Oven-Baking Bacon

This is an easy way to prep bacon, with exceptional results.  Baking bacon creates slices that are evenly cooked all the way through, unlike cooking it in a skillet where the heat is uneven.  Making a disposable rack of aluminum foil allows the fat to drip off and collect in the pan, ready to collect for a later use.  You can bake bacon in advance and hold it in the refrigerator for up to a week, ready to use in recipes or reheat and serve alone.  You will love this method!

Equipment needed:

Half-sheet pan                   Heavy-duty aluminum foil              Tongs

Paper Towel                       One-gallon freezer bag

Bacon, one pound

1.  Tear off 2 pieces of heavy duty aluminum foil, each double the length of the sheet pan.  Mold the foil over one short end of the pan.   Mold the foil into "ridges" about one-inch high and about 2 inches apart across the bottom of the pan, then mold the opposite end under the other end of the pan, trimming if there is excessive foil.  (See the picture above.)  Preheat the oven to 400-degrees.

2.  Lay bacon slices across the foil ridges, as pictured above.  Bake for 10-18 minutes (depending on thickness), until it is beginning to brown, then remove and turn the bacon over.  Return to the oven and bake until desired degree of crispness is attained. 

3.  Remove from the oven and transfer the bacon to a plate.  Allow the bacon drippings to cool, then scrape up the solid fat and save for another use.

4.  Use the bacon immediately or place on paper towels and slide into a one-gallon plastic freezer bag.  Refrigerate for up to one week.

How to Butterfly (Spatchcock) & Cut-up a Whole Chicken

Learn to butterfly (also called "spatchcock") a whole chicken, and then how to cut it up into 10 pieces for frying or any other use.  It's quick and easy, and is a money-saving skill!  Any giblets (liver, gizzard, heart) can be fried or cooked immediately, or frozen for later use. The neck and backbone (and the wings, if you aren't using them) can be collected in a freezer bag and saved to make stock later when there is an adequate amount. This is a skill every cook needs!

One of my favorite coffee accessories!

My favorite, well-worn stainless coffee carafe. I love this thing!

My favorite, well-worn stainless coffee carafe. I love this thing!

I grew up in a house where coffee was a staple.  My mother loves it, and still drinks a significant amount every day.  Into her eighties now, I think her coffee and her faith have kept her happy and well all these years!  Her daughter inherited her taste for the stuff, too.

I do love coffee, but it has to be "good" coffee.  Not from a plastic tub ground Lord-only-knows how long ago and "cooked" to death.  No, I am a tiny bit a snob about my brew, and have a particular way of buying, preparing, and holding it.  A Bunn drip coffee maker is my technique of choice (because it is always ready and brews a pot in under 3 minutes!), and then into a pre-heated stainless carafe it goes. (And grinding my own beans just before brewing, preferably with a burr grinder, is a must.)   Bitter, muddy coffee that has been on a burner for a while is just not palatable.  (I told you I was a bit of a snob.)  I admire folks who can enjoy that stuff, they are hard core coffee lovers.  But I prefer a bit more delicacy, thus my love affair with coffee carafes and equipment.

At the cafe I used large vacuum sealed carafes, big enough to hold a half-gallon of coffee, which got refilled frequently.  That coffee never had a chance to become bitter!  But at home I have a stainless steel carafe with a screw-on top that I bought years ago at a delightful kitchen store in Hollister, California when we lived in nearby Gilroy   The name escapes me right now, but it was a fabulous store!  That was probably 18 years ago, but that quality carafe is still in service.  While I'm brewing my coffee I fill said carafe with really hot tap water.  Then, once the coffee is ready, I empty the carafe and fill it with coffee.  That coffee stays hot and fresh for several hours, never bitter or burnt.  Though I paid a pretty good price for it, it has paid for itself many times over by eliminating wasted coffee, poured out because it no longer tasted good.  And, yes, I've used the plastic counterpart while catering, which is better than nothing, but still can't compare to the stainless version.

My opinion then, is if you are a coffee fan, you might want to ask Santa or someone who loves you (and respects your coffee love) for your own fabulous carafe! 

Here are some models I found that compare to mine:

20-ounce carafe

 44-ounce carafe

Some other coffee equipment you might like, including an all-in-one system that grinds, brews, and holds in a stainless carafe!: 

Ali-in-one-system       Burr coffee grinder            Coffee grinder                Drip Brewer