[Food & Fun] Weekend in Instagram

Whenever we go up to Cleveland to visit my bestest friend and her awesome boyfriend for the weekend we're always guaranteed to a.) have a great time and b.) eat too much deliciously bad-for-you food!  This weekend was no different!  We started off the weekend with a trip to Sweetie Fry as soon as we got into town.  It's a place just down the street from Amanda and Aaron's house that specializes in unique fries and ice cream.  Antoine and I opted to share some bacon cheddar fries, while he got apple pie ice cream and I got my favorite, goat cheese ice cream with honey and walnuts.  Yum!

Saturday we ran around town, but more about that later!  We ended the night with a visit to the iconic Melt Bar and Grilled.  Always generous, always creative and always satisfying!  God, I love that place...but I am so glad it's in Cleveland and not Cincinnati because I would eat there all the time and then my heart would explode!

 Oh, you know, just a friendly giant elf hanging out in the waiting area.

 Amanda and I each tried the drink special, a basil sea breeze.  Delicious!  I'm totally going to try making my own version this summer!

 Antoine got the Monte Cristo [pictured], which was beyond delicous, and I got my usual, the Parmageddon.  I subbed my fries for a cup of their roasted garlic tomato soup, which was fantastic and I'd totally get it again!

 The four of us decided to be brave and split their weekly bread budding special which was called "Roger Dorn's Grandstand Blitz" (a la Major League).  "Sweet peanut butter and salty roasted peanut bread pudding topped with caramel and real crackerjack. Garnished with vanilla ice cream, crushed peanuts and a crappy toy." Holy crap, we DEVOURED that shit like we were rabid vultures who hadn't eaten in weeks.  It was magical!  And the crackerjack garnish totally made it.

For $5.50 we were expecting a small-ish dessert...oh, silly mortals!  You should never expect anything at Melt to be "small" or "normal-sized".  People who've never been and glance at the menu probably think, "$8 to $14 for a grilled cheese sandwich and fries? Seriously?!"  Then they order and see the mammoth grilled cheese of awesomeness set before them and they understand.  They understand that Melt is really just being generous!  I've never gone to Melt, ordered a grilled cheese and finished the whole thing.  Never!  But that's one of the best parts, the leftovers.  The next day you pop ther second half of your grilled cheese in the oven (open-faced) for a couple minutes and it tastes just as good as it did the day before.  Even when you're now 250 miles away from that wonderful mecca of grilled cheesy goodness.  Ahhh, Melt.

Anyway...*wiping drool from lip*...we finished out the night with some wine and a couple rounds of Cards Against Humanity.  It was Antoine and Aaron's first time playing and we had a ball.  If you've never played, know that you will be appalled/disgusted/repulsed but you will also laugh your ass off and you will find it difficult to stop playing. I totally managed to win a round this time...mainly because Antoine appreciates my weird sense of humor and kept picking my cards.

Crafty Crushin'

This weekend Crafty Supermarket released their list of vendors for their Spring 2013 show on Saturday April 27th.  If you've never been to Crafty Supermarket, I highly recommend it.  Imagine a building full of fantastically awesome Etsy stuff.  That is what it's like in a nutshell, and it is magic!  It happens twice a year, once in the Spring and once in the Winter!  Aka, two times the awesome.  A word of warning though, it is dangerous!  It's hard to walk out of there without making several random purchases you didn't intend to make.  But you're supporting (many local) artists and crafters, so it's all good.  And it's a great place to find gifts for friends or family (or yourself)!

Anway, since I'm still working on editing some pics from our trip to Cleveland this weekend, so I thought I'd share some of my personal favorites from the list of this year's Crafty vendors! 

So in love with these personalized state necklaces from Brooke Medlin!

 

 Adorable cards and prints from Buck and Libby!

 Lavender tea spa bar from Cincinnati soap makers Orange Fuzz.  Their black coffee soap sounds equally wonderful!

 In awe of 1337 motif's handcrafted cutting boards, especially this fan patterned one!

 Burrowing Home's Rorschach prints are utterly amazing, but it's Kelly's barn owl print that's got my attention!

Super cool smartphone dock from Stak Ceramics.

How could you not fall in love with this adorable hippo and rhino from The Wind and The Sail?!  Any of Laura's stuffed animals would make the perfect gift for a little niece/nephew or friend who is expecting!  And many of the creatures are customizable, so you can choose which fabrics you like best!

I hope you have the opportunity to check out the Spring Crafty Supermarket show if you're in town April 27th, especially if you've never been before.  It's a great way to support independent artists and crafters, and it is just a fun way to spend part of your Saturday!

Edible Books '13

Monday was our annual Edible Books festival at the library!  It's one of those things that I really get into and enjoy.  You can find information about the International Edible Books festival here and some highlights of previous years/my past entries here and here. This year I meant business so Antoine and I set out to finally win.  I kept my idea under wraps (from everyone at work) and spent most of Easter Sunday working on it...and it finally paid off!  This year I won Best Overall edible book!!  Which really means nothing, there's no prize or anything (though there is for best student submission) except some edible books street cred.  Still, I'm thrilled!  So, without further ado, this year's Edible Books Festival...

 This year I knew I wanted to make a cake shaped like a book with marzipan characters.  So, I went for another classics, Grimm's Fairy Tales.

 Antoine made this cute frog for The Frog Prince.  Isn't it adorable?

I made this little red riding hood and big bad wolf.

Yay!

 My boss, Holly, stuck with here favorite theme, most gruesome.  This year she did She's Come Undone and created various body part cookies.  She made her own cookie cutters out of wire, how awesome is that?  I love the fake blood/red corn syrup!

Here's some of my other favorites from this year...

I'm already looking forward to next year, though maybe since I finally won I won't be as competitive about it next year!  Or maybe not.

Whispers of Spring

Saturday was a gorgeous day, you know, the kind we should be having since it is now April.  Instead, the high today is supposed to be 45 degrees.  Really?!  That's the best you could do April?  Anyway, back to Saturday.  It was a beautiful day so Antoine and I decided to head over to Spring Grove Cemetery and see if anything was blooming yet.  Not much was, but all over the grounds there were little hints of Spring.  And at this point, I'll take what I can get!

After our walk around Spring Grove, we treated ourselves to a little Melt goodness (while still staying under calories)!  I spent the rest of the weekend reading.  I finally finished the second book in the Millennium trilogy, which I found a little slow in the beginning but it picked up about half way through.  I decided to take a little break before I start the third/final book, so I started the Divergent series.  Yesterday we spent most of the day working on my edible book!  I'm pretty proud of how it turned out this year, but more on that later!

How was your weekend?  Did you get outside on Saturday and do something fun?