Vertically center align image and multiple text blocks - html

Question

I'm trying to float two elements of different height, with the shorter one being middle centered.
If I use inline-block instead of float the vertical centering works correctly, but the 'middle' div doesn't stretch to fit.
float example: http://jsfiddle.net/jonofan/r3pejgud/3/
inline-block: http://jsfiddle.net/jonofan/87kwpuxa/
Also interested to hear if people think should be going about this layout a different way entirely.
EDIT: I don't see this to be a duplicate of this question because my current code doesn't use table display. It just so happens that 'use table display' is the best answer in this case.
.header {
width: 600px;
border: 1px solid black;
display: inline-block;
}
.header img {
width: 50px;
float: left;
}
.middle {
position: relative;
top: 50%;
transform: translateY(-50%);
border: 1px solid gray;
height: 20px;
overflow: hidden;
}
.middle .itemheading {
position: absolute;
bottom: 0;
left: 0;
font-size: 1.8em;
}
.middle .itemdate {
position: absolute;
bottom: 0;
right: 0;
}
<div class='header'>
<img src='http://i.imgur.com/J2HToiP.jpg' />
<div class='middle'>
<span class='itemheading'>Heading Text</span>
<span class='itemdate'>Wednesday 01 July 2015</span>
</div>
</div>

Answer 1

Not perfect but you don't have to resort to absolute positioning. Use display: table-cell; instead.
Not sure how the border for .middle is supposed to work.
<div class='header'>
<div class="img-wrap">
<img src='http://i.imgur.com/J2HToiP.jpg' />
</div>
<div class='middle'>
<span class='itemheading'>Heading Text</span>
<span class='itemdate'>Wednesday 01 July 2015</span>
</div>
</div>
.header {
width: 600px;
border: 1px solid black;
}
.header img {
width: 50px;
}
.header .img-wrap {
display: table-cell;
vertical-align: middle;
}
.header .middle {
width: 100%;
display: table-cell;
vertical-align: middle;
border: 1px solid gray;
}
.itemdate {
float: right;
}
http://jsfiddle.net/87kwpuxa/2/