Frankenfood Frustration and Fat Phobias

I really like a good roast pork loin with yummy pan-roasted potatoes and carrots.  Simple, right?
Not so much any more.  The beautiful gold potatoes and multi-colored carrots were easy enough -- from Bountiful Baskets (see previous posts). This morning I went out to buy a pork loin roast. Someone must have whisked me away to another planet while I wasn't watching. You'd have thought I was trying to find yak or dodo meat.

One major chain grocery store (Starts with S) only had pork products with 12% added 'flavoring and water' i.e. chemical sludge.  No thanks.

On to store #2, another national chain (starts with W). Similar, except I had the choice of 12% or 30% chemical stew in my pork.

On to chain #3 (chain starts with a K) and theirs were in either a net bag or plastic bag.  The ones in the plastic bags looked bloated from the chemical stew. Neither one provided sufficient view of the meat to know what the heck I was buying, except the neither had any visible fat layer -- only a few pea-sized specks. Passed on those.

Went to the locally-owned grocery, part of the Basha's chain, and did a little better.  The butcheress had to dig in the freezer in the back, but found me a real pork loin roast. Yes, it was frozen but there were no chemical sludge warning labels like at the other stores. Score one for the good guys.

Unfortunately, there was almost no fat remaining on the roast.  I understand that most people today are terrified of animal fat, but a good pork loin roast needs about a half-inch layer to cook properly (without the chemical stew). I bought the little thing anyway (about 3.5 lbs) and a pound of bacon to lard the little devil.

Tomorrow's dinner? Roast loin of pork, pan roasted potatoes and carrots and heart-stopping gravy. (With a spinach, blood orange and avocado salad courtesy of Bountiful Baskets)

Who knows, it may be the last hot meal we have before sequester-geddon!

UPDATE: Cooked the pork loin as follows:

Rubbed allover with a mixture of salt, pepper, garlic and rosemary. Put in a preheated oven at 450 (F). Turned down to 250 (F) after 10 minutes. After about an hour, threw the potatoes and carrots (all cut in half) in a separate pan w/a bit of the drippings and some olive oil, popped them in the oven. Cooked at this temp until internal temp of the roast hit 145 (F) -- about another hour+ for a 3.5 lb roast.  Removed the roast and increased the temp to 350(F) to brown the cut side of the potatoes. Served with the spinach, pink grapefruit and avocado salad (+ blue cheese crumbles and pecans).  It was really good.