For easy, least-messy bacon: Choose the biggest shallow glass or ceramic baking dish you have that will fit in your microwave. (I use a ceramic straight-sided quiche pan.) Line the pan with 3-4 good-quality paper towels. Separate the pieces of bacon gently and lay them in the pan, overlapping to fit. Cover with two or three more paper towels. Microwave to cook to desired crispness. In my 25-year old microwave oven, that's 8 minutes on medium high, followed by 5 more minutes, followed by 2-3 more minutes, for a pound of bacon. Check carefully; microwaves vary; if yours is very powerful, you may need shorter times or lower settings. Of course if you cook it too much the towels could catch on fire. Before the second cooking sesion, I sometimes carefully flip the whole towel-bacon-towel "sandwich" over, so that the towels on top, which are less saturated, are on the bottom of the dish. All the melted fat is absorbed into the towels and can be discarded. Clean-up consists of washing a greasy dish, not scrubbing baked-on grease in a baking dish or frying pan. The towels on top are essential - they keep the grease from spattering the inside of the microwave. I've been cooking bacon this way for many years; no mess in the microwave, or on stove top or in oven. Worth it to me! This does consume resources in the form of paper towels, but I think the microwave uses less electricity than the oven. Downside: no bacon fat left over.

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