and now, for something completely different....

POTATO PANCAKES WITH "THE BOMB" SAUCE

I wanted to make my banana pancakes. Maybe I still will. But today, my husband issued me a cooking challenge. "Make potato pancakes," he said. So I did. I decided not to look at any other recipes for said pancakes first, and I have NEVER made potato pancakes before, so this was truly figuring it out from scratch. I decided to stay as true to a traditional "pancake" as I could, making something of a batter that is able to be poured in some way and some real syrup-consistency topping instead of going the gravy route.

Here is the ingredient list in its final version, though it took a few tries to get a good consistency. There is no picture of the ingredients, since I didn't know what I was going to end up using.

5 small-medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
1/4-1/3 c. plain yogurt
1 T. butter
1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda

1.) Boil the potatoes in salted water until quite soft. Drain nearly all the water from the pot.
2.) Mash the potatoes with the yogurt and butter while hot.
3.) Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. (This can all be done in one pot, which is a great plus in my book.)
4.) Preheat a griddle to 375*. I used butter on it, because butter makes everything good, but that is probably not necessary.
5.) Pour and spread the batter. The batter is a little on the thick side.
6.) Cook 4-5 minutes per side.

This makes roughly 20 pancakes. You will wish you had more. Double this recipe if you have more potatoes in the house than I did.

Pat ran around Muncie while I made the pancakes, looking for the *secret ingredient* for the pancakes. We finally had Pat's sister to thank for her effort at getting us just what we were looking for: real bacon fat!

The "syrup" is easy:
2 big spoonfulls of bacon grease
2 spoonfulls of brown sugar
2 spoonfulls of tomato paste

1.) Melt the fat in a pan on medium-high heat.
2.) Add the sugar.
3.) Reduce heat and add the tomato paste.
4.) Add water to thin to desired consistency.

Pour "The Bomb" sauce over the pancakes and garnish with green onion slivers (which taste great with it, in addition to being fancy).

Pat loved it.
Eden kept saying, "Yummy syrup!" all during dinner.
Israel said, "This is the BOMB!"
Our housemate, Kyle, agreed it was very good.
I was skeptical at first as I wished they would have been a little more fluffy, but in the end I could not complain. I wished I had made more.