On Fire

My grandparents are back in town and so, as usual, we all congregate over at my Aunt Lynda's for the duration of their visit. We have been having a really good time, I love spending time with family, it's definitely on my list of favorite things to do. Tayah has loved being included with the "big" girls, and has thoroughly enjoyed playing dress up and house with the girls. G.G(great grandma) bought Tayah a little tinkerbell costume, too cute! She pranced all over the house showing it off.
Often when my Grandma comes out we all attempt to tackle some sort of task. We've done everything from baking to sewing (well Grandma sews, we pick out the fabric and the patterns) to scrapbooking. Today we made Salsa. My Aunt and Grandma have done this many times but it was a first for me. My Grandpa loves to garden and every year he harvests a huge tomato crop. He brought out a portion of this crop and with it we made 20 jars of salsa and about 10 jars of stewed tomatoes. It was fun, I love learning from Grandma and she has so much fun teaching us. But let me caution any of you who are contemplating tackling a task such as salsa making. WEAR RUBBER GLOVES! It was my job to chop and process the veggies. I thought I was pretty careful with chopping up the jalapeno and green chili peppers. I didn't handle them too much and I made sure I washed my hands often. Well, what I didn't realize was that the same towel I was wiping my hands on every 30 seconds was the same towel I had used to mop up the tomato/pepper mixture that had spilled out of the food processor. I couldn't figure out why my hands were burning, yes tomatoes are acidic but should it burn that badly? It was then that it dawned on me...the towel. I was in so much pain, my hands felt like they were on fire and it lasted for about 6 hours. I tried everything, I googled jalapeno pepper burns and surprisingly many people have had this happen to them(that in itself was somewhat comforting!). I found many suggestions for how to ease my pain. I soaked my hands in milk, in oatmeal, in vinegar, in tea, I scrubbed them with coffee grinds and washed them repeatedly with dish soap. I also coated them with solarcaine followed by calamine lotion. Nothing. Absolutely no relief. Apparently this type of burn is an actual chemical burn and there is really no way to get rid of it, it needs to work itself out of your skin. I spent most of the afternoon with my hands either wrapped in cold towels or held under running cold water, feeling completely ridiculous and looking like quite the drama queen. For the record, it was no act, the pain was very real. Thankfully the salsa turned out very well, I wouldn't say that it was all worth it, but at least I didn't go through all of that only to come out of it with horrid salsa. Will I make salsa again next year? Quite possibly, but not without my rubber gloves!