Sunday 30 June 2013

Portuguese party and cupcakes

As I mentioned in my last post, this weekend I participated in the Portuguese party that took place in the Parc du Cinquantenaire. I had a little stand where I sold my cupcakes and I must say it was a huge success! I was kindly visited by several familiar faces and others that were not familiar yet, but who knew my blog, so they came. I was always busy between talking with the people who visited me, promoting my goodies to the other visitors, hanging out with the organization staff... that time flew so fast in both days and in the end I had sold all of my 100 cupcakes! If only I had made more... but creating a home made production of these delights takes its effort, especially with me alone doing them at night, so I was "only" able to make that amount. Here's some photos of how it was:

Cupcakes for day #1

Cupcakes for day #2
My stand at the fair

Kids are the best costumers!

My friend Filipa = happy costumer!

'Cause two sweets are always better than just one!

Parc du Cinquantenaire invaded by Portugal
I want to express a BIG thank you to everyone who stopped by to visit me and who helped me pursue my quest and tasted one (or more) of my cupcakes. You made this whole thing feel like I was just hanging out with friends and time flew by so quickly :) I was really happy I came - also a big thanks to the organization for having let me participate in this, especially when my request to do so was made with such short notice! - and had another great weekend in Brussels. Especially today, the party was so full of people, a lot of families strolling with their kids... lots of non-Portuguese attendants, which was great! All the other stands were selling typical products and I saw a lot of people buying them, so I hope they had two great days as well. Overall, it was just great!

Friday 28 June 2013

Portuguese party and cupcakes

As my traineeship finishes in the end of July and with me already thinking of what to do next, I have applied for a summer school on regulation of local public services that will take place in Turin, Italy, in September, for 2 weeks. This week I received the confirmation saying I was accepted (among 500 candidates from 70 different countries, only 25 were accepted)! However, participating in this summer school has its costs, namely, 150€ for the participation fee (which includes accommodation) and 164€ for the flights (Lisbon-Turin-Lisbon). As at that moment I will not be working (transitioning from being a trainee here and finding a new job), I thought about using my time here to collect some funds that would help me participate in this summer course.

So, given the fact that I love baking, I proposed to sell cupcakes in the Portuguese party that is going to take place this weekend in the Parc du Cinquantenaire, which was indeed kindly accepted by the organization. So, during all day on Saturday and Sunday, I invite you to pass by my little stand and maybe help me with this initiative (or just to say "hi") :) looking forward to see you there!


(this is the image of my city's University – Coimbra – which was declared last weekend as part of UNESCO's heritage and which is also part of the World Guinness Record book for having baked the biggest cupcake ever made!)

Tuesday 25 June 2013

"Cake" of tuna and surimi

Last week I have made this salted cake, whose recipe I am now sharing with you (very easy to make!).


Ingredients
 
Dough:
  • 360g of flour
  • 5 eggs
  • 4dl of milk
  • 1dl of oil
  • 1 teaspoon of baking powder
Filling: 
  • 3 cans of tuna fish
  • 12 rolls of surimi
  • 1 small onion
  • 2 pieces of garlic
  • 1 branch of persil
Turn on the oven at 180º. Cover a shape with butter and flour. Take the tuna out of the cans and save the oil in them. Cut the onion and the garlic into small pieces, add the tuna's oil to it and cook it until it's soft. Take it out of the cooker and add the surimi cut into pieces, as well as the persil. You can then add salt and pepper, to your taste.  Mix very well and all together the eggs, the milk, the oil, the flour and the baking powder. Pour half of this mix into the shape, then add on top of it the tuna and the surimi mix. Cover it with the rest of the dough and leave it for 40 minutes in the oven.

Monday 24 June 2013

Interview to DRadio

Those following me on Facebook will probably remember me saying that, some time ago, other trainees and I were interviewed by DRadio, a German media broadcaster, about the crescent demand by people from the countries in crisis of traineeship programmes like this one of the European Commission. Well, the interview is out now and you can listen to it (and read the text) here. Unfortunately, it is available only in German (they dubbed our voices), so I'll leave it for my German speaking readers to understand it!

Sunday 23 June 2013

Waterloo battle re-enactment

Yesterday I have been to Waterloo. Or, actually, to be more precise, I have been to the Butte du Lion and adjacent battlefields, which are located between Waterloo and Braine-l'Alleud. Yesterday it was a special day as, similar to what happens every year, the anniversary of the battle is celebrated in a weekend in June and special events take place. Indeed, there were the 14th Napoleonic Bivoacs, which means that, in addition to what you can normally see in that area, you can watch a recreation of the environment lived at the time before the battle, the actual happening of the battle and the functioning of a war hospital (which is happening today).


