Today’s dinner was inspired by the fact that I found a pork loin in the freezer a few days ago and put it into the fridge to thaw, and today it was finally ready to cook. Since Raven has been getting home so late from work, I have turned to the slow cooker to let me get something set up during the afternoon that can hang out and cook for hours so that it will be ready close to when he gets home without my having to be actively cooking that late. I don’t think I’ll worry about it too much next week, since Kelly will be working overnights and getting up around 9:30 pm, where on his schedule before he had been going to bed before then to be up early in the morning.

I found a recipe online for a pork loin in the slow cooker. I didn’t want to use the flavor profile that was in the recipe, but it had some good suggestions for not killing my roast. The recipe said that pork loin in the slow cooker tends to dry out, but if you wrap it in bacon that supplies the fat and moisture it needs to stay tender and juicy. I had a pack of bacon in the fridge (also from Kelly at some point previous). So I gave it a try. It was in the cooker for a few more hours than the recipe called for, but no harm done to the meat. The recipe said to put it under the broiler for a few minutes when it was finished cooking to crisp up the bacon, so I did. Here is the finished product:

It turned out to look pretty darn good, even if it was a bit overcooked. The bacon even stayed on (mostly) when the roast got sliced.

I made up a salad mix from a bag and instant mashed potatoes (yes, I am lazy). All in all, a successful, not-a-one-pot meal.

(yes, I know, my counter is messy. That’s because dinner is ready. I am not known to be a tidy cook. Neither is Raven. We make messes when we cook. By the time a meal is ready, the counters look messy. Every. Time.)

Looking back on it, I should have made up a gravy. I don’t like gravy on my mashed potatoes (I prefer butter and maybe a little salt, pepper, and/or garlic powder), but the pork would have benefited from a bit more moisture.