Thursday, July 21, 2011

It's Time for BLT's!

It is my favorite (well, almost favorite) time of year--tomato season! And in our house, that means BLT's become a very frequent meal. The most time-consuming part of making BLT's is the "B"--browning the bacon. My sister gave me a great hint for making this messy, hot, time consuming job a lot easier. She BAKES her bacon!

You'll need a cookie cooling rack, some tin foil, and a rimmed cookie sheet. Line the cookie sheet with tin foil and place the cooling rack on top. Then simply lay the bacon on the cooling rack (make sure all of the bacon is over the cookie pan so grease goes into the pan and doesn't drip on the bottom of the oven). Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until desired crispness.

Be careful when you get the sheet out of the oven as the bacon grease will be in the cookie pan.

Unfortunately this technique doesn't take away the calories from the bacon...but it does take away grease splattered all over your stove top and you don't have to tend to it constantly.

Here's another hint--at the beginning of the summer I baked several packages of bacon, then crumbled them and froze them in small baggies. When I make salads that call for bacon, I simply take it out of the freezer. It's a fantastic time saver!

Cody thought it was really silly of me to to take pictures of bacon but I'm going to post them here anyway. He just rolled his eyes at me. But he'll be happy when he has plenty of bacon for BLT's tonight!