Southwest Shrimp Quesadilla

So here's what I thought up for lunch today. It turned out very yummy, probably one of the best quesdillas I've ever made.

Southwest Shrimp Quesadilla

2 Tortillas

Small cooked shrimp

Mexican Blend Shredded Cheese

Tomato (Diced)

Chipotle Mayo

Sour Cream (For Dipping)

Put all ingredients between 2 tortillas and put in quesadilla maker! Enjoy!

Hocking Hills, Pt. 2

Went to Hocking Hills last week for our 10 year anniversary. We stayed in a cabin called Cassady's Hilltop Cabins. Mostly, we geocached and hung out in the hot tub. We ended up finding so many new places while geocaching that we had never been to. For example, near the Welcome Center, there is a pencil sharpener museum.

We also ran across the Hock-Hocking Expedition Trail which is a little area close to Old Man's Cave. If you park in the parking lot for the camping check-in building, it is toward the back. It is really great for kids. There are learning activities along the path that kids can participate in and information they can read to learn about nature. There were also birds there in cages including owls.

We also climbed the fire tower! Yay, what a pretty view.

The rest of the places we found are our personal secrets, you will just have to geocache the HH to find them yourself!

Casseroles

Ok, so I admit I stole this recipe from a website I found while browsing Pinterest, but the main reason for this post was to show my awesome mini-casseroles that I got on clearance at Walnut Creek Cheese in Amish Country. So anyway, they ended up being way too small for all the chicken casserole I made, so I had to put the extra into a regular casserole dish. The extra actually turned out a little better, because the mini-casseroles were a tad dry. Oh well, probably just have to cook it a little shorter if I try this recipe again. I also think the minis would be good for individual desserts.

Television

Well, right now, I am hooked on 3 of the greatest shows ever, True Blood, Rescue Me, and Breaking Bad. I am sad that it's the last season of Rescue Me. Will miss Denis Leary and all the other crazy messed-up people on that show. Breaking bad is starting off the season great as usual. There are just so many dimensions to that show. I've heard that it may be the last season for them too, but we'll keep our fingers crossed.
And so, that brings me to True Blood. Mind you I am still watching season 3 because I can't exactly afford HBO :(. But I am really torn on this. I am kinda frustrated that they are deviating so much from the books. I can kinda see why and I don't mind if they change the storyline to a certain extent, especially with the minor characters, but things that are like basic concepts should not be changed such as what happens to vampires in sunlight, what happens when vamps die, whether weres are stronger and/or faster than vamps, and the personality of the characters. For example, how they are making Calvin Norris a bad guy when in the book, he was just an odd guy who meant well and it was really his family who did bad things. Also, it seems sometimes like they change things just for effect on the screen and for drama. That is not all bad, I am starting to accept it and just go with it, but the books are just so good, that it's hard not to want the show to be more like it. That is all for my ranting and TB is still an excellent show. Can't wait to see season 4, I hear it's good!

Dinner Parties

Don't know what it is about cooking for other people that I like, but I definitely know it's not the cleaning up afterwards, LOL. Just being around good friends and having conversation is enjoyable. We had some friends over the other night and Liam had a blast with the two 1-year-olds that were here. We also got a valuable lesson in baby-proofing the house. Anyways, I made chicken enchiladas, a recipe I got from the Walnut Creek Cheese website. We also had steamed broccoli which I made in my new steamer for the microwave. It actually turned out very good and tender after only 3 mins in the microwave whereas my broccoli is usually tough for some reason, so I guess the $5 steamer was a good investment. And we had Uncle Ben's Spanish Rice in the package. I admit, it was the precooked kind after I totally messed up the kind you make on the stove a few weeks ago. It was a good evening and hope to see my friends back over soon. I want to get a chance to try out my individual casserole dishes I got on sale in Amish Country :)

Word Up

So, my newest addiction is the Zynga game Words with Friends on my cell phone (new EVO 3D). Basically, it's Scrabble with other real life people and you just take your turn and wait for your opponent to take their turn. Pretty fun, my newest best score on one word.... drum roll please.... 126! Anyways, download the app and start a game with me- OSULori.

Cheeeeeese

Well this week I went with the fam to Ohio's Amish Country. If you know me, you know I love cheese! So, I fit right in with the Amish (other than their lack of technology use, lol.) Anyways, I thought what better way to describe the places we went than by making a link list. So here it goes!

AWESOME restaurant that serves German and Amish food: (also, we sampled their Polka Punch, very tasty!)
Chalet in the Valley

Everything you could possibly want AND the cheese:
Walnut Creek Cheese

Lots of homemade crafts, foods, furniture, and much more:
http://www.solsinberlin.com/

So far, THE lowest prices on bulk foods I have come across in Amish Country, it's a little out of the way, buy definitely worth it!
Ashery Country Store

So, I can't seem to find a website for this place, but here is an article about it. I got a great coffee table there for $12 and just needs to be sanded and finished!
Article on Walnut Creek Antique Mall

In addition to their signature trail bologna, they have lots of other great foods and snacks!

Troyer's Country Market

Lots and lots of great antiques at reasonable prices:

Berlin Village Antique Mall

The cutest little cheese factory ever!

Guggisberg Cheese

Not sure which cheese to choose? Stop by Heini's. They have tons of samples of cheese and their cream cheese fudge. Dee-lish!!!

