Sandy McFadden

Natural History Museum – Dinosaur Exhibit

We’ve been trying for a while now to find the time on a weekend to get into Halifax to do something fun with the kids and get some errands done at the same time. It seems like there has just been one thing or another get in the way though. There have been a few storms, and last weekend Alexandria was sick.

We waited a bit before we left just to give the roads some time to melt off but besides that we had a smooth day. It was also very cold, but the sun was actually shinning so it was a nice drive. There were a couple shopping stops first, but then on to the Natural History Museum to see the Dinosaur Exhibit which is visiting.

On the way home we made our last stop at Costco. That’s always a fun trip especially on a Saturday afternoon. It helped remind me how much I don’t miss living and commuting in the city. Even short distance drives can take forever because of all the traffic. The one good part of stopping at Costco though is the fact that I was able to sneak away and grab a hot dog without anyone noticing. Because of the time we left we ate an early lunch and I knew that we would end up having a late supper so the hot dog was a smart move.

We still had some left on a gift card from Christmas so we had Swiss Chalet for supper. It’s always a nice treat to not have to cook and clean up after at home. We were even treated with a table side magic show by Al Bernard.

All and all it was a great day spent with my family. It seems like things have been leaning heavy to the work side of the work life balance, so this was a welcome day.

Weekend Emergency Room

Heading out in the middle of a cold, snowy Saturday night to take a child to the emergency room is never a fun thing. Oh wait it’s Sunday morning, I always forget the day changes even if you don’t sleep.

Poor Alexandria seems to be suffering from a migraine, at least that is our best guess based on the symptoms. For a while we thought it might be the flu, or an over reaction to a bad headache. Once 4:00 am rolled around though, and she was still awake and crying in pain, the pain meds we were giving her not seeming to help, it was time to go.

Now we are in a hospital room, her with an IV for pain meds and to replenish her liquids. She’s now dosing in and out of sleep so I’m guessing this is working. I sure hope this takes away her pain, it’s awful watching one of your children and not really be able to do anything to help.

Winter, I’m sorry

Winter I’m sorry. I may have been a little too harsh on you yesterday, because today you are simply beautiful!

I still prefer sand to snow though.

Winter Arrived

Over the past two days we’ve received our first taste of winter this year. There has been a bunch of snow and school has been cancelled the last two days. Tuesday was blizzard like conditions so there was lots of wind and blowing snow.

It’s made me even more thankful again to have a job that I don’t have to commute anywhere. As long as we don’t lose power or internet I can make my way to my home office in my cozy clothes, nice and warm, watching the snow outside and start working.

When things outside finally slowed down I could then go out and start to clear things away. We bought a snowblower this year so this was the first time I had to use it. If I have to live here in a place that gets so much snow I’m very glad to finally have a snowblower to use.

But wait, I don’t really have to live here anymore. I can work anywhere with an Internet connection. Jen hates winter too, so why do we live here?

I do love Canada and in particular the Annapolis Valley but I could do without winter.

Wintery Wet Basketball

We were looking for something to do today that would get is outside. The temperatures were above freezing, even if just barely, so we wanted to take advantage.

We talked about going for a walk, or to a playground, but Noah decided he wanted to play basketball. We didn’t know what the court would be like so we headed to a playground with a basketball court just in case it was flooded or too wet.

Luckily it worked out and we got to play. It ended up turning into a boys vs girls game which didn’t seem overly fair to me, but Noah and I held our own!

Donairs and Donair Pizza

While I was away in Spain meeting my new team one of them, Simon, asked me about food in Nova Scotia and if he came here what he would have to try. The first thing that came to mind was donairs.

Truthfully I don’t actually eat a lot of donairs, but when I do I enjoy them. It is much more common that we will make a donair pizza here at home and eat that instead.

So in case anyone is interested I thought I would share the recipes we use to either make either donairs or the pizza.

We tried a few different variations of the donair meat and sauce recipes, but our favourite came from this site by Glen Petitpas https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~gpetitpas/Links/Donair.html.

Image From: https://www.flickr.com/photos/40726522@N02/8600781370/

As I mentioned we usually make a pizza instead of the donair pictured above. To do this we cover the crust with the donair sauce, break up the meat into little chunks and spread it out then you can add onions and tomatoes over top of that if you like. To finish it off cover it with grated mozzarella cheese. Cooking time really depends on the crust but for us we usually do 450 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes.

If you happen to try out any of the recipes below let me know what you think. As I’m writing this we have donair meat cooking in the oven for pizza tonight and I’m looking forward to it already.

Donair Meat

Time: 3hr
Difficulty: easy
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3 pounds lean hamburger
3/4 cup bread crumbs
2 tsp pepper
1-2 tsp cayenne red pepper (depending on your taste)
1 1/2 tsp oregano
3 tsp paprika
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt

The original recipe recommends seeing if you can have your butcher or meat shop triple grind your hamburg, but we’ve only done this a couple times and didn’t notice a huge difference. We now just grab packages from the cooler in our supermarket.

