Easter: Bacon Wrapped Pork And French Onion Soup

Like with our recent St. Patrick's Day meal, we significantly changed up our traditional Easter dinner quite a bit this year. Instead of the traditional chicken, we did a honey mustard pork loin and French onion soup.

For our take on this famous soup, we used both yellow onions and sweet Vidalia, sliced into rings and cooked in olive oil.

Over time they reduce down into a softer consistency that works better for the soup - this also really brings out the flavor.

There are a lot of different ways to make French onion, and many recipes readily available online. We used beef broth and allowed to simmer until it was at the perfect flavor we wanted. Other recipes use other types of broth, or add in thing like sherry for a sweeter taste.

As anyone who has ever ordered this favorite at a restaurant knows, proper French onion needs a baguette in the bowl! Here we've baked some with shredded cheddar on top.

Plop a few pieces of bread in the bowl and then spoon the soup over top, and make sure to get plenty of those awesome onions!

That wonderful side dish wasn't the focus of the meal however. Here we've got a boneless pork loin we snapped up from the local grocery store when we found it on sale for half off. Normally this loin will make three meals, but for our Easter celebration we cooked the whole thing.

The loin will have a sauce rubbed on the outside as well as injected into the meat. The sauce was made by mixing together cranberry mustard, honey/chipotle mustard, and some straight up honey.

Megan heated up part of the sauce with butter to inject it directly in the pork loin, then brushed the remaining sauce over the top.

Anyone familiar with our cooking will know we love adding bacon to pretty much anything - from bacon wrapped chicken thighs to the amazing double pork rollup from last summer's grilling extravaganza. In that spirit, we took our pork loin to the next level by wrapping it in bacon of course!

To work with a big piece of meat like this, lay down a sheet of plastic wrap or use a cookie sheet. Either put the strips of bacon underneath first and then roll the meat over it, or lay the strips over top of the meat and then roll it in and under to wrap around.

We've also placed a few toothpicks to keep it all in place while baking.

The loin was baked with tin foil on top, which was then remove towards the end of the process so the bacon gets more crispy. Pull out the toothpicks and slice this into thin pieces to serve with whatever side strikes your fancy - mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, corn pudding, etc.

Don't you dare get rid of those pan drippings though! Use them to make gravy for some mashed potatoes instead! They may not look appetizing when the pan comes out of the oven, but they are packed with flavor. With a premium meat like this, mixed with all those honey mustard flavors, you get a gravy you simply can't find in the store. To make a gravy, mix the drippings with some flour and milk and whisk over medium heat until it comes together and thickens up.