Cooking up harmony in the family

Culinary wiz Ann Puno is a busy housewife with three adorable children, Renee, Yago and Luis. Despite an active schedule, she and her husband, lawyer Rene Puno, a member of the highly visible Puno clan, have managed to raise children who are God-fearing and accomplished in their own right. Renee is a pretty teenager who is a consistent honor student in her school. She is an outstanding badminton player who was chosen as one of the official representatives for the city of Muntinlupa in the PRISAA Badminton meet. Yago is also an honor student who can play a mean game of badminton, and is a member of the Eucharistic Server’s Society of his school. Not to be outdone, Luis, the youngest in the family, is an honor student like his siblings, and is a member of the Baseball Varsity Team of his school.

Ann’s children are pleasant and instantly likable. What is her secret recipe for raising children?

"No secret. Maybe just some practical advice," says Ann. "As a starting point, children need a firm sense of security nurtured by constancy, and bolstered by our physical presence. It is not uncommon for my husband and I to abruptly change our own plans for the day to accommodate a child who asks us to watch his sports game, or to buy a needed pair of shoes."

Ann also makes an effort to build up her children’s self-esteem by valuing their opinions. Her children are allowed to express their own feelings regarding situations that may need some kind of acceptable solution. "Even the appropriate disciplinary action for an erring child is a consensus between the child and the parent," Ann explains. "For instance, we would ask our children if they thought they deserved to be grounded for a few days as punishment for being particularly unruly. While my husband and I have the final word, we pay attention to what our children may want to say. In the end, there are no issues."

While discipline is a necessary tool for value formation, Ann has determined that more than just being disciplined, children should be taught to be God-centered. "When you teach your children to be accountable to God, they set their own standards of propriety even when you are not around to discipline them," she says.

Ann may very well need to rely on the values she has painstakingly instilled in her children during the Christmas holiday, when she is busy with her food business. Ann’s children are very supportive of her home-based activities and look forward to sampling her yummy cakes and delicacies.

Ann’s specialties include freshly baked cakes and food entrees for Christmas. The cakes prepared by Ann include Pistachio, Prune Walnut, Kahlua Toffee, Vanilla Brandy and Carrot. This Christmas, Ann has added another specialty cake, the mouthwatering Almond Coffee Cake.

Ann also prepares excellent Dulong in Olive Oil, Quesong Puti in Herbs and Spices, Chicken Relleno and Callos.

(Ann can be contacted at tel. nos. 807-6431 and 807-2757.)

The 8th Festival of Trees

This Nov. 14 at the Manila Polo Club in Makati, the annual, much-awaited Festival of Trees held by the Makati Garden Club (MGC) and the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) will again usher in the Yuletide season with a display and auction of the most artistic, colorful, joyous and gift-laden Christmas trees and donated art pieces by the country’s leading artists.

The festival, which marks its eighth year, will auction eight fabulous Christmas trees, each with a unique theme, along with a painting by Anita Magsaysay-Ho, who is donating her priceless oeuvre for the fifth time this year. Also on the block are valuable artworks donated by well-known artists, among them, Sylvia Amorsolo-Lazo, Manuel Baldemor and Claude Tayag, and creative and delightful Christmas decors from Touch of Crafts.

Funds raised from the auctions will support the continuing environmental protection and livelihood generation joint projects of MGC and PBSP on Maqueda Bay in Western Samar and Olango Island in Cebu.

To be auctioned in silent bidding are the following Christmas trees:

The Ring Me Tree, which is decorated with extra special cell phones, caller IDs, and phone cards, all donated by PLDT. What would be more appropriate and practical gifts than these little wonders that make loved ones in distant places, in the country or abroad, just a text or call away.

The Farm of San Benito Tree has special packages for wellness, pampering and treatment services from prestigious and exclusive spas and health centers–just what everyone needs to ease away Christmas shopping stress and trim off the unwanted consequences of the season’s eating binges.

The Travel and Leisure Tree, on the other hand, brims with luxurious vacation packages, hotel accommodations and two round-trip business class plane tickets to San Francisco from Philippine Airlines, for that dream vacation.

For a gourmet holiday, there’s the Tree a la Carte offering sumptuous feasts from popular hotels and restaurants. For the fashionable and stylish, the Rustan’s Tree dazzles with international brands of clothes, shoes and accessories, as well as home decors, with groceries to boot.

The Fore Tree will make golf aficionados happily putt-putting away with its gifts of golf balls, bags, clubs and other stuff that golfer’s dreams are made of. The Money Tree which will be decorated by Citibank is certainly any banker’s "must have" to bring them prosperity in the coming year.

And last but not the least, there’s the Kid’s Wish Tree filled with everything a child’s heart can desire–playthings like toy trains, dolls, teddy bears, model planes and matchboxes, school and educational items like alphabet blocks, board games and fun pencils and writing pads, not to mention little tykes’ clothes.

"Our goal this year is to raise P8 million to support our continuing projects on Olango Island off Mactan in Cebu and Maqueda Bay in Western Samar," says Festival of Trees 2002 chairman Ging de los Reyes, owner of The Flower Farm.

These projects, jointly undertaken by MGC and PBSP, involve environment conservation and livelihood generation in those two places.

The hundreds of beneficiary communities in these two places may not experience the luxury of a brightly decorated and gift-laden Christmas tree in their midst, but the generosity of donors at the Festival of Tress will more than compensate for it.

Donations, big or small, says Ging de los Reyes, "will go a long way to keep the spirit of Christmas alive and well and continuing all year round among the poor but hardworking people on these islands," adding that "for them, indeed, the Christmas tree is an emblem of hope and regeneration."

(You may e-mail me at [email protected])