I never was any good at math or logic type problems in school, which led me to pursue a degree in journalism, which required ONLY! ONE! STATISTICS CLASS! Which means that the title of this post is probably all sorts of wrong and illogical and someone might want to sit down and teach me why and how it’s wrong (jk, please don’t learn me). But the point is that some things go together like rama lama lama ka dinga da ding a dong, and those things are honey and strawberries.

These particular honey are strawberries have a special partnership beyond tasting amazing because they bees who make the honey also pollinate the flowers that create the strawberries. Bee Trail Farm in Lexington has hives places at Cottle Farms, which creates a perfect balance for everyone. The bees get strawberry flower pollen and can use it to make honey and keep the queen happy. The beekeeper gets honey to sell, and the strawberry farmer gets better pollination in their crops, which produces more berries for them to sell. And lucky folks like us can then buy both the honey and the strawberries and create delectable treats from them.

I love nothing more in the spring and summer than to whirring together fruit and sugar and pouring it into an ice pop mold to make easy treats to cool me down and give me my daily servings of fruit.

Strawberry Honey Ice Pops

Makes at least 4 (depending on the size of your pop molds)

Ingredients

• 2 cups of hulled strawberries
• 3 tablespoons of lemon juice
• 1/2 cup of local honey
• Ice Pop Molds

Directions

1. Puree ALL THOSE INGREDIENTS together.
2. Pour into the molds according to molder directions.
3. Freeze for a few hours
4. Run water over the lower half of the mold for a few seconds to loosen.

If you’re interested in learning more about Bee Trail Farms and beekeeping, I recently wrote a story on them for the April 24 issue of the Free Times. It was one of the most fun interviews I’ve done to date! And if you’re in the Columbia area, don’t miss out on your chance to get some Cottle Farm strawberries, either from their roadside stands or by picking them yourself at their farm out off of Garner’s Ferry Road. Great people, great food- it’s what Columbia is really becoming known for! Bee-sides, what else goes better with good food than good people to share it with? Even if those people are terrible at math jokes for post titles.

• Ya’ll. One year ago today I had my first interview for my current job. It was the beginning of the rest of my life. Every day I am so happy that I am where I am now.
• Also one year ago today I found this running in front of my former office and had to use a lint roller to get her white hairs off my pants before said interview. I can’t imagine not having this cowdog now.
• I am so excited to paint my toesnails this awesome minty green color I bought on a whim at Target last week, but I can’t seem to follow through with it.
• I swear I’m getting the food photography wrap up posted soon. It’s just taking a while, y’know.
• But on the flip side, I have a lot of awesome recipes coming, inspired by so many local ingredients. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Columbia, South Carolina is on the edge of becoming KNOWN for this abundance of kick ass local food. It just is. It really is. We can only get over being known as the people whose eyes Mark Sanford pulled the wool over by shouting out our attributes rather than our downfalls. Talk positively about South Carolina once today. Tell me how it goes.
• And just cause it is about a subject that needs more discussion, check out this month’s Free Times article, featuring a terrific recent graduate who really knows his stuff when it comes to food security.
• You know the feeling when people praise your work and you’re like, “Really?! For reals, you’re not just saying that to be nice?” Yeah, I’ve been feeling that a lot this week, and it’s only Wednesday. Thanks for every word, everyone. I really appreciate it, much more deeply than you can ever imagine.
• Is it too late to be signing up for Foursquare? Cause I just did, today. In 2013, yes, I know.
• And tomorrow is mine and Patrick’s FOUR YEAR wedding anniversary. It’s also approximately SEVEN years together.

See the guy in the white robe using a Bible to cover his head?

Last week’s CSA box yielded some vegetables that I don’t normally associate with the word “like,” but something inspired me to make a turnip and onion soup. I was thinking, “Hey these are starchy like potatoes, and potato and leek soup is awesome.”

