I always make a hot breakfast for my family on the weekends. Most of the time, my husband cooks during the week but I enjoy having my time in the kitchen on Saturday and Sunday and I gotta tell you, I make some kick-ass breakfasts.
So, bacon.
I love bacon. I can't imagine a world without bacon. I hope heaven has bacon. I learned this great little kitchen hack from my brother-in-law and it has become my go-to trick for perfect bacon and a relaxed weekend morning.
Use your oven.
That's right. Ditch your frying pan and make your bacon in the oven. I learned this trick from my brother-in-law last year. When I saw him making bacon in the oven I wondered why I hadn't been doing that all along. It saves time and is so much less messy.
Preheat your oven to 350. Line a cookie sheet with foil. I usually use two sheets and overlap them in the middle to prevent bacon grease from trickling on to the cookie sheet (leaving me a gross mess to clean up.)
Lay the bacon on the foil...I feel a little like I'm insulting you, here. Sorry.
It takes about 30 minutes for crisp bacon. I use this time to drink coffee, zone out, stop my kids from making superhero capes out of dishtowels and toilet paper and see what the world has been up to on Facebook while I've been sleeping. And just kidding about the capes...I totally let them do that. Alternatively, you could use this time to assemble awesome omelet ingredients or mix up pancake batter from scratch. Mmmm.....
Once the hot grease has cooled I roll the foil up in a little ball....you could toss it out and put the pan back in the cabinet because it should be clean...but I toss the foil in freezer instead of the trash. Think about it: I have a neatly sealed little parcel of bacon grease at the ready in my freezer. And there's all kinds of yummy possibilities with that. Stay tuned.
Thanks for hanging out in my kitchen today. Bacon is such a simple, happy food. Okay, so it's a totally-not-good-for you food. We can overlook that, right? Because, bacon.
This post originally appeared on Jill's blog, Ripped Jeans and Bifocals, where she regularly entertains readers with tales of adoption, midlife and motherhood. Hang out with Jill on Facebook and Twitter.