Pig(ott)s Eating Pigs

Remember the pork roast that tried to ruin my life the other day? Here's what became of it:
At least that's part of what became of it. Brian isn't usually a fan of pork, but he gave this one thumbs up, so I thought I'd share the recipe. It's a variation on a recipe I found on allrecipes.com. The original recipe is here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/beef-tenderloin-with-roasted-shallots/detail.aspx

Instead of beef tenderloin, I used a pork roast which, incidentally, was exactly two pounds. And instead of shallots, I used regular cooking onions. The third and last modification I made was to omit the flour/butter combination called for in making the gravy, using one tablespoon of cornstarch instead (we're trying to eat healthier). I don't think we missed the butter at all, due to all of the other rich flavours present in this dish (bacon, onion, thyme, etc).
I did not boil the roast in the gravy in the end...I just carved it (which was a breeze using the electric knife) and served each slice with the gravy on top. I noticed the slices were a little rarer than we prefer, so before serving, I lay all of them flat in the roaster and popped it back into the oven for a few more minutes until it was done to our liking. They came out evenly cooked and just right.
The green bean bundles were extremely easy to make. Since there were just two of us, I only made two. This is what I did:
* I thawed two strips of bacon
* I counted out 15 beans per bundle
* I blanched the beans for a couple of minutes in boiling water, then drained them and sprinkled them with salt and garlic powder
* while the beans were being blanched I partially cooked the bacon in the microwave for a total of 50 seconds in 25 second increments (I highly recommend doing this in increments given how prone bacon is to popping in the microwave)
* I wrapped each 15 bean bundle in one strip of bacon, held by a toothpick
* the bundles were baked in the oven for 15 minutes at 375F (I did turn the oven up to 450F for the last 5 minutes).
I like my beans a little crispy, but if you prefer them to be soft, you could spend 2-5 more minutes in either the blanching or baking stage. Bon appetit!