Oh, for the love of salsa!

How do you go from this?

To this?

It's a little thing called salsa!

I made this delicious homemade salsa from fresh tomatoes from our garden last night and it was heavenly. The only problem was the jalepenos! I had made the same salsa a few days ago and didn't have any problem cutting the jalepeno bare-handed so I figured it was fine to do it again. About an hour after cutting and seeding 1 jalepeno, I started to feel burning in the fingertips of my left hand, kind of like a bad sunburn. After running my hand under cold water and using an ice pack, the stinging just seemed to get worse, spreading down my fingers and under the nails.

So I turned to the internet for what to do (http://www.tipking.co.uk/tip/7275.html) and started trying all sorts of interesting remedys to help with the intense stinging. I tried a baking soda paste several times, rubbing alcohol, milk, salt, honey, soap, Neosporin, Ibuprophen, and even Desitin (diaper rash cream). Nothing seemed to work except the milk, as long as it was cold. As soon as my hand dried or the milk got warm, it started to sting again. After a couple hours of pain, I finally gave up with all these crazy options (some of the ones I didn't try was orange juice, toothpaste, olive oil, mud, vodka, urine, gasoline, and paint thinner!) wrapped my hand up in a towel with an ice pack, and went to sleep.

This morning I woke up and guess what? No pain! I couldn't believe it! I don't know if it was just the time passing that finally worked or something I did that helped but it feels so good to have my hand back and not be in so much pain. The inconvenience of using gloves while handling peppers is much better than dealing with that pain and I didn't even have it that bad, compared to some of the people on the website above. Now for those of you who would like to try my salsa recipe, here it is. But you have to promise me you'll use gloves!

Fresh Tomato Salsa

4 tomatoes, chopped and drained
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
1 green jalepeno, minced
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
1/2 tsp minced garlic (1 clove)
1 Tbsp lime juice
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar

Mix everything together and add more peppers, garlic, and salt to taste if needed. Chill for 1 hour. Makes about 4 cups.