Cheryl Beckham Blog

I had no idea that there were over 200 winery’s scattered all over the grand state of Virginia. As much as I enjoy a nice glass a Wine now and then you would think that I would have visited one of two of them by now, but alas I have been content with drinking my occasional glass of wine at the bar where I work with my friends, co workers and customers. This will change though because I am going to see about gathering up a group of these people to go on a wine tasting tour as soon as the weather has changed for good, which should be in another month or so, so I have some time to do some research and come up with a game plan.

Easter used to be one of my favorite holidays as a child, right up there with Christmas and my birthday. It was so exciting to wake up on Easter morning to find the beautifully decorated Easter Baskets that my mother would put together for all of us kids that was filled with all kinds of wonderful candy most of them where the kind that you could only get during that time of year. Mind you this was back in the day when candy wasn’t available and at our disposal 24/7 like it is to most kids these days. Heck we didn’t even have soda in the house except a special stock of soda that my mother had hidden away for when one of us was sick. She would then open the bottle and leave it on the kitchen counter over night so that all of the fizz was gone, then and only then would she allow us to drink some the next day in order to keep our stomachs from becoming sick, other than that it was iced tea or Kool-Aid, unless we wanted to drink milk or water, ugh.

Back then you couldn’t go out and buy an Easter Basket all ready made up and ready to go like you can these days. My mother put a lot of work into making our Easter Baskets special. Not only were they filled with all kinds of delicious candy but they were filled with love, which just can’t be bought for any price.

I only got to watch the last 30 minutes of a show called Behind the Planet of the Apes, which was a movie that I really enjoyed back in the day along with the many sequels that followed. I had no idea that at one time there was a TV series about those famous walking, talking apes, it didn’t last long since they were competing with Sanford and Son and Chico and the Man. Come to find out shortly after the television series ended a 1/2 hour cartoon came about that aired on Saturday mornings that was geared towards children.

I wish that I had been able to watch this entire 2 hour program on the Bio Channel, I’ll be looking out for it to come on again and hopefully I’ll be able to watch it in it’s entirety.

Written by my friend Betty Walls

My mom was telling me that she is tired of getting so many different bills in the mail. My parents used to have different companies for their tv and their internet. Since they already have enough bills to pay, I told them they should just bundle their tv and internet and then they would only have to pay one bill. They asked how they can set it up. I told them just to go to Clear tv bundle . Com and find a package that they want. I told them that I have a bundle package and it is much easier to keep up with the bills, because it is all in one. My mom called me today and said they they had the new package set up yesterday and that so far they are really happy with it. My mom was so happy they were able to set up before American Idol tonight. I do not know what my parents would have done if they had to miss an episode of American Idol. Luckily, we do not have to worry about it!

A customer of mine brought me some fresh crab meat (2 pounds of it) at work last night, along with a sample of and a recipe for the most amazing tasting crab cakes that I have had the pleasure of cooking tasting.

I’m looking forward to trying out the recipe tonight and testing it out on a few friends that I have invited over to play cards with tonight. I’m sure that they will all be surprised that I actually cooked something for our night of card playing, usually the best that they get around here is chips and dip, maybe a few fresh veggies or fruit, but never any type of home cooking.

I am gladly passing this recipe on to you to try if and when you get your hands on some delicious crab meat.

• 1 Tbl. Mayo
• 1 Tbl. Mustard
• 1 Egg
• 1/2 Cup Bread Crumbs
• 1/2 Tbl. Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 small Onion (finely diced)
• 1 Pound of Fresh Crab Meat

This one is real simple, combine all the ingrediants, salt and pepper to taste and fry the made up patties in hot oil.