So I pulled out five purple and white orbs, and two green onions from the crisper and started dicing the onions and set them in the pot to sautee. While peeling the turnips I noticed that the flesh was a brighter white on some and  the others were more beige. I kept on because I assumed some were just older, from the previous week’s box, and got the rest of the soup cooking.

After posting about it on Facebook, my friend Katie who is the membership coordinator for Pinckney’s Produce asked for a recipe to use rutabagas too, and I got to thinking about the different colors of the vegetables. I didn’t realize that there were even rutabagas in the CSA boxes, because the ones I am accustomed to seeing in grocery stores are freaking enormous, whereas I didn’t have anything that large in my box. I Googled and sure enough, I had actually made turnip and rutabaga soup. And here I thought I’d never even HAD a rutabaga before and here it was, making the soup even more flavorful than it would have been if I had just used turnips!

The best part of this soup is how creamy it is, without the use of ANY cream at all. If you leave out the cheese, it is completely vegan, but frankly, the cheese is too good. I used a Manchego cheese since we are tres fancy seeming now thanks to Trader Joe’s. Seriously, we don’t even have cheddar right now because it seems so passe when there are bries, goudas, Jarlsbergs, and Roqueforts available at price points previously unheard of around here. Anyways, back on the soup, not the cheese.

Root Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon butter (or coconut oil)
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 green onions, diced
• 2-3 turnips, peeled and cubed
• 2-3 small rutabagas or one larger rutabaga, peels and cubed
• 3 cups water
• 2 Not Chik bouillon cubes or vegetable/chicken bouillon flavoring of choice
• 1 shake of dried thyme
• salt and pepper to taste
• optional cheese for garnish, try a harder cheese like Parmesan, Pecorino, or Manchego

Directions

1. Melt the butter or coconut oil over medium heat. Once melted, add the garlic and onions and sautee for five minutes or until soft.
2. Add the cubed turnips and rutabagas and sautee for an additional minute.
3. Add the 3 cups of water, the bouillon cubes, thyme, and salt and bring to a boil.
4. After the mixture comes to a boil, turn to medium low heat and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Once the root vegetables are very soft, remove from heat and use an immersion blender to puree thoroughly, or carefully transfer the soup in to a blender and puree in batches.
6. Serve in bowls, garnished with grated cheese of your choice (optional), and salt and pepper to taste.

This tastes really great re-heated, and in these photos the soup is actually cold. I made it in the morning and waited for the sun to come out more before photographing it. Once the photos were taken, I took everything inside and heated it up and ate it! This is a great way to use a bunch of those root vegetables you may also get in your CSA and feel let down by, but rutabagas and turnips are packed with vitamin C and dietary fiber which will leave you feeling fuller longer than if you had boring old been-there-done-that potato soup.

With all of the rain we’ve been getting lately in South Carolina, the water has to go somewhere, and that somewhere is up. Up higher along the edges of the rivers and lakes, and its crept up so much this time that it’s the talk of the town amongst those of us who commute over one of the many main bridges into downtown everyday. I rode my bike down there yesterday after work for a little exercise and a lot of photos of nature doing what nature does best: anything it wants.

WIS was down there thigh deep filming a story about the situation.

Did you come for the show? Sorry, they floated away.

View from a slightly higher vantage point.

You can really see how close the river is coming to some of these houses. Maybe this is why they are required to be a minimum of three stories high. Yes, it’s a requirement in that neighborhood.

I rode through the old Cayce Brickworks and stopped to take a few photos there too.

Let’s go for a wal.. oh nevermind.

The water is creeping up that hill towards those apartments.

And creeping up the stairs. You can see the flood marker over towards the right is almost totally covered up.

That same flood marker as seen from above, standing on the Blossom St. bridge.

Columbia isn’t a big city but I do love the skyline, especially with this beautiful river in front of it.

I walked my bike across on the sidewalk, but rode my bike in the bike lane back across. It wasn’t so bad, but it’s still slightly nervewracking.

