When Peppers Attack

The other day I was on a roll in the kitchen. It was a leisurely Sunday afternoon, I had already baked some bread, roasted some squash for dinner and was in the middle of canning some salsa verde. We got a good amount of poblano peppers this year and I thought I'd add them to some salsa verde in lieu of jalapenos.

Things were going well, the house smelled of deliciousness and I had nowhere else to be. Unfortunately I was in for a turn of events. This story is going in the misadventure column.

I've previously posted a recipe for salsa verde. Using tomatillos, jalapenos, lime, cilantro, salt and sugar. Check it out here. I decided to double, maybe triple, the amount of poblanos because, to my recollection, they're rather mild. I set up all my canning gear. Stock pot, jar grabbers, jars, lids rings. This would be a small batch, about 5 pints worth. As I let the tomatillos boil, I halved the peppers and started roasting them.

As many peppers as I have cut up, I've never had a problem with pepper oil burning me in awful places. I've heard horror stories of burning hands, eyes, and even genitalia... BUT it's never happened to me. Until then. As it's allergy season, I rub my nose a lot. Suddenly I felt the burning at the top of my lip, then at the base of my nose, around my nose, and up inside my nose. Oh, crap. As I breathe in, I can feel the intense burning travelling further up my nose. All I knew was that attempting to wash it off would only spread it further. I quickly left everything that was happening in the kitchen and flew upstairs to where Chris was enjoying his afternoon. "Quick, Google something to counteract pepper oil on your skin!", I say in a panic. In my hypochondriac mind, I'd be asphyxiating in mere minutes...

I'll save you from the drama in between. The lesson learned here, is that lemon juice will relieve your skin from a run in with peppers on your skin. Chris's dad was the hero in the end, telling me to just go ahead and rub that lemon juice all up my nose. As the juice dried it put out the flames in and around my nose. Phew.

Don't worry, I continued to can the salsa! It was totally worth it.