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This is a large pile of jalapeno peppers that I photographed when I visited Ranch Market featured on September 8th. Jalapeno peppers are used in Spanish as well as Asian cooking and I’m sure most of my readers have experienced them in some form; maybe as the ubiquitous Jalapeno Popper.

A few years ago, I decided to make some Asian style stuffed jalapenos for a dinner party and was preparing them a day ahead. I knew all the precautions about handling them such as not touching your face or eyes. I am a decent cook and I've used many types of chilies in cooking before. However, I had never processed so many at one time and I foolishly did the stem removal and seeding with bare hands. It took about 15 minutes into the job for the pain to set in and a full 10 hours for the pain to subside. My hands quite literally felt as though they were on fire. The story gets even funnier since I was going out to dinner with friends that same night. I had to dine while alternating wet towels over each hand. The chef in the restaurant felt sorry for me and had the waiter bring me a bowl of milk to soak my hands in while I ate. I might not have been the life of the party that night, but I certainly gave the group much to laugh about. I’ll never do that again. I now keep a box of latex gloves in the kitchen cupboard and use them when ever chopping or seeding any kind of chili.