First of all, after arrival, I entered the visitor's center and watched two movies (approximately 20 minutes each) about the battle. After, I climbed all the way up the Butte du Lion and got this sight of the battlefields.



Afterwards, I walked along the battlefields and moved towards the Hougoumont Farm, where the camping of the Allies was being recreated. It is a 15 minutes walk until you reach the place.


There you could see all kinds of people dressed up as the several Allies troops (UK, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands and Prussia) and their families.



This one had an earring!

Cute pompom :)





From there you could also get a nice view of the Butte du Lion.

There were people shooting rifles from time to time.






An important element to fight Napoleon!





There were pirates infiltrated?


Even the toys were dressed up! Action Men circa 1815...




In the end I went back to the Butte du Lion area and visited the Panorama (where you can see a 360º scenery of the battlefield) and the Wax Museum (not so cool after having seen real recreations of the people at the time). Afterwards, at 20h, there was going to take place the battle re-enactment, where the actors would recreate what happened during the battle (with horses and cannons and all that is required!). Unfortunately, the place where that was going to happen was 5km away from the Butte du Lion and I don't have a car, so having to walk 5km there and then back again to catch the train to Brussels in the middle of the night, didn't seem to be such a good idea. It was a pity because I really wanted to see it, but I asked for information on whether there was a bus to take us there and was told it was only reachable by car. If it was scheduled for a more proper time, like during the day, I wouldn't have minded to walk there and back, but at night it was everything but convenient. The camping of the French troops was also located on that area, so I didn't get to see it as well. During the day they had some events, like at lunch time you could see the meals being prepared like they did at the time and lunch being served to Napoleon. I think that if you have a car and can go on a next time, you can have a lot to see for the whole day! I thought the camping was really well made, as everyone was really into character (they were having dinner when I visited and they were cooking and using objects as at the time, like it was part of their routine and never minding the tourists). They were really acting as they were before a battle and there were way more actors than visitors, so you really could feel like you were back then. The costumes were really well made, with attention to lots of little details. I really loved it and hope I can comeback (with a car this time!) in 2015, when it will be celebrated the 200th anniversary of the battle and I am sure a big set of events would take place (in 2010, when the 195th anniversary was celebrated, the re-enactment took place at noon, which I believe is much more suitable!). I didn't find it too crowded (as I mentioned, there were more actors than visitors!), as I would have expected from a day like this, so you could perfectly move around, take all the photos you wanted and not wait to get to things.

As for visiting it on a normal day, it can be interesting too as you can access all the stuff I have mentioned before, minus the camping and the re-enactment of the battle. But I think that the time when it's really worth a visit is at this time of the year, otherwise the only most impressive thing is the Butte du Lion, which is indeed a magnificent monument. How to get there? From Brussels, take the train (direction Charleroi) to Braine-l'Alleud (just one stop away from Brussels, only 20 minutes of traveling, two trains per hour). There you have two options: either take the W bus to the Butte du Lion (attention for the fact that, on weekends, there's only 2 per hour) or walk there (I did that both ways and it only took me 20 minutes each, just ask someone at the station which direction you should take and then it's always straight ahead with signs indicating you the Butte du Lion).

Saturday 22 June 2013

DIY statement necklace workshop

Last week, the DIY Sub-Committee organised this workshop led by Emina, a very creative trainee who was kind enough to teach us how to make one of her original creations: the statement necklace! A bunch of us girls got together after work and started to craft with these materials.





Our results after day 1!
This type of necklaces takes a long time to make, so we brought some materials home in order to advance on our work and we will have a second meeting next week. Afterwards we will be all sporting our bright and colourful new jewelry pieces in the Commission's corridors :) Emina has also posted about this event, you can check her article here.

Friday 21 June 2013

Paris



















Two weeks ago I have been to Paris, where I spent 3 days. I went by Thalys, which only takes 1h20 from Brussels. I had been already to Paris 2 times when I was a kid and also one time again 2 years ago, so all the touristic sights were covered. This time we took the chance of going to Versailles and watched the Les Grandes Eaux spectacle. We also cycled a lot around the city, especially at night to see all the lights. Velib was our best friend! We visited the Louvre, the Notre Dame, ate sushi, lemon pie and drank mint tea. We saw everyone going crazy about the Mona Lisa painting and an episode of a tv series being recorded in the streets of a cute neighbourhood. We went to La Maroquinerie and watched in the front row a concert by Kurt Vile & The Violators. We passed by the Promenade Plantée and by the Eiffel Tower with its blinking lights. It was great to return to one of my favourite cities in Europe!