Piense antes de que usted cocine con los chiles calientes

Hello all or none, I'd been sick last week and just came back to work yesterday. So, that's why I haven't been posting. But to make up for it, let me tell you a hilarious story.

My best friend's birthday was Friday and we had a gathering Sunday that I cooked for. The menu was Mexican food so I thought I'd pull out my authentic Mexican cookbooks and get to work Saturday night. So, I was in the process of making a salsa roja for the first time and the recipe calls for you to toast dried chilies in a skillet and then put them in a blender with roasted tomatoes and canned chipotle peppers and some water.

No one ever warned me about this step, so I'm putting this out there to hopefully help others from hurting themselves.

• Do not put your face over the blender after you've blended the mixture of peppers and
• Do not put your face over the skillet while you're toasting the dried chilies.

My face has never burned so much. I had pepper burns all around my nose and mouth. So, I put a cold rag on my face and it helped a little, but as soon as I'd take it off it would start to burn again. Then, I mixed up a paste of baking soda and water which just made the burning worse. After some thought, I finally found some whipping cream in my fridge and put it on my face and it stopped the burning. So, I walked around my kitchen cooking with drying whipped cream on my face. I was a sight.

And I cooked so much on Saturday and Sunday, that my back is now killing me and I feel like I've been beaten. Thankfully, my job has gladly decided to give out bonuses Friday, so I'm taking Saturday as a Spa day and I'm getting my hair cut and colored and a massage. I'm so happy I would do a backflip if I could bend backwards. :D

I think I might email Rick Bayless to add a addendum to his cookbooks asking people to be cautious when making salsa in the blender so they don't burn themselves. lol