So, in an effort to post about my boring dinners daily, I skipped a couple of days.  Let’s see…  Thursday we had Geppetto’s and Little Caesar’s Pizza…  Did you know that you can just walk into Little Caesar’s and ask for a cheese or pepperoni pizza and get one then and there…  for $5 without calling in advance?  Dinner couldn’t be any easier than that!  I had Manacotti and Scott had Chicken Parmesan from Geppetto’s.  Last night we had Japanese takeout.  The boys wanted Chinese but our Chinese place that we usually order from burned down this week.  Sad story.  But, they should be able to build back.  I hope so, they are very sweet people from what I can tell when they are taking my order and I am picking it up.  The little lady has a thing about sweet tea…  she pushes it on everyone that has to wait more than a minute when they come to get their food. 

My friends had a crawfish boil last night.  She posted that she was having one on her status, I posted back that I was jealous and today I had probably two pounds of crawfish and everything that goes with it delivered to my door.  Can you say MAGICAL???  And, my friends, that is what the Gribbins family is having for grub tonight.  I might go pick up a few pounds of snow crab legs to add in the mix as well.  Now, why was my husband complaining about the time I spend on facebook?

Boring blog and boring meal night tonight. (As was last night… spaghetti noodles with jarred sauce, breadsticks, and a ceasar salad.)  This morning I threw three chicken breasts in the crock pot with some bottled BBQ sauce over them. In a little while I am going to shred the chicken… remember? My husband doesnt like “slimey” crock pot chicken… then I am going to add some more bbq sauce and cook it a little longer. I am going to make homemade cole slaw, though.   No, not the red slaw that this area is known for, but not that chopped up mayo slaw either. Mine is made with Duke’s mayo, salt, pepper, and apple cider vinegar (NOT WHITE… do you hear me? NOT WHITE!). The cabbage is shredded not chopped.  Chopped cabbage…  ew.  My sister makes a better slaw than I do, but she’s not here to make it.  You could say she has a way with cabbage.  You should taste her cooked cabbage sometime.  That is one dish I havent come close to making as well as she does.  Oh, and we are having Harris Teeter frozen french fries.  I think I did as much cooking magic as I could on Monday with the shrimp.   I wonder if I could blog about my boring menu choices for a whole month?  Wanna find out?

I have had several requests for the recipe for the boiled shrimp that my darling husband missed out on last night because he was chatting it up with his golf buddies at Midtown.  So, I thought I would oblige.  However, there really isn’t a recipe.  I think Mom’s boiled shrimp are made while in a certain state of mind…  a beach state of mind even when you are inland.  When she makes them my sister and I want to drink the water that they are boiled in before the shrimp ever go in to boil.  There isn’t anything very special about the water or what is in it…  I think it just takes us back to a simple time in life when summers were full of sand and salt air. 

Anyway, absent of that state of mind I can tell you the technicalities of making the shrimp peppered with momisms along the way…

What you need…

Shrimp – If you live inland your best bet is to buy the flash frozen shrimp.  You don’t know how long those critters at the seafood counter have been out of the water.  The frozen shrimp were caught and frozen…  no sitting out lookin’ purty.

Water – use what you want…  tap water works just fine…  if you are at the beach all the better…  It may not be fit to drink, but it makes a darn fine shrimp boil.

Apple Cider vinegar – don’t even THINK about using that white vinegar stuff…  you will not have good results.   I really haven’t figured out what “white vinegar” is good for other than cleaning.

Old Bay seasoning – only Old Bay…  do not use some silly Old Bay knock off and think you are going to have shrimp worth eating.

Yes, that is all you need.  Please do not add to the recipe.  The best shrimp don’t NEED anything.  They had spent their sweet little lives hanging out in brine and readying themselves for this trip to the pot. Don’t make the mistake of spicing them up just because you think this is too plain.  It is not.

You can shell the shrimp or not.  My husband doesn’t like to have to shell his shrimp so I shelled two pounds last night.  Pour enough water in the pot to cover the shrimp – No, don’t put the shrimp in the pot to see how much water to put in – I don’t know how you know how much water you need, I am just telling you what Mom told me.  Make a good guess.  Then you add the apple cider vinegar.  Add it until the water changes color.  Again…  to what color, I am not sure.   It’s cooking by feel and it is what years of experience taught my mom and has hopefully taught me.  Next you add the Old Bay.  One, two, three dumps of Old Bay out of the big hole in the top of the canister.  “Dumps”  I am sure that is the Mom term for some specific measurement, however, I don’t know what measure that is. Let all of this come to a ROLLING boil…  Mom at this point is fixing herself a Jack and Ginger and sharing all her sage advice with her girls.  Once the water boils add the shrimp.  Boil until their little tails turn up to the top of the water.  Drain.  Put a pot lid on top of the shrimp in the colander and finish your Jack and Ginger.  Eat when you darn well please.  They will be good cold or hot.

