Learning the Hard Way

C is kind of into peppers, the super hot kind of peppers. Recently, when we placed our spring seed order, he begged to order seed for a type of pepper called "de Padrone." Apparently of the pepper fruits produced on this plant, four out of five are low heat peppers. But one out of five are extremely high heat peppers. You never know which one you are going to pick.

A few weeks ago, C asked to come with me to the grocery store. In the produce section he selected one serrano pepper to purchase himself. He's been letting it ripen to fire engine red ever since.

Today was the day he decided to grind it into a powder.

While working with the powder - and in spite of all the admonishments of Alton Brown he did not wear gloves, though it wouldn't have mattered with what comes next - he touched his nose.

The kid is in agony. The heat of that pepper is radiating through his sinuses. He's trying for relief with Q-Tips dipped in milk, but nothing is working. It's just going to take time.

But I do think that this is going to make for a really funny family story in the future. Especially the Q-Tips in milk part.