Ravinia Festival Picnic

Last night I went to Ravinia to see Steve Martin play banjo with the Steep Canyon Rangers. Steve Martin wrote all the music himself - creative, interesting melodies and crisp, clean banjo playing. Of course he couldn't help also telling jokes in between songs. His voice is strong and confident in his joke-telling and his singing. He is still hilarious as ever...ending the concert with "King Tut."

I love to plan menus for picnics and entertaining but sometimes life gets in the way and there is no time for that luxury. We had a graduation party yesterday afternoon so we didn't have much time to plan. I packed some French Lemonade and flavored ice teas(Republic of Tea Pomegranate and Acai green teas - yum). At the last minute we bought Italian pastries: Lobster Tails (custard and whip-cream filled layered-paperthin-buttery pastry) and giant Cannoli (made with fresh ricotta cheese, sugar, citron, chocolate chips, candied orange peel and vanilla) from Maria's Bakery in Highwood, IL. We didn't have time to cook the entree so we just picked up some good ol' KFC (orignal recipe and crispy) chicken pieces and headed to the festival. It might be cheating but fried chicken always makes good picnic food-it was still good after an hour in the car and a 15-minute walk from our parking space. The chicken was finger-licking good and the sparkling french lemonade (original and pink) paired really well. The lemonad cut through the greasiness of the chicken. The desserts were absolutely decadent and heavenly. Not the healthiest picnic but everyone was happy, stomachs were content, and the night was beautiful.