How to write stories about workshops, seminars, etc.

Got a workshop to write about? Make it more interesting than the usual stuff. Unless you’re writing for a bulletin or just making an announcement, avoid loading your story with so many unnecessary details and write it in a way that your reader will get something more of value.

Here are some tips and things you can consider before writing your story…. 

Chocolate cake with creamy coconut glaze

I fell in love with this cake the first time I tasted it!  The glaze gives it a delightful twist and every bite is heavenly.  The grated coconut adds some texture that surely matches the softness of the cake.

Thanks to the Brazilian lady who generously shared this recipe and thanks to my husband to asked her to write it down for me.  The lady, who cooks in a small office cafeteria, wrote the recipe down in two pieces of kitchen towels, which made me think that she must have done it while she busied herself in the kitchen. 

Everything she wrote was in Portuguese and the procedure seemed to have been cut in middle.  Probably she was in a rush or she had difficulty writing it down because she just had everything in her mind all these years and never bothered to put it in writing. 

Homemade cinnamon rolls with chocolate frosting!

My daughter loves cinnamon rolls that’s why I keep experimenting on the recipes.  Here’s one I’ve tried a couple of times and it turns out very appetizing and yummy each time I make it! This is already a modification of the original recipe, which I got from the Food Network website. 

To come up with a low-fat/sugar version, I used margarine instead of butter and brown sugar for the filling.  I also reduced the recipe in half (yields about 12 rolls), just enough for a one- or two-time snack for three (or four).  If you want to have more in one baking time, just double the recipe. 

Learn some Portuguese

Here are some words in Brazilian Portuguese that are quite interesting for me.  I expected some similarities between the Filipino and Brazilian Portuguese languages because they both have Spanish influences:

almoço (ow-mo-so) – lunch; the word sounds like a relative of ‘almusal’, which means ‘breakfast’ in the Filipino language (national language of the Philippines)

lanche (lang-she) – sounds like ‘lunch’ but it means snack

chuva (shoo-va) – rain; among the younger generation of Filipinos, it means something not related in any way to rain

geladeira (zhe-laa-dey-raa) – fridge/ref

A glimpse of Pelotas City, Brazil

Here are some photos of Pelotas City.  These were taken on a Sunday when shops and department stores are closed.

 

This is the mercado central, the public market where one can buy fresh fish, vegetables, meat, spices, kitchen utensils, shoes, bags, etc.

One of the oldest threaters in Brazil.  When there are performances, we can hear the cheering crowd from our apartment, which is just few meters away.

Food in Brazil

If I would describe food in Brazil, specifically in this city of Pelotas, I would say “variety”.  In the supermarkets, you’ll find a wide range of choices for each product such as bread, flour, and meat.  Variety is also seen in the kinds of products that you see and you can tell , just by going around in the supermarkets that Brazilian food and food products have African, Italian and other European and even Asian influences.  They have great tasting coconut cream/milk, conveniently packed in bottles, although some, in small amounts, are packed in cartons.  You can always find good pizza and sushi here.

Brazilian food, however, isn’t much like Filipino food. For one, Brazilians don’t seem to like so much spices.  Filipino food isn’t that spicy although there are some dishes that are flavored with pepper, ginger, and chili and eaten with gusto.  Their food, however, is generally colorful owing to the fruits and vegetables that serve as their side dishes. 

Having fun in the street market

   

Markets are fun places to go, not only because they have the things that we need – from food to clothing – but because they have in them the wide variety of goods and people that the usual department stores do not have.  Such kind of market appeals so much to me.  For me, markets reflect cultures.

Here in the small city of Pelotas, Brazil, the street market is something I look forward to every Sunday.  The market is located along the “island” of a huge road and it stretches about three blocks.  On the opposite side is a play area for kids, with rides and fun play things to rent.

What are mothers made of?

We get different answers to this question depending on who we are asking.  But when we talk about mothers, we usually have that picture of a woman who is caring, soothing, comforting, loving, and gentle yet strong enough to widthstand the test of time.

Beyond this, I’m constantly being reminded of the woman in the epilogue of Prov 31 in the Bible (ver 10-31).  Indeed, she is “worth far more than rubies”.  For me, this is the ideal mother/woman.  She’s made of a gentle spirit but gifted with strength to perform her tasks. 

Exercise demo

I was happy to receive a news from a good friend in the Philippines that she decided to make it a habit to exercise regularly and do some changes in her diet.  What I like about her decision is that she’s doing it primarily for health reasons.  We all want to look good and sexy but if this is our only goal, it’s skin-deep. 

For me, exercise and eating the right kind of food is a lifetime process.  It’s not something that you do now and decide to stop later when your goal of attaining that 24″ waistline is achieved.  It’s a change in lifestyle.  And it has lots of benefits.

Brazil’s passion

My child jumped out of her seat and came to me trembling with fear as people, both men and women from our neighboring apartments, shouted loudly in unison, like a roaring thunder.  The momentum stayed on for few minutes.  We could hear banging doors.  

Children were crying, screeming.  Dogs were barking.  Somewhere down the street, we thought we heard some gunshots; we couldn’t really distinguish though.  From a nearby apartment, another group of men and women seemed to parallel those sounds, as if trying to mock the other group.  What could be happening?  Gang war? Brutal images suddenly came to mind.  But I tried to convince myself that nothing was really wrong.