Scott didn’t get any shrimp last night…  all three boys took the leftovers in their lunch today.

Many of you may not know that my husband lost his dear mother in November.  It has been a very trying time for us as it was unexpected and we are a very close family.  Somehow we got through Thanksgiving and now are sites are set on Christmas.  Trying to find the joy in it even with someone so important to that special day missing.  Scott’s mom was the backbone of the family even though his dad liked to think that he was.  She made sure that things got done and she made sure that her family was taken care of.  She was a mom and wife first off…  everything else was second.  

We can take comfort in this season where we celebrate the birth of Christ that she is now in a home that our Heavenly father has been creating for her.  It is hard to be without the ones that we love, but it is also very important that we remember that, if they believed in Jesus as their savior, they are in a place where Christmas is celebrated every day. 

So with Christmas only a day or two away and the stress of it weighing on my shoulders, I am trying to remember the reason for this wonderful season.  The number of presents under the tree are so unimportant even if it is what the kids are looking for.  They are not going to remember in June what they got for Christmas no matter how much thought is put into them, but what they will remember is being with the family and friends that love them.    I dont remember the presents that my father gave me when I was nine, but I do remember the love that I felt from him as we opened those gifts and hugged and got ready to welcome family into our home on Christmas morning for breakfast.  Those are the memories that I want my kids to be almost forty and remembering.  I want them to look back fondly on their childhood Christmases and desire to instill that same love for family in their kids.  I want them to always know that their family loved them and that love pales in comparison to the love of God for them.

So from the Gribbins family to yours…  May God bless you all this Christmas and fill your 2009 with love and joy.

Quick Monkey Bread

½ C chopped pecans

3 t cinnamon

1 C brown sugar (firmly packed)

½ C butter (melted)

½ C sugar

3 (10 oz) cans buttermilk biscuits

Sprinkle pecans in the bottom of a well greased bundt pan. Set aside.  Combine cinnamon and sugar.  Cut biscuits into quarters.  Roll in cinnamon/sugar mixture and layer in the pan.  Combine brown sugar and butter.  Melt and pour over dough.  Bale at 350 degrees for 30-40 min.  Cool 10 minutes in pan.  Invert onto serving platter.

From the start of NFL preseason in August to the Probowl in February, our house is a football house.  Every Sunday is a tailgate party with Curt Menefee, Terry Bradshaw,  Jimmy Johnson, and Howie Long.  

Oh, and I cant forget “funny guy” as my kids call him…  Frank Caliendo.  

Occasionally, there will be a flip of the remote to see James Brown, Dan Marino and Bill Cowher (the others are irrelevant!!  LOL).

Bill cowher and Dan Marino

Every Monday night is spent with Mike Tirico, Tony Kornheiser and Ron Jaworski. 

(I have to confess that I rarely stay awake until the end of the game…  but that is my privilege… I am the queen, after all.) 

We are a football family, specifically a Steelers football family and we have at least two children who like to do whatever they can to make their parents happy.  (Dreading the day that little perk of parenthood ends.) 

With this is mind we started redecorating our home.  My two oldest share a room and, though they have lots in common, they do not have common interests enough to use as a theme to decorate a room.  After fighting with them for days…  long enough to paint/redecorate the youngest’s room…

 And to paint/redecorate the master bathroom.  Still there was not a decision on what to do with the big boys’ room. 

Then, their father spoke…  “Why don’t you do a Steelers theme?”  The longing to make their daddy happy boys beamed with joy.  He showed them Fatheads that they could have on their walls…  they giggled with glee.  So the idea was born…  A Steelers Room…  THE ultimate Steelers room…  And here it is for the world to see…  Big Ben Rothlisberger on one side…

 And scarey Jack Lambert on the other…

What else could a Steelers fan ask for?  Oops…  don’t ask that because apparently if a Steelers fan asks for it at my house the Steelers fan get is.

We are a football family…  a Steelers football family.

