bengali cooking

I've got three imminent coursework deadlines, too many dance routines to practise (don't ask), presentations to give, conferences to attend, and work to plan for a charity, and so obviously I decided to spend my entire Thursday night this week preparing and cooking a Bengali curry. Very smart. I can't even justify it as a de-stress activity because cooking instils an extraordinary amount of dread/fear/anxiety and raised blood pressure in me. I do however feel a sense of achievement: I've never cooked a curry from scratch before. The whole reason I went about this was because my pal Ella is half-Bengali, and her Grandma has a cool website full of amazing recipes here. I tried the Main Course-Chicken curry recipe and it wasn't difficult at all. Ella kindly gave me measures of the spices I needed for the recipe (me & the boys' spice rack extends to salt, pepper and ready-grated parmesan). Admittedly I was a bit heavy-handed with the extra-hot chilli powder but we survived, and if I do say so myself it was a pretty damn tasty curry. I took some action shots but gave up trying hard when I realised that this was probably the least photogenic dish I've ever made. Nevermind. Have a go at the curry though!! And peruse the website it's full of wonderful stories as well as recipes.

http://www.anita-pal.com/

Tip from Ella: make sure the onions are really brown and softened - this can alter the quality of the curry sauce.

And this was a lil thank you present from Jenny who came back to visit last weekend. (How sneaky is this bird). She kept saying she felt like she was on holiday here and to be honest I felt the same even though I still go here. KEEP COMING BACK JEN!

warm

A warm thought for your morning. I'm tucked away in my house relishing my electric heater while I squeeze out a job application. Fingers crossed because it's kinda the only one I want. Slipping out later for a quick Starbucks with a friend but I imagine I'll be straight home back to my best friend 'Heatstore 75' (Iloveyousomuchneverleaveme).

plug tips

Some awesome work/study/'plugging' tips from this girl here. (You may have to get chrome/explorer to translate the page for you - it's in Swedish). She's so great. She makes me want to live in Edinburgh and casually holiday in Sweden. I had Jesus Green to myself again yesterday morning, such a beaut doesn't it look like a watercolour? And a shot from this weekend: proseccos at Borough Market. We sent my friend (Beth) off to Japan for the year over the weekend and I blubbered and blubbered and blubbered. Tips for how to get myself together would be much appreciated. 

my year

I shared this a couple weeks ago on facebook and I wasn't expecting the huge reaction I got from friends&fam. It's a bit strange not catching a second of footage each day but also glad of the break, and might do another one for 2014-15 (also shaping up to be a big year).

megan mclaren 1 second everyday 
23-1-13 to 22-1-14 

2013-14 was one of the biggest years of my life, and i didn't want a single day to be forgotten. for the whole year i recorded a second of footage from every day to make a 6-minute video of my year. rather than purposely manufacturing exciting 'seconds' to film, i wanted the video to be a true representation of the year (however dull/exciting each day was). it was hard work and sometimes i forgot (hence the little messages here & there), but in a short video i've managed to capture: 

scotland > barcelona > nyc > vegas > california > massachusetts > rome > trinidad > tobago > dubai 

starting my dissertation > college ents > life in cambridge > beyond profit > theatre > finishing my dissertation > funerals > sitting my finals > cambridge may balls > bed club > getting a 2.1 > manchester > cups of tea > finishing the whole of gilmore girls > moving mairi to uni > starting 4th year > engless trips to london > working at sc > christmas in trinidad 

way too many cats 

and most importantly, some of the best people i've ever met (those of you not featured were most likely right by my side at the time) 

song choices are excruciatingly cringey and i'm proud of it. 

i recorded my year using the 1se app (1secondeveryday.com) on my iphone. the app made enormous improvements during the course of the year and so the video is a bit jumpy between formats, but is now running smoothly and available on ios and android. i highly recommend doing a 1se video yourself. i am an extraordinarily lucky girl. 

2013 never forgotten.

antlers

I'm on postsecret.com every Sunday without fail. Today this one really resonated with me: I've had a slight fascination/obsession with the Actaeon character from Classical mythology ever since I saw the Metamorphosis exhibition at the National Gallery, and then studied the story as part of my course reading Ovid's Metamorphoses in my final year. No denying I'm a nerd. I could talk about the story for hours, and my poor tutor at university had to mark essay after essay on the same exploration of the hunted vs. the hunter, the duality of the self etc etc (whatacambridgetoff). As a result I've been secretly brewing an idea for an antlers tattoo on me somewhere..is this tacky? 

how to make pastelles (benjamin-cozier styley)

Definitely listen to this song whilst reading.

1. Get your machete out and attack a banana tree

2. Pass banana leaves to your fire guy

3. Make fire. Put a chimney on it and smoke the leaves on each side. Generously oil the leaves

4. Take your shirt off to sharpen yo knives. Cut the leaves into squares

5. Make corn dough stuff (really yellow)

6. Make corn dough stuff into balls

7. Flatten balls into pancakes using Trini-pastelle press, or invent another pressing device using oven dishes / rolling pins / hands / elbows

8. Put mince meat (mixed with raisins) on the pancake, and fold the dough round it

This all done best in a Fordist assembly line

9. Wrap the banana leaf round the parcel and tie it with string to make it look like a christmas present

10. Make s*** loads

11. Steam them and play sleeping lions while you wait (it helps keep you quiet if you've got a bit too excited by all the fun)

12. Unwrap and take yo shirt off to eat it

We tried to make a 'how to' video but didn't do very well:

How to make pastelles from Megan McLaren on Vimeo.

Here's a really how to make Caribbean pastelles.

grandanimals

I came across this video on a photography blog I'm addicted to and it's beautiful. We had two golden labs in the family until they were 15: their personalities became really well-defined in their golden years and we made sure to take a lot of photos of the pair of them.

Elderly Animals: Photographs by Isa Leshko from Walley Films on Vimeo.