If you want to see more photos, hop over to my Facebook page and check out the full album.

Last (last) week I decided in the morning that not another day could pass without me checking out the new Basil that recently opened in Cross Hill Market, since I love their Charleston location so much. After putting the word out on Facebook, I had four fun ladies ready to join me for a last minute, right after work Thai dinner! Of course, the remainder of my day was spent stealing glances at the menu on their website trying to settle on What To Order, a very important task.

So after scrambling to get to my car so I could get there because after foregoing my afternoon snack, I was hongry. I found two of my friends, Cynthia and Jessica at the bar since they wouldn’t seat a party until everyone was there, so they had to wait for all of us to get there, even Kara who was coming from the St. Andrews area. As we walked to our table I noticed the interior, which had come a LONG way since the last time I peeked in after battling an old lady for a spot in the parking lot in maybe late February, early March.

But now it is glorious and OPEN. It’s painted in soothing, sage green tones, which complements the gorgeous wood accents used everywhere, even up on the ceiling. It’s like a spa. A spa where they serve Thai food. The dining part of the restaurant is shaped like a capital L, with a very open seating plan. Expect to see someone you know there!

We got seated immediately after everyone arrived and our ordered were taken fairly quickly. I ordered egg rolls for the table, and Cynthia ordered the spring rolls. The egg rolls are meatless, and the spring rolls have shrimp, which seems backwards to me, but the egg rolls were good! Nice and crisp on the outside, unlike when you get Chinese takeout. The shadows on this are a little weird because Basil has tall, high windows which let in a lot of sunlight which is great unless you have a table that’s mostly in it and you’re facing the sun. The upper portion of the windows could use a little shade or sun blocking, I will say.

We all ordered and got our food relatively quickly. Basil’s servers have these cool electronic doodads that they use to enter orders, which I like because it saves paper and probably time. I have a theory that if a restaurant is named after a particular kind of food, you have to order that the first time you go. So I ordered the Basil with tofu, which is onions, peppers, tofu and basil in a special brown sauce. Rice comes in a container on the side to assist in sopping up every last droplet of that gloriously savory brown sauce. Cynthia ordered the same.

Next up is the pad thai Jessica had.

And… something Kara had. I was really busy scarfing down every morsel of my dinner. Every last one, seriously.

Thai thai thai. I love Thai. Is it better than my other favorite Thai in town? I can’t say because I need to have it again for comparison purposes, but I think these are two different kinds of Thai and are not comparable, but if I change my opinion I’ll let ya’ll know.

Wow, last week was a blur of activity. In addition to work, I added the final touches to my next submission for the Columbia Metropolitan Magazine, worked more on Food Photography & Styling: A Class., which is still open for registrations, byyyy the way. I am super excited about this class and can’t wait to learn some great food styling tips from Caroline! Last week I also hung out with a fun group of colleagues from different departments, partied bachelorette style with my friend Nikki, and went to a new book club for the first time. And those were just the weekdays!

Saturday I woke up early and drove up to Asheville with my dad so we could go to a CD release party for his best friend’s daughter, Sarah Tucker, who writes and sings her own songs. The drive takes about three hours and I can’t decide if I prefer to be the driver or the passenger, so I went with driving because that gives me something to focus on.

After four nights of drinking and less sleep than usual, I crashed hard Saturday night and woke up nice and refreshed Sunday morning. The rain poured down consistently on the mountains throughout the night and continued all day long. It seemed like every time I turned the windshield wipers down a notch, the rain ratcheted right back up to where I had to have them frenetically whipping back and forth across the glass. The thwacking noise irritates me so I never kept it on that high for long.

We finally got back home Sunday, making our time there a whirlwind 24 hours, but I am glad I went. I was thisclose to not going, but because I took this Thursday and Friday off work I justified it as having time to rest then. Coming up this week, expect LOTS of me yammering on about the photography class, a post about our Asheville eats, as requested by Jordan, photos from the trip, and oh hey, I’ll be turning 28 on Wednesday so maybe there’ll be a little bit of woe about that. And if anyone wants to send a present, I really want one of those concrete chairs that looks like a hand, like this.

