1. Yes you can do them in the oven: If you would like to make these in the oven — 400 degrees for an hour in a 9 x 13 baking dish, covered
2. The bacon does not need to be precooked but if you would like to do that, that’s okay as well. I would suggest partially cooking them if you do that.
3. The foil is for clean up purposes. You can omit it, or use crock pot liners. The choice is yours.
4. The potatoes in the picture do not look like thinly sliced potatoes because a smaller variety of potato was used, for this photo rather than the full sized ones listed in the recipe.
5. 10-12 hours on LOW is a long time, and you might want to check your crock pot around 8 hours as cooking times vary from crock pot to crock pot depending on size.