WARNING!

If you decide to make The Barefoot Contessa's boeuf bourguignon, and you read the part that tells you to stand back when you light the half cup of cognac you have poured into the contents of the dutch oven, she does really mean STAND BACK!!!

However, she forgot to say "Be sure that the flames that will be two feet high will not touch anything above them, say, like the bottom of the microwave." Because that will happen.  You know how I know this.  Right?

I will admit that I briefly considered running to get my camera so that I could take a picture because it was a pretty impressive scene, but then my better judgement kicked in and I put on mitts and pulled the pan out as far as I could on the stovetop so that I wouldn't melt the microwave.  This would not have been the first time I accidentally set something unintended on fire, but I sure didn't want it to be the first time I intentionally let something burst into flames.