(Photo via)

I saw one of these at the Annual Home Show that they have at the SC State Fairgrounds and it was only $99. Seriously, a chair big enough to sit in, for that little. The man who was working the booth came up and was talking to me about it because I couldn’t believe the price. He tried extra hard to make the sale by telling me that the chairs came in left hand OR right hands. You know, in case you really care if you’re sitting lefty or righty?

All the things that are fit to put in your mouth for the month of May are rounded up here! As you can see, once Memorial Day rolls around, organized events drop off sharply because everyone’s flocking to the coast (or I’d like to think they do, at least).

May 2-Lake Murray is Cooking, Hosted by Lake Murray Chamber of Commerce will be at the Saluda River Club from 5:30-8:30 p.m. The cost is $15; or $25 for a couple.

May 3- Book signing for Columbia Food will be at Uptown on Main Street at 12-2 p.m. with a blogger lunch prior at Roll Call Deli (right next to Uptown). Tweet me if you’d like to join us for lunch so we can get enough table space!

May 4- Irmo Farmer’s Market will have its inaugural market at 9 a.m. on Carlisle Street.

May 5- Cinco de Mayo is a holiday that became twisted into GET DRUNK ON MARGARITAS, AMERICA! but if you want to celebrate with some super authentic food, ir a la Tienda Jasmine on 12th Street in West Columbia (in the same strip as Wentworth Printing). Brush up on your espanol before you go, and don’t miss the Panaderia Odalys next door to it, with some really amazing (and inexpensive!) pastries. It’s a beautiful secret, but just be cool and try to at least say gracias when you head out.

May 8- It’s my birthday! Take me out somewhere expensive to eat!

May 11- Food Photography & Styling: A Class. is the one event all month to not miss. Learn styling and camera techniques from Caroline of ChocolateAndCarrots.com while eating some of Columbia’s best local favorites!

May 12- Mother’s Day. Restaurants are going to be SLAMMED between Mother’s Day and graduation weekend, tread carefully, and Godspeed ye chefs and servers.

May 13- kicks off American Craft Beer Week and you know who is excited? World of Beer, that’s who! They have a week of excellent specials and fun events to celebrate the craftiest of beers and brewers.

May 15- Ankh Life International Vegan Cafe, a “sister restaurant to Lambs Bread Vegan Cafe,” is set to open at 6164 St. Andrews Rd.

May 20- Lower Richland Sweet Potato Festival- where orange is acceptable in the context of enjoying eating sweet potatoes.

May 30- Berry Tasty Cooking Class at Charleston Cooks! Learn how to incorporate berries into every meal at 6:30 p.m. Cost is $60.

Know of any June food or drink events in Columbia? Let me know and I’ll get them on the calendar!

Earlier this month I was reading an article on some of the unusual offerings from the concessions at the Joe Riley Jr. stadium where the Charleston Riverdogs play and was so intriuged to make my own beer milkshakes. The food and bev director John Schumacher even offered up their recipe in the article, and I immediately thought of ways to add my own twists to it, or new flavors I could try because hello, milkshakes.

Being an adult is about 90% talking yourself out of getting a milkshake every single day when you totally have enough money to do so.

