You’ve heard me talk about my friend Erin Gunn many times. She’s one of my oldest and favorite friends from high school, and she still lives semi-close to me now. I like to plan escapes to her house when I need a break from the city (and when I miss her), and she always takes such good care of me, even going as far as overnighting my camera battery to me when I forgot it there last month! Here’s your chance to meet Erin for yourself as she shares her very own tale of expansion.

Ever since our family trip to Germany in October of 2006, we’ve been in love with the culture, particularly the beer and the food!

Mike and I recently visited my sister Catherine in Maine, and we came up with the idea of recreating our time in Germany with a homemade German feast. Catherine and I went crazy taking pictures of our night because we were so excited about sending them in to TOE!

For an appetizer, I made potato pancakes: basically just grated potato and onion fried on each side until golden brown and served with applesauce. We ended up adding mustard because it tasted amazing mixed with the applesauce.

Throughout the evening, we sampled some dunkel (dark beer) and wiesse (hefe weizen) beers.

For the main course, I battered and fried some schnitzel (chicken) and we had bratwurst baked in kraut with beer and onions.

Catherine made an amazingly easy spaetzle (short noodles) using flour, milk, eggs, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. You push the dough through a colander — or a pizza pan in our case — into boiling salted water, and it makes these cute little noodles. Once cooked, you toss it with some butter and pepper.

Kip, my brother-in-law, made his gram’s famous stuffed cabbage. It’s a whole lot of seasoned meat rolled into a cabbage leaf and cooked for an hour or so in rich tomato sauce. Definitely a hearty side dish!

Here’s the whole meal together:

We all ate until we couldn’t move.

Gretchen, my niece, didn’t seem too impressed with the spread … guess she’s not ready for spaetzle just yet.

After dinner, we had some store-bought streudel (you can’t make everything) and listened to our favorite record.

The next morning, Catherine made an amazing “hash.” She thin-sliced sweet potatoes and cooked them with sausage and tons of spices. The breakfast was served with a fried egg and topped with fresh chopped tomato and jalapeno.

It was the perfect German feast!

Erin, thanks for sharing your meal! T.O.E. always accepts submissions for guest posts. If you have a tale of expansion you’d like to share, email a description and pictures to talesofexpansion@gmail.com.

And go check out the new Foods That Fit — and celebratory giveaway contest — right here!