Hot Jalapeño

Oh, I totally forgot to tell you about the day I was gonna make my own home made salsa and ended up with burning fingers for 7 hours straight. Yes this is a true story.. ;)

Salsa recipe  (for those of you who dare to try! it turned out really tasty btw.)

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons finely chopped onion
• 2 small cloves garlic, minced
• 3 large ripe tomatoes, peeled and seeds removed, chopped
• 2 hot chile peppers, Serrano or Jalapeno, finely chopped
• 2 to 3 tablespoons minced cilantro
• 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons lime juice
• salt and pepper

Preparation:

Put chopped onion and garlic in a strainer; pour 2 cups boiling water over them then let drain throughly. Discard water. Cool.
Combine onions and garlic with chopped tomatoes, peppers, cilantro, lime juice, salt, and pepper. Refrigerate for 2 to 4 hours to blend flavors.


"That sounds easy!". I started chopping everything, pretty excited about having home made salsa again (tried Laura Stevenson's and it was delicious!). When I came to the jalapenos I didn't even think about what harm they could cause my sensitive fingertips. Before I was done with the salsa I noticed the burn.. but it was still rather mild so I didn't pay much attention. Right after that I threw together a cookie dough. Now the burn was getting worse. But working with my hands gave some type of relief. It was when I cooked the ground beef that it became unbearable. The heat from the stove made it so much worse! After dinner I asked Ryan to look online for tips to get rid of this ridiculous pain. It felt like a chemical burn. Like my skin was melting. 
I tried everything I could while he kept looking around for new tips. Here's a few:

• Wash hands in hot water and scrub with soap, then cover them with olive oil. Repeat (This was torture and only made it worse!!!)
• Wipe hands with alcohol swab (A few seconds of relief)
• Drench hands in hand sanitizer
• Cover hands in butter (only helped a little while the butter was still cold)
• Drench hands in milk
• Drench hands in yogurt
• Cover hands in mustard until it dries, then repeat
• Cover hands with baking soda 
• Drench hands in fresh lime or lemon juice
• Drench hands in aloe vera gel 
• Scrub hands with sugar
• Cover hands with honey

Unfortunately, nothing of this worked for me. The only thing that really gave me relief was holding ice cubes to keep my hands cool. So this I did, for 7 hours straight until the pain was finally gone! So my tip to you is to wear gloves and be careful with those jalapenos ;)