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The Twice Baked Twins

Once again the summer flew by and quite frankly I'm thrilled. Joy's two youngest girls (she has 4) really drove us crazy this year. How can any one keep up with such a demanding schedule? Even though it really gets on my nerves, I will miss driving them to their nail appointments, listening to their loud music and yes, their constant chattering while doing non-stop cheerleading routines. I guess at that age you can have an entire conversation while jumping up and down. Sometimes I feel like I might have an anxiety attack! Most days they "slept in" until 12 or 1 in the afternoon so it gave Joy and I the mornings free to go and visit all our local farms, markets and vineyards here in Connecticut.

We love to walk around and look at what fresh fruits and vegetables have been harvested. The aromas from the local cheeses & honey and fresh baked goodies, make us realize we are starving! Well hey, it has been an hour since our last nosh! While strolling around, and sipping our hot cups of coffee (we are never not sipping a cuppa) we begin sampling anything that is offered to us and start talking to anyone who will listen to us, asking, "how will you be preparing that?" You would be surprised… People love to talk about food!

As we continue on we decide to walk into the vineyard hoping we can get a good port wine for a recipe that popped into our heads! It is time to get everyone together again to try all of our new recipe ideas and one last picnic before the kids go back to school is perfect! From fresh picked corn, that we will grill right in the husks, a still" warm from the sun" tomato salad with garden herbs and a grilled tenderloin made with port wine and chocolate sauce has become the inspired menu from the findings of the day. It’s perfect, our guests will love it! Wouldn't you?

Peppered Crusted Beef Tenderloin with Chocolate Port Sauce
(Chocolate and rosemary are the surprise ingredients in this delicious sauce)

Ingredients:

2 beef tenderloins
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp. cracked white pepper
coarse sea salt to taste
1 tbsp. olive oil
1tbsp. minced shallot
1/4 cup port wine
1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup beef stock
1 tsp. minced fresh rosemary
1/2 of a 1 ounce of square bittersweet chocolate

Directions:

Brush meat on all sides with 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
Sprinkle sea salt & pepper on both sides of steaks.
Add another tablespoon of olive oil to skillet and turn heat to medium high, pan should be very hot.
Add steaks and cook (3 to 4 minutes per side, based on your preference for doneness)
Remove steaks and keep warm.
Stir in minced shallot, cook for 1 min.
Pour in the port and balsamic vinegar, simmer until the port reduces to the consistency of chocolate syrup, about 2 or 3 min.
Add stock and rosemary, return to simmer.
Whisk in chocolate until melted and slightly thickens.
Lastly, whisk in 2 tbsp of cold, cold butter.
Taste and re-season.
Enjoy!