RICH

Thanks all! Visited Home Depot and Lowes this morning and came home with this for $60 from HD with $10 off. By coincidence I stopped at Winn Dixie as I was out of bacon, but I cooked it in a frying pan.

Sorry forgot to mention it was a counter top I was after!

The one that burned out, I put out by the road last night. It is already gone.

zzrmark

Top man.

Maste

My mum used to do bacon back home in the microwave. Kinda weird, but worked fine.

Pulaski

Congratulations on finding a good deal. .... At that price it is definitely in the same bracket as kettles and toasters.

Rete

Nice going on that great price. I like the countertop microwave instead of the top or wall mount ones. But frankly, I rather not have one at all. Takes up space and is only used occasionally for things that can be done on the stove or in the oven.

Steerpike

Sorry, got it! yes, it does function well as a rather expensive but always available timer! I use it that way quite often. Smartphones are another 'readily available' timer.

Bacon (American streaky type) comes out way better in the uWave! In a pan, the bacon almost immediately deforms (curls) and thus, much of the surface area rises from the pan, and thus does not get heated enough. In the uWave, if you get the timing right, you get perfectly crisped bacon. I personally put two layers of paper towel below, and another two above, to absorb all the fat.

By the way - if you want to have some fun, put an old CD in the uWave and run it for about 2-3 seconds. I've done that to destroy old data backups on CD-Rs. Do this with an old uWave you don't mind replacing

Nutmegger

We had a discussion on special pans/containers for the microwave above and I do use a bacon platter. The bacon sits atop ridges and the fat collects at the bottom. I always cover the bacon with a paper towel on top, as you describe, to avoid splattering. This method results in lovely crispy bacon plus bacon grease that is easily drained into a jar to save for refried beans and suchlike.

scrubbedexpat099

I toast bread, add cheese and then zap for 15 seconds.