Today I decided to use some of my dried cayenne peppers and extra hot chili hybrid peppers to make a chili powder. I thought it would be a great topic to post on the blog. Everything went fine. I even used the brand new shiny blade grinder I got to turn the dried chili peppers to dust. All was well and I emptied the newly made chili powder into a spice jar without so much as a hint of chili powder getting into the air. While cleaning out the chili powder residue from the brand new shiny blade grinder, something in my brain short circuited, and the brain said its dust, just blow it out of there. And that is exactly what I did, a mere .4 seconds later, shiny new blade grinder having been dropped to the floor my brain says your eyes are on fire rub them!! What have I been doing for the past 30 minutes? That’s right…I have been removing seeds from some very hot peppers, with out the protection of gloves might I add. So after about three seconds of rubbing my eyes with capsasum loaded fingers I had become a slobbering mess of drool and pain lying on my kitchen floor. My wife was out, I couldn’t see, the dogs were barking and I, somehow, managed find my way to the bathroom and put my head under the tub faucet to flush my eyes. My face is still on fire, but the tears and drool have stopped for the most part. I thought this would be a great post to warn you. Always wear gloves when handling very hot peppers and never blow into a container of hot pepper dust.
I will be posting the chili powder recipe tomorrow, for now, I am going to put some more water on my face and pray for the burning to stop.
Your Perfect Burn 
I’ve been there many times. Putting a finger on my lip, feeling the burn and thinking woah! at least it wasn’t my eye and a second later scratching my eye and whoa!…
It wasn’t much fun. But on the other hand it was kind of funny, which is why I posted it, we all need to have a sense of humor about ourselves or life would be way to boring.
Oh no! This sounds like something I would do, lol! I hope you are all healed up by now.
Yes I am all better now. I learned my lesson, always wear gloves when handling hot peppers. š
Oh my gosh. This sounds so horrible. I’ve made the mistake of cutting birds eye chili without gloves, and a short while later I thought my hands were on fire! So I can’t imagine the pain you were in with this stuff in your eyes. I hope you have fully recovered. And yes, fellow home cooks, do take the advice of using gloves!
I have physically recovered, but whenever I think about this I get a little chuckle.