Friday, January 27, 2006

burning! burning hands!

I've cut up many a hot pepper in my days. I've even made the mistake of rubbing my eye or nose before washing the pepper off my hands and been tearfully sorry before. But last night I believe I actually burned myself with peppers. First I accidentally shoved a pepper seed underneath my thumbnail and the pain shot all the way up to my shoulder. I was so desperate that I opened the milk carton and stuck my thumb in. (note to would-be-guests, be warned of the spicy thumb milk!)
And then i proceeded to handle many peppers, then limes, then onions, then some salt, all with chapped hands.(from washing my hands so much with the baby).
As I serve dinner I notice my hands feel like they are on fire, as if I had stuck them in a pot of boiling water. It was insane. I tried rubbing oil on them and then washing them and then another milk dip. They are still burning, but luckily it's getting better.
Oh my gosh. I'm gonna wear surgical gloves next time!

4 comments:

laura said...

i demand a picture!

you're keeping the thumb milk? you are so funny.

Charlie said...

the weird thing was my hands didn't look burned, or even red, it was so strange.

Sam said...

HA! Spicy thumb milk...good thing I don't drink any!

Unknown said...

Oh my, I feel your pain. I have totally done that before. I learned the hard way that you can actually get a chemical burn from the peppers. I was in South Padre and it burned for about 24 hours. I soaked in milk too! But, it didn't work :(
Now I know why Dianne always wears surgical gloves when handling. Another tip someone told me is that you can boil the peppers before handling to reduce the spice/burn factor. Boo on pepper burns!