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Knead for 20 minutes. Shape into two tightly formed loaves. Bake on broiler pan for 2 to 2 1/2 hours at 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Cool loaves and slice into thick slabs. Meat can be frozen for future use. You may find that the inner parts of the loaf are not browned enough. This can be remedied by re-heating the meat in a frying pan. This browns it nicely and gives it that slightly chewier texture.

Heat donair meat in a frying pan. Dip a pita bread in water and fry in frying pan to soften (this is VERY important). Place a generous amount of sauce on bread. Top with meat, chopped onions and tomatoes and finish off with lots more sauce. Put on some old clothes, then roll up or serve open face on a plate.

Donair Sauce

Time: 10 mins
Difficulty: easy
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2/3 cup canned sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/2 tsp garlic powder

(Or for a 14oz tin of sweetened condensed milk, add 1/2 cup vinegar, and 1 tsp garlic powder)

I usually mix the garlic powder in with the vinegar first and then add the sweetened condensed milk. Stir it up until it is a consistent thick texture. We find it best to chill it in the fridge for a while before using.

Pizza Dough

Time: 1 hr 30 mins
Difficulty: easy
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1 1/2 cups warm water
2 tbsp sugar
1 pkg yeast

Mix together & let yeast rise, then whisk in:

2 eggs
4 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt
Add 4 cups flour

Knead.
Put dough in covered bowl in oven with light on for 1/2 – 1 hour. Makes 3 round pizzas, or two large square pizzas. Knead in a little flour if sticky. Oil pans & stretch dough to fit. Add toppings. Let sit at least 15 min. before baking. Bake at 450.

Barcelona Team Meetup

I was extremely fortunate enough to spend last week getting to meet and work with my new team in Barcelona Spain. It really was an invaluable experience. Being so new to the company I really appreciate being able to build in person connections with them.

I’m a pretty introverted person but I really tried to be open and be in conversation with people, but I’m much more comfortable sitting and taking things in. Hopefully I wasn’t to quiet.

I took some pictures and have shared some below but the don’t really do the city justice. It was beautiful. Even though I don’t speak any Spanish or Catalan everyone was still very friendly and patient with my attempts to communicate. I did end up with some things I don’t think I ordered at restaurants but I was up for experimenting anyway so it worked out well.

Jen and the kids were surprised that I ate things like octopus and little fish heads and all, but it was all really good. Oh and the ham. There seems to be a whole lot of ham everywhere.

Many of my co workers have written about our meet up and shared much better pictures than I took. Here is a good roundup. If I missed anyone let me know and I can add it in.

My Daughters and Their Dolls

For Christmas this year Caile and Ella each wanted one of the 18 inch dolls which some of their friends had. I figured they were a little old for dolls and that they would quickly get bored of them and they would end up at the back of the closet or somewhere similar. So far though this hasn’t happened.

Actually the opposite has happened. They are with these dolls all the time. They treat them like their children and take care of them very well. If we are playing games at night they will stop in the middle if it reaches their dolls bed time so they can take them up stairs, change them into their pyjamas and put them to bed.

I think the best part is when they leave for school each day they setup their dolls doing activities so they aren’t bored while no one is around.

11th Wedding Anniversary

Eleven years ago today I was nice and warm waking up in a cheap hotel room in New Orleans. We had just flown in the day before, leaving extremely cold weather behind.

We had a couple delays on the way which meant we missed most of the offices where we could get our marriage licence. This was a problem as we were getting married the very next day. The rules had just recently changed, but only for the New Orleans Parish, that you didn’t have to wait 72 hours after getting your license before you could get married. The only office still open was way out in the country and it was closing soon as well. They hadn’t heard of the rule change and didn’t want to give us the license.

During this time I was second guessing our crazy plan run away all by ourselves and getting married with little time and far away from our comfort zone. We’re we going to have to take our Honeymoon gift cruise not being married?

We actually left the office and we’re walking back to our waiting cab when an employee banged on the window and told us to come back in. She said the worst that could happen would be they wouldn’t marry us tomorrow, but she didn’t want to be the reason that stopped it in case the rule did change. So thankfully we were able to leave with our license and now to head to our hotel for the night.

We woke up to a beautiful day and helped each other get ready in the hotel room. I was pretty much completely ready but Jen was not yet in her dress. Now it was time to head down to the banks of the Mississippi River and hop on the river boat where it’s captain would marry us.

With the boats wedding planner and photographer as our witnesses the foggy morning made for a beautiful back drop, but all I was seeing was Jen walking up to the main deck towards me.

Most of the ceremony I don’t recall, but I’ll be able to picture how radiant Jen looked and recall the overwhelming happiness I felt until the day I die. Oh and I’ll always remember her trying to place my ring in the wrong hand too.

Our wedding was a fun adventure just like the past eleven years have been. I’m looking forward to building so many more memories with my wife and best friend for many more years to come.