Kartoffelpuffer!

German people enjoy meat. In fact, they love it so much that finding a recipe without meat is nearly impossible. For this Wednesday's pot luck German club meeting, I had volunteered to bring food for people who were "Vegetarisch," which is the German word for vegetarian. I thought I could find a vegetable dish pretty easily, but this was not the case. Most of the recipes I found were labeled as Deutsch Vegetarisch but listed meat as one of the ingredients. Disappointed, I was ready to give up my search when I thought of Julia Child and her famous potato episode. Potato pancakes were definitely German as well as vegetarian! However, when I started the project, I realized that Julia made things look way simpler than they actually were. Peeling a potato is tough; peeling six is ever tougher. Luckily, I enlisted the help of Jonny and soon the mix was ready to be cooked. As I heated the pan and covered the bottom with oil, I couldn't help but wonder if I would have the courage and conviction to flip my pancake. Jonny tried first, and his pancake landed on the stove rather than in the pan. But we weren't too worried because Julia reminded us that "if you are alone in the kitchen, who is going to see you?" We quickly put the pancake back in the pan to kill any bacteria with heat and continued cooking and flipping with more success. In the end, I was able to flip a potato pancake (on the third try), and everyone at the German meeting loved the Deutsch Vegetarisch dish!