— Bill Murray (@BiIIMurray) April 4, 2013

I really want to get down to a Riverdogs game soon for a weekend away with Patrick and try their version. But for now, tweaking their recipe, are my versions of a vanilla and a chocolate beer milkshake:

Samuel Smith Chocolate Stout Beer Milkshake

Ingredients

• 7-ish ounces of Samuel Smith organic chocolate lager
• 1 tablespoon chocolate syrup
• 3 tablespoons dried milk powder (find it near the coffee creamers in the grocery store)
• 7-8 scoops plain chocolate ice cream, softened
• 1 scoop ice cream for garnish

Directions

1. Put all ingredients  except garnish scoop in a blender. Pulse a few times until blended. Do not overmix.

Westbrook Vanilla Tree Dubbel Beer Milkshake

Ingredients

• 7-ish ounces of Westbrook Vanilla Tree Dubbel
• 1 tablespoon real vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons dried milk powder (find it near the coffee creamers in the grocery store)
• 7-8 scoops plain French vanilla ice cream, softened
• 1 scoop ice cream for garnish

Directions

1. Put all ingredients  except garnish scoop in a blender. Pulse a few times until blended. Do not overmix.

I made the chocolate Friday night and the vanilla Sunday night. Both Patrick and I tried them both and while I preferred the chocolate, he preferred the vanilla. Thanks to Green’s on Assembly for checking on your Vanilla Dubbel supply for me and Twittering it back!

@theaprilblake we do have the vanilla dubbel in stock and we recommend Young’s Double Chocolate for you chocolate beer #happymixing

— Green’s Beverages (@Greenswarehouse) April 18, 2013

Last year Patrick got me a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens for our anniversary (he claims it has crystal in it, I’m cool with that answer) and it has really helped me become more interested in upping my photography game. I’m still by no means super great at it, but it’s getting better I think. This past weekend I took it outside and personal with our little garden that we have growing in beds around the house.

Purple mustard (tastes great baked like kale chips!!!)

This sprouted out of the compost. I emailed a photo to a master gardener who says its Irish potato. We’ll see!

This is another compost pile surprise! It appears to be broccoli! I’ve never seen broccoli as it grows so this is a fun sprout.

Beets! I don’t know why we are growing these, I don’t like beets and Patrick won’t drink beet juice anymore. But the luscious red stalks are so pretty.

In August I bought a lime tree from Seven Oaks Plant Shop and while I brought it inside and kept it alive through the winter I wasn’t entirely sure that it would ever produce limes. These little buds and flowers starting to grow from it are encouraging though! Any tips on lime tree growing?

The basil plants after I harvested a bunch from them to make pesto. Those little doodads that fall from the oak trees are making the bed look really messy, which makes me want to get some fresh mulch this weekend and pretty it up.

Are you growing or photographing anything lately? It’s not too late to sign up for Food Photography & Styling: A Class. We’d LOVE to have you there! Follow the link to read about some of our great sponsors!

My CSA share comes with some unusual things that I would have never heard of without being a member. One of the first ones of the spring season is tat soi, and last year I used it in ramen and froze a bunch of it. This year I wanted to use it in a different way and combined it with my need to harvest lots of basil from the two plants I put in my herb garden a few weeks ago so… tat soi pesto!

Tat Soi & Basil Pesto

Ingredients

• 2 cups tat soi, stems mostly removed
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 cup fresh basil, stems mostly removed
• 1/4 cup pine nuts (or walnuts if you can’t stomach the price for pine nuts)
• 1/4 cup Parmesan or pecorino cheese, grated
• 1-2 T olive oil
• salt to taste

Directions

1. If you haven’t already, remove most of them stems from the leaves. Don’t worry about being too precise.
2. Throw everything but the olive oil in a food processor.
3. Turn it on and if you have the option to drizzle in the oil while the machine is running, add it slowly until the pesto is a spreadable consistency. If you don’t have the luxury of the feature, add one tablespoon of oil, blend, then add the rest as needed.
4. Salt to taste, or let’s be honest, add a little more cheese.

Tat soi is easily identifiable by its large, shiny spoon shaped leaves and dark green color that lets you know how rich in vitamin A, K, and C. You may be wondering how you can measure those big leaves, so here’s how- stack them in the measuring cup and push them down a bit with your fingers. Then pry them out to toss in the food processor.

Then make it even better by putting it over pasta. I also added marinara sauce, pine nuts, and more cheese on top!