Baked Bacon

Bacon.  So bad for you and it tastes so good.  When I made breakfast this past Saturday, I decided to try baking the bacon in order to cook it.  I've been hearing/reading a lot about using this method recently and decided to give it a try.  I think it turned out pretty well--the bacon ends up crispy and flat (not crinkly).  Cleanup is also relatively easy since the fat drips onto the foil-lined pan.  Just wait for the fat to harden and then throw the foil away.  I don't really have a good tray with a wire rack, so I used one jelly-roll pan with a wire rack that actually came with my toaster oven.  Since that only held 4 pieces of bacon, I also used a broiler pan for the rest of the bacon.  I put both trays of bacon in the oven at the same time.   

I think what I liked most about this method is you don't have to babysit it like you do when you cook bacon on the stove.  I just put it in the oven for about 30 minutes and checked on it now and then--you don't even need to flip the bacon.  This was nice since I was busy making the french toast and grilled pineapple.

Bacon

Ingredients:
Bacon (duh)

Directions:
Line a jelly-roll pan with aluminum foil to make cleanup easier.  Set a wire rack on the pan so the bacon doesn't sit in fat.  Place bacon slices in a single layer on the rack and bake at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes (depending on bacon thickness and how crisp you like it).  You can even put the bacon in while the oven preheats--the gradual temperature increase will render the fat more slowly and won't shrink the meat as much.