Inman.com reported on Friday that Trulia.com and Zillow.com will be providing more targeted real estate marketing and CENTURY 21 will be in the midst of it!

From Inman.com

Friday, Sept. 19, 2008

Zillow, Trulia serve up targeted home ads
Real estate technology brief

Zillow.com today announced that Century 21 is the first national brokerage to participate in its newly launched advertising platform that features local for-sale listings right on the Zillow.com home page.
The Zillow home page features three graphical ad units at a time — two sponsored by national brands and one sponsored by a regional brokerage. Because the ads are targeted to a user’s most recent search (versus their geographic location), advertisers are able to target all buyers, including those who may be relocating or purchasing a second home. For a national or regional brokerage, this means exposure for their listings to the more than 8 million visits that come through the Zillow.com home page every month, the company said.
On a similar note, next month Century 21 will start running advanced online advertising on Trulia.com. The new campaign uses technology called Motif, which enables real-time streaming of home sales data to feed dynamically into the page as a display ad next to a consumers search results.

More exposure for you means more chances to sell!  Contact me if you would like more information regarding the marketing of your property!

According to Matt Woolsey at Forbes.com Charlotte made the list of the “Top 10 Cities Where Jobs, Home Prices are Growing.”  How is that for a title?  Hmmmm…  Anyway, here is your list…

• Albuquerque, N.M.
• Charlotte, N.C.
• San Antonio, Texas
• Portland, Ore.
• Austin, Texas
• Salt Lake City, Utah
• Colorado Springs, Colo.
• Minneapolis
• Atlanta
• Oklahoma City

These cities have job bases and housing prices increasing because they were not over built during the “boom.”  So, take heart owner of a house in the Charlotte area…  You still probably have a great investment!

See the full Forbes article.

Apparently there is another feud between home owner and HOA.  Have you ever had one?  We did…  we put in a permanent basketball goal.  It is about 6 feet in front on the back corner of my house.  The CCR’s say that it has to be in the “rear yard.”  Oops.  Apparently, the HOA would prefer me to have a portable goal that I “lay down” when not in use.  Um….  yeah….  THAT DEFINATELY looks better than my permanent goal…  will add pictures later and let YOU deicde.  Anyway, I have three boys… I have to have a bball goal, right???  Are you kidding me?  I can either do that or they can spray paint the pool house while giving in to their lack of impulse control….  JUUUUUUUUUUST kidding.  And if they DID spray paint the pool house they wouldnt be able to use the bball goal….  for a VERY long time… so dont worry.  But dont think it couldnt happen…  they are boys and I do believe in gender stereotypes.  They are from a different planet than me…  I often wonder where the heck they came from.

Anywho…  It seems that a well meaning man in Raleigh is in a feud with his HOA.  And YOU need to know about it.  Apparently, since we in NC are in a major drought, he was battling with his yard trying to keep his fescue green.  Instead of losing the fight, he decided to replace his God made fescue with man made fescue.  Not even his neighbors noticed.  Shortly after he did it, however, he was notified by his HOA that what he did was in violation of the CCR’s. He was told he could appeal…  he appealed…  got signatures from his neighbors, who I think were wondering where the heck they could get the man made fescue, saying that they were ok with it.  Still the HOA denied his appeal.  What the heck is up with that?  I personally think that the neighbors that signed the petition should replace their God made grass…  Kinda like if we all break the rule they cant punish all of us, right?  Maybe that is immature.  Eh…  the older I get the more immature I think the world is anyway.

So, go to his site.  Vote.  Practice for voicing your opinion in November.  Maybe fake grass is a bad thing, maybe it is ingenious.  I really dont know, but I am sure that some of you have an opinion regarding the matter.

Go let him know how you feel…  Green Raleigh.

According to a recent article at Bankrate.com, ”A slowing housing market isn’t stopping closing costs from rising.”  The article goes on to list the 10 most expensive states for closing costs, but also mentions that, “North Carolina is the least expensive area with an average fee of $2,650.“   

So, you may wonder what are closing costs?  I am already paying a boat load for a place to live, why do I have to pay other things in addition?  Well…  ya do.  And I am here to tell you some of the charges that you will incur as the purchaser of new property. 

According to Realtor.com these are common closing costs incurred by the buyer:

When purchasing property your lender should provide you with an estimate of these costs prior to the closing of your property.  Then your attorney should also provide you with a HUD statement with all these charges PRIOR TO CLOSING for your review.  But, if you have any general questions about these charges that you will incur when you purchase a home, please let me know.