Front Page of the Second News!

Yesterday, Kent, Emily, Sammy, Wil and I spent the afternoon at the Crosby Arts Festival.  Sammy spent the majority of his time playing the drums with Kewape and they both made The Blade today.
Wil even got in on the action for a little while.
 
The festival was hosted in a perfect setting, the Toledo Botanical Gardens.
 
The hydrangeas (my currents favs) were in full bloom.  We used white hydrangeas for centerpieces at my sister’s baby shower last year and I’ve been hooked ever since.  One stem per vase is my kind of flower arranging…megasimple.
 
   One of my favorite vendors sold screen printed t-shirts.  You can view her store at www.ellembee.etsy.com.

We stopped at The Fresh Market in Toledo so I could pick up some things I needed for dinner tonight.  We definitely will be shopping there in the future.  The meats, produce, cheese and bread lived up to the market’s name and tasted as fresh as they all looked. It’s a modern grocery store with an atmosphere that conveys an old world European market. Their website describes it as…Inviting…comfortable…Convenient.  And it was.  You can enjoy samples and coffee as you shop and the customer service was wonderful.  
I picked out a wine, like any good connoisseur would, by the label I liked. We had never tried Layer Cake wine and it didn’t disappoint. Check out the details of this wine here. Read more about Layer Cake Wines and the origin of the name/label here.  Do you pick a wine by it’s packaging?
Tonight, to celebrate Kent’s new job, we enjoyed the Layer Cake wine along with this sausage, tomato and basil pasta dish posted by stephmodo!  I paired it with a caprese salad and some ciabbatta bread.  It was megasimple and oh so good.  I love the combination of crushed tomatoes and heavy cream in the sauce.  
image by Stephanie Brubaker
Because it was a special occasion I even made dessert.  I experimented with a new take on strawberry shortcake that included basil and butter pound cake. 
Ingredients: Strawberries, balsamic vinaigrette, sugar, Sara Lee butter pound cake, basil, butter and whipped cream.

Recipe: Clean, stem and quarter 1 lb. of strawberries.  Add 1T. of balsamic vinegar and 2T. of sugar to the strawberries. Stir and refrigerate for 15-20 minutes while they release their juices.  Lightly butter and grill the pound cake.  Layer pound cake, strawberries and whipped cream then top with a basil chiffonade.