Fried potatoes with scrambled eggs will never be the same.

The way Kathy Munger fixes them, the potatoes are closer to a potato dumpling than a sliced spud.

Her family calls them Sinkers.

“Sinkers isn’t their official name,” Munger said, “but that’s what my dad called them because they sink to the bottom of your belly.”

The Polish name for the potato noodles is Kopytka.

Both sets of grandparents came to America by boat, making her a second-generation American.

“We’ve had them since I was a little girl,” Munger said about the sinkers. “My kids love them. They are a family tradition. We have them a lot on holidays for breakfast.”

She also suggested making two or three batches because they freeze well. When Munger fixes them, she starts with 10 pounds of potatoes.

Munger starts with raw potatoes and grates them fine before straining them. Add flour, eggs and milk to form a stiff dough. The dough is then cut into small pieces and boiled.

They have the texture of dumplings or gnocchi.

There is another Polish noodle made with mashed potatoes, but these aren’t it, she said.

“We’ve never done that,” Munger said.

This is the first time she’s written down the recipe.

“My mom’s recipe is about three sentences. Grate the potato. Add egg and milk. Cook them in boiling water. That is about it.

“She’s not a real wordy person.”

Munger’s husband Neil, who is the retired director of the Wood County Park District, said that their two sons have learned how to cook the sinkers.

They take frozen sinkers when they go camping.

“They’re great to have (while camping),” Neil said.

“They’re very filling,” she added.

A daughter-in-law likes to eat them with maple syrup.

“I don’t quite get that,” Munger said. “But the boys love them, the grandkids like them.”

She said if you look online, you can find recipes where they use brown butter, breadcrumbs or gravy in the recipe.

Her family didn’t cook a huge amount of Polish foods, Munger said.

Potato pancakes, kielbasa, cabbage balls and sweet and sour cabbage were the extent of the Polish food eaten by her family.

She said she learned to cook from her mom – but won’t say her mom taught her to cook.

Munger is the youngest of six. Her closest sibling is seven years older.

While her sisters had to fix dinner, she never did, she said. Munger gardened and did the canning.

She has raised garden beds in their back yard and cans tomatoes, green beans, cabbage, Brussel sprouts and all sorts of peppers – the hotter the better.

Sons Brady and Spencer also helped her in the kitchen, and she fixed a homemade meal every day.

Munger said she prefers baking, calling herself a sugar fiend. She makes her cakes from scratch and refuses to use store-bought frosting.

“That’s just nasty,” she said.

Munger bakes around 15 kinds of cookies at Christmas while Neil makes the candy.

The couple first lived in Minnesota before coming back to Bowling Green and lived with her mom for 10 years.

Munger retired earlier this month from part-time work at Norweld in Bowling Green. She also taught tourism, hospitality and event management at Bowling Green State University.

The pandemic affected the industry but enrollment in her classes grew, she said.

The couple own 10 acres in northern Michigan, where they travel every year with their 35-foot RV.

She said she would love to go to Poland, but the closest she has traveled has been Germany.