But an unwatched Pop-Tart comes out a bit singed around the corners.

Yep, I learned an important lesson today. Never trust the office toaster oven.

It usually takes forever, so this morning I took my tea back to my office, read ONE very short e-mail, and returned to the kitchen to find my over-cooked (but still partially salvageable) breakfast. I had only turned the dial to medium!

Now I know.

At least it didn’t catch on fire. According to my co-worker (who discovered the ruins of my breakfast), Pop-Tarts are quite flammable. Apparently because of all the sugar, they can cause flames to shoot out of the toaster. (I’m not sure if he’s witnessed this first-hand or just heard about it.)

So of course I had to do some research.

According to Wikipedia, there was a lawsuit in 1992 when a guy’s Pop-Tart failed to eject from his toaster and caught fire. The case was popularized by a Dave Barry column, and proven with an experiment.

After the resulting lawsuits, they added a warning.

“Do not leave toasting appliances unattended due to possible risk of fire.”

Hmm … guess I don’t think I need to read instructions for heading up a Pop-Tart. I’ll check the box for that!

Though, I do recall it saying “Do not microwave” on the foil package.

I wonder if they mean the foil wrapper itself (duh), or if there is also some sort of explosion or reaction if you microwave the pastry itself …