Heini's Cheese Chalet

I also cannot find a website for this thrift store, but they have LOW LOW prices on everything. And this last Friday and Saturday everything was 50% off! Don't know how often they do that, but I got some baby boy clothes and toys there for Liam.

Share and Care Thrift Store

4663 US 62
Berlin, OH 44610

(330) 893-3890

So, that about does it for our trip to the land of the Amish. Be sure to make your trip soon, before all the cheese is gone! LOL

Yummy- Ranch Bread

Well I actually heard about this from a Hidden Valley commercial for their packet of ranch powder, but lo and behold when I got to the store to buy the Hidden Valley brand it cost about twice as much as the store brand, so sorry Hidden Valley, thanks for idea, but I bought the store brand.
Anyway, all you do it butter a piece of bread, sprinkle it with the ranch powder and toast it in the toaster oven and voila... you have tasty ranch bread! Fast and easy solution to add a little something extra to any meal. I love it!

Lakeside, Ohio (Geocaching)

We just got back from a wonderful, relaxing week with family at Lakeside on Lake Erie. It was so beautiful up there and the weather was great the whole time, not too hot or cool and very little rain. We hung out at the beach some and the park, mini golfing and Shuffleboarding. But actually, Craig and I ended up doing a lot of geocaching there. Most of the time, we had Liam with us, so we took turns looking. I did really well finding some of the more easy ones. There were a few we missed, but most of them we got, 12 total. If you don't know what geocaching is, check out The Official Geocaching Website.

A great place for geocaching was on Kelley's Island. We had taken the ferry over and looked at some historical/scientific places, glacial grooves and Inscription Rock (site of an Earthcache) and gotten something to eat. Everyone else was ready to head back, but we wanted to at least check out a few geocaches. The most interesting one by far that we found, took us to a spot inside the island that was very bizarre. There were painted rocks arranged in formations and what otherwise looked like just plain trash lying around. It is apparently some type of golf course that someone created known only as Kelley's Island Country Club, or KICC as the large boulder indicated. Anyways, we found this cache and got the heck out of there as it was starting to creep me out. I also learned about underwater geocaches, although we didn't attempt to look for this one. It was on private property for one thing, but I do think I would be awesome to wade through the lake searching for something attached to a rock at the bottom. And extremely awesome if you actually found it, maybe somday...This was difficulty level 4 out of 5. So that was the gist of our adventures on Kelley's Island. You may want to check out the Kelley's Island website to find all sorts of cool stuff to do there.

Hocking Hills, Ohio

One of my greatest summertime pleasures is hiking and what better place to do it than Hocking Hills? With terrain that hosts trails ranging anywhere from flat and straight to curvy, steep, narrow and bumpy, the Hocking Hills has something for everyone. The whole family can find something to do here. We decided to take a drive down there on Thursday to take a look at some different cabins to choose one to stay at for our anniversary in August. Well, we did end up deciding on Cassady's Hilltop Cabin. There was actually no one staying in the cabin when we were there, so the owner showed us around the inside, very nice. Anyways, while there, we decided to stop at Rockbridge, which for anyone who hasn't been there, is just as the name implies, a bridge made of rock. Well, in order to get to this bridge, you have a significant hike which is very rough terrain. We were even warned before we went when someone saw our stroller, even though it was an off-road stroller, that we might not want to try the trail with it. Haha, guess the guy didn't know us very well... So, though we didn't end up walking all the way to rockbridge, we did get in a little "extreme strollering," a word my husband coined that day and had a wonderful time! Can't wait to return in August and hope it's a little cooler, especially so we can enjoy the hot tub!

Pinterest- My Newest Obsession

Pinterest is a social catalog where you can pin bookmarks with a picture to boards that you create. Others can see your pins and you can see theirs and even repin their pins. There is a toolbar that you add to your browser so that when you find a website you want to pin, you can just click Pin It. There are various categories that you can create boards in, such as Home, Gifts, Apparel, and DIY. You can type a caption for your pins, tag friends, or put a price using $. There is really no way of describing Pinterest as well as actually going to it and browsing around. And it is an exclusive club. You need an invite to join. So, check it out and let me know if you want an invite! As I was talking to my sister about yesterday, when you go to your home page and see the pictures of all the things you love, you just get a warm fuzzy feeling inside :)

Crunchy Garlic Feta Pitas

A new recipe came to me yesterday as I was trying to find something to eat for lunch. It is very tasty!

1 pita pocket cut into 2 slices
Butter
Garlic powder
Feta cheese
Black olives
Diced tomatoes
Chopped green onions
Optional Ingredients (Bacon, ham, chicken)

Preheat oven to 400°. Spread butter on pita slices and sprinkle with garlic powder. Heat in the oven for about 10-15 mins until they become crunchy. Remove from oven and turn off oven. Add toppings. You may place the pitas back in the oven when the toppings have been added while oven is off but still hot just to melt the cheese a little. Serve with salad with balsamic or raspberry vinaigrette.

Intro

Hello, this blog shall be about all things Lori-related that do not seem to fit into either of my other 2 blogs. There are just so many random ideas floating around in my head, I thought I should have just one more blog that can encompass everything else I have to say. Hope you find something you like here.