Over a quarter of a century ago when I was first married, my mother-in-law served us a meal of sauerkraut and dumplings.  As a young woman I thought I hated cabbage and, even more so, sauerkraut.  I was scared to try it, but I was more concerned about insulting my new mother-in- law, so I tried it.  It was love at first bite.  Hard little dumpling cooked in pork broth and sauerkraut, all served on a nice helping of mashed potatoes.  All these years, I have been trying to replicate her delicious dumplings with little success.  Finally, last night it happened!  I got the dumplings right!  Now I have children as picky as I was when I was first married; so I cooked the ribs separately; then I just used the pan drippings in the pot for the dumplings; and heated the sauerkraut in a bowl in the microwave so my husband, the baby, and I could add it to our meal without upsetting the children.  If you do that, I would suggest taking some of the juice from the 'kraut and putting it on your mashed potatoes.  It's best if you just boil some kind of pork (ribs or shoulder) and just add the 'kraut and dumplings to it, but you do what you have to do to get the family to eat it.  If you use a fatty cut like the shoulder in it, you could cook it the day before, put it in the fridge overnight, then take some of the fat off before you reheat it.

Grandma Winters' German Dumplings

4 cups  flour (I use a good portion white whole wheat pastry flour)
1/4 tsp. salt 
2 eggs
3/4-1c water 

Mix flour and salt in a medium sized bowl.  Make a well in the middle.  Beat in with a fork, then start adding water until you have one thick dough.  Drop by baby spoonfuls into boiling, salted broth.  If you dip your spoon in the broth (about 3 or 4 qts, you don't want them too crowded) with each dumpling, they slide off easier.  Boil uncovered for about 5 mins.  Add 1 can or jar of sauerkraut.  Bring back to a boil.  Serve over mashed potatoes.  Once again, this makes enough for a big family. 1