It all started out so well.

It was a cold winter night in Boston. Kathy, Becca and I were very excited to be cooking "Roast Pork with Fruit Stuffing and Mustard Sauce." The concept is simple: One way or another, you wrap a bunch of pork around some fruit, and then you cook it. At the end of the process, a delicious mustard sauce is made from the drippings, and a culinary spectacle is enjoyed by all.

PREP

Here's Becca and I. We seem to be excited about the pre-cooking prep process, which was primarily comprised of stuffing pork, slicing up vegetables, and rubbing down the meat log with olive oil as though it were a prize-fighter.

After you cook up the roast, you're supposed to remove the pan from the oven, put it on the stovetop, and heat up a sauce consistening of cooked vegetables, white wine, and chicken broth. This, to any trained culinary observer, seems like a terrific plan.

THE MISTAKE

When you apply direct stovetop flames to glass pans, the gorgeous blue of the fire licks dramatically away underneath the clear surface of the cookware. As you stir the sauce, you're captivated by the interplay between liquid and heat, and the aroma of wine and fresh vegetables fills the room.

Then the pan explodes.

That shot was sort of the general survey. Here are the details.

CLEAN UP

I observed that being in the kitchen when the pan exploded was "like being in [the] Vietnam [War]." Kathy and Becca commented that I was an idiot, which was basically true.

Here's me sweeping up. Aren't I the cutest?

DINNER

Fortunately, the roast was tented under tinfoil during the explosion. Dinner was served with an improvised mustard sauce, and it was absolutely lovely.

The moral of the story? No one could have predicted the pan would've exploded, and scientists are at a total loss to explain what happened. Nonetheless, you might want to exercise care in the kitchen when you put glass under direct heat.

PLUR,

Jim