Family Dinners

For the past few weeks we have had a weekly dinner with Julie, Micha and their dog Frida.  So fun to have family here in Berlin.  Makes me miss my family back home although we all lived so far apart we could never do a weekly dinner.  Tonight on the menu was a chickpea stew. 

Marty, Josie and Julie are all vegetarians.  So I normally go veggie on family dinner night with a meat option for Micha and
Benjamin - the carnivores. I opted for a spiced chickpea stew with coconut milk.  I had seen this recipe several weeks ago but it has been way too warm for a stew.  As the weather is starting to change to Fall it was the perfect choice. I will definitely make it again.  I added a bit of cumin and a squeeze of lemon along with chopped mint and a dollop of plain yogurt and a sprinkle of red chili flakes (that I was able to find for the first time since moving here!!)  It was so good.  A big debate in the comments was whether to use the full 2 cans of coconut milk like suggested.  I double the recipe (and it was just the right amount for 5 hungry people - enough for 3 people to have seconds.  Since I doubled the recipe I used 3 cans (not 4) of coconut milk.  It did not need more.  Here is the recipe: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019772-spiced-chickpea-stew-with-coconut-and-turmeric

After school and before Family dinner I picked Benjamin and his friend Lukas up at school and took them to the traffic school.  Every 4th grader in Berlin has to pass a bike test at the end of the school year.  Part of the requirement for the test is that they have to visit the little traffic schools and get a stamp at least 6 times.  This was Benjamin's second visit.  The first visit last week was met with a lot of scolding and doing things

wrong for both of us.  I was not to take pictures (fat chance!!) I was not to go in with him to register, I was to sit here and not there... Benjamin was to tighten his helmet. It was too big, he was to turn right not left when exiting the parked bike area, he was to do a safety look when coming to a crosswalk.  Everything was in German.  100% German.  I couldn't tell from where I was sitting if Benjamin was just nodding and not understanding or if he was fully understanding.  At the end I asked him why he was scolded so many times.  He said he wasn't really scolded but that the police officers were just telling him what to do and how to correct some of his patterns.  He is already becoming German in that the scolding doesn't bother him. And he said he completely understood what they were saying.  Amazing!!
So after our experience last week Benjamin thought it would be fun
to go with a friend, a German speaking friend to be exact.  We had already had the play date set up with Lukas (a completely bilingual kid) so it worked out well. 
After traffic school we took the bus home and the boys had a snack and some games and then they ended up reading together.  So sweet.  Lukas likes books about as much as Benjamin does.

Trying to get the
three squiggly dogs
back in their yard. 

Just before dinner we walked Lukas to the bus stop and on our way back we realized that our neighbors three dogs had escaped for the one billioneth time.  All the neighbors have walked these poor three dogs back to their home at least 20 times each.  I'm not sure what is up with these people but clearly they either need to keep their dogs inside or build a better fence.  Those poor dogs are going to get hit by a car.  They had already lost one dog to a car awhile back.

The dogs were completely spent... so cute

Julie and Micha and Frida came and as always bring nice, young energy.  The dogs always have a nice time and get some energy out in the backyard before they crash together.  We even had time for a few games of Schafkopf (a favorite German card game)