One of our favorite discoveries here in the Birmingham area is Morgan Creek Winery out in Harpersville. I told you about it last year here and each summer Morgan Creek hosts an outdoor concert with fireworks once a month, from May through September. We’ve been several times over the last couple of years and always enjoy it. A nice way to spend a summer evening, under the stars, with a picnic dinner and fireworks top off the finale. So, on a recent June evening, we once again headed to the winery, picnic basket and chairs in hand.
They have a nice open field that is perfect for gathering and a stage for the live music.
Each month, there’s a different performer taking the stage.
And the wine tasting tent is ready for tasters.
We love to sample the muscadine wines that they are known for. Sweet and delicious, we already know our favorite is Carlos. I’ve mentioned before that we are not big drinkers at all and don’t keep it at home, but when we come here, we enjoy sipping the muscadine wines.
This is a family owned business and they live right on the property. Oakleaf hydrangeas are blooming prolifically right now and make a great flower arrangement.
Check out the use of burlap on their tables.
Muscadine wines waiting to be poured. They have mostly sweeter wines, but a few of them are on the dry side. They also do a couple of blueberry wines.
More burlap. We enjoyed the tasting and got our favorite, Carlos, to enjoy with dinner. Light and refreshing.
Penne pasta with roasted red peppers and chicken. I’ll share the recipe on both of these in case anyone would like them:
Chicken Pasta Salad with Basil Dressing
Basil Dressing:
1 large clove minced garlic
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/4 cup red-wine vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 TBL minced basil or 1 TSP dried
2 –3 cups cooked/chopped chicken (I cooked 2 chicken breasts on the bone in crockpot & shredded)
1 box penne pasta
1 cup roasted red pepper strips
1/2 cup black olives (or Kalamata)
Mix garlic, salt, pepper & vinegar in salad bowl until salt dissolves; whisk in oil and basil. Add chicken, pasta, peppers & olives. Toss to coat. Cover and marinate at room temp 1 hour or chill overnight. Serve at room temp.
Hubby chilling out.
Broccoli Salad
1 bag of broccoli crowns
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup diced onion
Dressing:
1/2 cup mayo
1 TBL Balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
I didn’t use quite a 1/2 cup on the mayo or sugar for one bag but you might need that much if you use more, don’t like a lot of mayo on salads like this. I just spooned it out & added some sugar and the TBL vinegar. Mix well with a whisk and toss to coat & mix.
The band.
And this little sweetie was SO cute. She was 3 years old and was having a ball running around with all the other little kids playing on the lawn. She came over and talked to us a few times. It’s a great place to bring kids too and there were many families there enjoying the evening.
Around 9:00, the fireworks start and they put on a nice little show.
A fun summer evening. If you’ve never been, I’d highly recommend it. You can check their website for all the information, but the events are from 6-9 pm every month. Next one will be July 4th, which happens to be on a Saturday this year.
Looks like a fun event! Great for a date with hubby!
That recipe looks great. Actually, I printed the one from a few weeks ago…the artichoke and sun dried tomato and it was superb, so this one will probably just as good! You seem to have a way in the kitchen as well as with your decorating. Thanks, Sharon
Sounds like somethng my hubby and I would love! I'm going to give your pasta recipe a try this week. Thanks for sharing.
Rhoda, thanks for sharing that with us. I really enjoyed it all. What a nice treat.
Mary Lou
What a great way to spend some family time and have some R&R at the same time. I'll have to tell my sister about this as her hubbies daughters live out there. Plus keep it in mind and plan our vacation around there when we travel. Thanks for sharing.
You have to love summertime activities. . .Warm evenings, that allow you to spend time outdoors, thanks for sharing your recipes and time!
I've wanted to go to Morgan Creek for sometime and was going to ask if kids were allowed there (I see from your pictures that they are) so we'll definitely go there sometime,hopefully soon.
What a fun evening. Have a great weekend. Dinner looks delicious!
Glenda
Rhoda, that looks like such a fun and relaxing date. 🙂 The pasta looks delish…will have to try it at home sometime.
Looks like a great time!!! The blueberry wine sounds delish! Your food also looked fabulous. Yummy!
That looks like a wonderful relaxing way to spend a summer evening.
The pasta/basil salad looks delish and I love raisins and sunflowers in broccoli salad! Wish I could grill a flank steak per your recipe but it's raining!
I added your blog button to my blog now 🙂
What yummy fun!! TTFN ~Marydon
I got the AL vacation guide(?) last year and saw the winery in Harpersville. I wondered where it was. I figured it was futher away since I haven't seen it driving. I will have to look to see how far it is for me. I need to buy some burlap. I love that look outside. That food looks so good. I am doing a recipe book for our church and just edited this same broccoli salad recipe last night. We had four entries and all of them are just slightly different amounts.
Now this looks like my kind of entertainment. I know my hubby would enjoy it too. Thank's for posting that receipe. It looks great! See ya tomorrow dahling!!
That looks like a lot of fun! Great pictures!
I love Morgan Creek wine! I had no idea that they had such a fun event. I am going to google them to see if they have a site. Sounds perfect for my family! Thanks so much for sharing!!!
Rhoda, the recipes look delicious! I have some chicken cooked and shredded and was looking for a way to fix it that would be different from our usual poppy seed casserole. This will be great this time of year! And the trip to Harpersville looks like a good idea as well. Hope you had a wonderful anniversary and a good weekend.
Carol
This post is just great! We've recently been going to vineyard/wineries. Many of them around here have monthly live music and or fireworks. Also, they can be separated by 70 miles and actually have different grapes that do well.
We have a winery in town but not with a yard like that. We do have Summer Chautauqua in the Park and Shakespeare in the Park 2009: The Tempest. The local community theatre players do it in one of our parks and it is quite nice. Like you said, take your chairs and food if you like. Thanks for the pictures.
loved this post…the burlap tables were too cute. I also copied the recipe, just my style of cooking too. Thanks