beautiful bacon

You know how you dread making certain foods

because of the mess they leave behind?

Bacon is one of those foods for me.

I love it, but I hate to cook it

because it seems to splatter all over my stovetop and counters.

Well, splatter no more!

This past year I discovered a new way to cook bacon

that is absolutely divine!!

It starts with one of these wonderful pans.

I got mine about 20 years ago and had never used it.

It still looked like brand new 

when I grabbed it off the shelf a few months ago.

Now it looks like this.

Believe it or not, this is clean. 

Horrible, right?

But, let me tell you, this puppy is so beautifully seasoned,

that I wouldn't trade it for a brand-spankin-new one.

Let's just say it's my "bacon only" pan.

Besides a good stoneware pan,

good bacon makes a huge difference.

I don't want to endorse a certain company or brand,

but this is the kind I use:

 I've tried a lot of brands, but this one speaks to me.

(Or at least to my mouth. . . and stomach:)

You can choose any brand you love.

I just preheat my convection oven to 400 degrees

(450 if you are using a regular oven)

and lay the bacon strips out in the pan.

In about 20 minutes you will have 

delicious, sizzly (yes, I made that word up) bacon.

Pull it out with tongs 

and put it on some paper towels to cool.

It's the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Which, ironically,

goes very well with bacon.

And the best thing of all . . .

not a single splatter in sight.

:)