family?

Small Bites Recipes for Entertaining

Small Starters

• Fiesta Pinwheels by Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks
• Waffled Twice Baked Potato Pancake Bites by A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures

Pint-sized Protein

• Bacon-wrapped Chorizo and Date Skewers – Brochetas de Chorizo y Datiles by Food Lust People Love
• Chicken Caprese Bites by Books n’ Cooks
• Crab Stuffed Mushrooms by My Savory Spoon
• Grass Fed Beef Meatballs and Cauliflower Cilantro Smear by Our Good Life
• Mini Salmon Cakes with Anise Aioli by Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
• Tuscan Chicken Bites by The Freshman Cook

Demi-Desserts

• Lemon Bars with Poppy Seed Shortbread by Pies and Plots