Not Martha set the foodie world on fire -- uh, 378 commenters and a bunch of blogs, at least -- with her BLT-themed, freestanding bacon cups. But they required three hours of effort and resulted in a house full of smoke.

Then Merriment Design came along and introduced a microwave to the process. Voila! Cups large and small whipped up in as little as five fire-free minutes. All they required were a few pieces of kitchen paraphernalia, some paper towels and a whole lot of bacon. Click through for the particulars of how it's done, and be in bacon cups all summer long.

To make the cups:

1. Pull out a microwave-safe dish with edges tall enough to contain the melted fat (Pyrex will work well), and layer it with some paper towels.
2. Grab a medium-sized glass prep bowl, cover the outside in paper towels and place it onto the dish, opening-side down. Use a ramekin instead if you're looking for a really big bowl, but remember that will be a lot of bacon for one person.
   
3. Weave the strips over the bowl (Merriment includes some handy weaving pictures), cover the cup in more paper towels, pop it in the microwave and nuke it for approximately 4-5 minutes. The time will depend on your unit, so make sure to check every 2-3 minutes and stop nuking once the bacon is firm.
4. When done, carefully peel the paper towel off the bacon and set aside. You might want to wear some sort of gloves to save your hands from the singeing power of melted fat.

For breakfasts and brunches, the bacon can be formed to fit any use and match any egg. In fact, you don't even need different vessels to do it! For a shallow bowl that will fit a poached egg wonderfully (and make for one cool twist on Eggs Benny), simply take a mid-sized prep bowl and go a little light on the bacon. Make sure you cover it, but don't overlap the strips too much. The bacon will shrink and offer a great shallow cup, like the one above.

If you're looking for a larger bowl to house your scrambled eggs, take that same dish covered in paper towels, and be extra generous with the bacon. Overlap the weaved pieces, and make sure they extend all the way to the plate/Pyrex. Instead of shrinking to almost nothing, the bacon will maintain the bowl's shape and be just perfect for a hot and heaping pile of scrambled goodness.

From there, experiment! Roll some bacon twigs to stick in a soft-boiled egg, grab a wider dish to make a cup for a fried egg ... It's just a little effort, but will make a world of difference the next time you want to wow your guests at brunch. Why give them some shriveled strips when you can give them bacon art?