Roasted Green Beans with Bacon and Brown Sugar

This isn't a recipe as much as it is a method.  I ended up with a huge amount of fresh green beans after a Costco shopping trip before Christmas.  (Somehow I always get carried away in that store.)  A coworker mentioned that her family loves when she wraps green beans in bacon, tops them with brown sugar, and roasts them.  Bacon?!  Sounded good to me!

I took a handful (about 10) of fresh green beans (I'm sure you can use frozen), wrapped them with one slice of bacon and carefully sat them in a baking dish.  I continued until I filled the dish (I estimated about 2 green bean bunches per person), then topped the entire casserole with brown sugar and a little bit of fresh cracked pepper.  I baked it at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes, then turned the broiler on high for 2 minutes to get a nice, crispy crust.

This recipe is best with regular bacon.  I used thick sliced bacon and it took forever to get crispy.  Even without a perfectly crispy crust, this was really tasty.  It has that sweet-salty thing going on and the green beans are still pretty firm after roasting.  The bacon drippings and brown sugar create this syrupy glaze... so good.  Plus, it's easy.  Try it.