One of my favorite holidays of the year is New Year’s Eve. It holds special memories for me, as this was the day my twin daughters were born. To me, it's one of the most exciting and fun holidays of the year - not only looking forward to the party time, their birthday celebration and what lays ahead in the next year, but we get to make lots of tasty appetizers the whole night long, which has become a birthday tradition.

A recipe I would like to share with you and which is dear to my heart as a child, is the use of leftover mashed potatoes, turning them into an easy-to-make, comforting and delicious appetizer, which can have many variations - a potato croquette - which everybody will go crazy over! Everything I used to make this recipe I had in my refrigerator and pantry.

The mashed potatoes were left over from Christmas dinner and ingredients such as the herbs I had excess of - the cheese and eggs were in the refrigerator, the flour and breadcrumbs in the pantry – they were all there waiting to be turned into a fun and fabulous appetizer - or a great potato side dish for any meal.

You can make these ahead of time by browning them in the pan and refrigerating them - they hold up really well - and then gently warm them through by following my instructions at the end of the recipe and some other useful tips for this recipe. Enjoy!

Ingredients

2 cups stiff, cold mashed potatoes
Salt and pepper to taste
1 heaping tbsp. mixed chopped fresh herbs (oregano, rosemary, thyme etc.)
1 cup finely shredded cheddar/jack cheese
1 1/4 cups flour
2 well-beaten eggs
1 1/2 cups (approx.) Italian-style fine breadcrumbs
Large skillet or wok-style pan
Vegetable oil for frying
Paper towels for draining

Method

Preheat the oven to 330 degrees F.

1. Add the cheese and chopped herbs to the cold potatoes and season with salt and pepper to your liking. Roll portions of the potatoes into small logs, rounds or whatever shape you wish and set aside while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

2. Set up a breading station with the flour, beaten eggs and breadcrumbs in that order, in separate containers. To the skillet, add approximately 1/2" of vegetable oil. This needs to be heated to approximately 350 degrees F. in temperature to brown the croquettes. If the temp is higher, the breadcrumbs will brown too quickly and the cold potatoes will explode from the crust...this did happen to me!

3. Heat the oil and frying in batches, brown the croquettes all around, turning as necessary and drain on paper towels as you go. Place the croquettes onto a cookie sheet or in a baking dish and heat through for approximately 20 minutes, peaking occasionally to make sure they are not bursting! When you see signs of a little cheese oozing through the crust, take them out - they will be piping hot and ready!

Tips

Make sure that before reheating the croquettes in the oven at 350 degrees F., that you bring them to room temperature for 30 minutes. This way they will heat evenly in the oven.

If you are serving these with dinner, please make sure to either let them cool off a little before serving them to your guests - or warn them that potatoes hold their heat!

These hold up well in a chafing dish or other warmer for your party for hours.