I knew with the beautiful summer weather that it was going to be a good idea to head out to one of the wineries and listen to some music while enjoying a wonder picnic meal, so that’s exactly what we did! First though, I needed to feed the teenagers in the family since they weren’t coming with. This outing wasn’t that kind of party, this one is for the adults only. What to do to keep the kiddos happy and not tie me down to a big meal? A simple, satisfying and quick pasta dish is the answer.

Lucky for me, I had some sausage from the local Butcher Butcher. Their varieties rotate often, but this particular kind was heavy on the spices like fennel and absolutely delicious. This pasta was now guaranteed to be good no matter how quickly I threw it together. Grabbing things on hand from the fridge like broth, mustard, garlic and basil put the Italian spin on flavor. I had some cherry tomatoes getting a little wrinkly, so I threw those in too. In less than ten minutes (after boiling water) dinner was served. Out the door we headed at this point, with our picnic snacks of ham and butter sandwiches, with tzatziki and hummus and crackers, which all go so well with a little (or big) glass of wine. At Tranche Estates, their concert series is so popular that they’ve sold out all of their Rose, which was really delightful and dry. We settled on a buttery Chardonnay instead and headed to the grass to spread our blankets in the shade of the cool trees on this warm summer night.

After listening to a set of funk/jazz combo and filling our bellies, we decided to up the ante and head downtown to see what else was happening. Wiping the sweat from our brows, we all agreed that frozen wine slushies were the only way to go. Off to Plumb Cellars for their frozen treats. It wasn’t hard to find our way with the music of Stevie Ray Vaughn being played at the Summer Concert Series on First and Main Street. Those slushies go down as easy as the people watching as those of all ages, shapes and sized enjoy what this amazing town has to offer. A quick walk through the parking lot and we land at the Marc Whitman Hotel. How did that happen?! Must be my pining for a Rowdy Kate, a delicious cherry concoction served in the bar. We enjoyed our drinks and a stuffed chorizo mushroom appetizer before heading back to Dixie.

We laughed the rest of the night away under the stars there gambling nickels and dimes with a game called Sevens. I don’t know if that’s the proper name of the game, but here’s how it works: we used a standard deck of 52 cards and took out aces, sevens, kings, and jokers. On your turn, you roll two dice. If you have a card in your hand matching the roll (Jacks are 11 and Queens are 12), you discard it. If you roll a seven, you put a nickel (or whatever you are using for chips) from your supply into a pot in the center, which the winner gets at the end. If you rolled a card number you didn’t have, then the person next to you who has it can now discard and controls the dice. I’ll be starting an envelope with Sevens money in it from now on!