My face is burning

Well, it hasn't taken too long for me to get to my first kitchen blunder on here, so here it goes.

Sunday my wife and I hosted Mother's Day dinner, we had tacos. I decided to make some stuffed jalapenos that my oldest brother had made this past Christmas. He gave me the list of ingredients and heating instructions, however there were no instructions as to how much of each ingredient was needed. I eyeballed it and everything turned out pretty good.

My wife asked me to make them again for her fine arts gathering after school today so I made some more last night. These jalapenos are cut in half, length wise, then deseeded to reduce the heat and allow ample room for the filling. Now, when I made these Sunday, there were no problems, however last night there was a huge problem ... one might even call it a burning problem.

My wife was doing some laundry, which is adjacent to the kitchen, when I asked her if my face was red. She replies with a gentle "no, why?" Then it hit me, I was an idiot.

That's right, I wash my hands after deseeding the peppers. When I cook I get hot and tend to begin to sweat, so that first time I wiped my brow and the rest of my face for that matter, it soon began to burn like a really nasty sunburn.

I kept going because I'm a tough guy ... or so I thought. I had just began to brown the Italian sausage when I told my wife I had to go wash my face, I simply couldn't take it anymore. I went to our bathroom, grabbed my bar of Lava soap and went to town on my burning flesh and got my stupid butt back in the kitchen to finish.

Finally, about 2 hours later, I felt normal again.

Lesson learned. Wash your hands well after deseeding jalapenos. I know some people wear gloves, but that's not for me.

Now, to the peppers themselves. They turned out great once again. To make them yourself, it's quite simple.

Sausage Stuffed Jalapenos
Jalapenos
Sweet Italian Sausage
Cream Cheese
Shredded Cheddar Cheese
Diced Peppronci peppers
Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut stems off jalapenos, cut lengthwise, remove seeds and place on baking sheet. Brown Italian sausage. In a medium size bowl, mix sausage, cream cheese, shredded cheddar cheese (save some for later), diced peppronci peppers, salt and pepper. Fill peppers with the mixture and place on a baking sheet. Top with the rest of the shredded cheddar cheese. Place in oven for 12-15 minutes.

One piece of advice that I would give, other than washing your hands well after deseeding the jalapenos, is to utilize the same method as breading chicken when you fill the peppers. Keep one hand clean to work the spoon while the other is the dirty hand. You may need to use your fingers to spread the filling in the peppers.