Hot Potato for a Cold Morning

I am so lucky that my Resident Dragon loves to cook (and cooks well).  For a family dinner yesterday he prepared my daughter's favorite:  scratch-made mashed potatoes.  YUM!  At the table we reminisced about his grandmother's potato pancakes so, this morning, he set about creating his own version. 

Garner Laurels For Your Cooking!

For years, the pace of my life was so fast that I did a lot of cooking from memory.  After a while, my life slowed enough that I began to enjoy cooking again.  No longer satisfied with my bland rendition of beef stew, I pulled out my mother's Betty Crocker Cook Book to check the recipe.  I went through the ingredient list, checking off each in my head until, eureka, the missing element appeared:  the noble bay leaf.