Pain and Deliciousness that is the Chili Pepper

I had gone to the store earlier this week to pick up a few essentials, and came across some chili peppers that were labeled as "Yellow Hot Peppers" and grabbed 3 of them, just thinking I was sure I could find something to use them for. They weren't jalapeno or habanero peppers, so I naturally thought they couldn't be THAT spicy but probably a bit more than say a banana pepper (though that's what this pepper looked like, only bigger).

I decided I wanted to stuff these lovely peppers for myself and the hubby for lunch, so I proceeded to thaw a steak and slice it into thin strips, putting it in a bowl with garlic salt, paprika, and chili powder, making sure to mix/rub it all over the meat. Meanwhile I got some oil heated up in a pan with some minced garlic, adding in the meat as soon as the garlic started to soften. Thinking some black beans would be great to add, I drained and rinsed a can, adding it to the pan after the meat started to brown a little. As this was cooking I shredded some cheese and set it to the side to put on top of the peppers after stuffing them.
At this point I felt I could get my chili peppers ready to stuff. Cutting down the length of the pepper and at the top just enough to be able to pull the sides away so as to get to the ribbing (white stuff on the inside of the pepper that holds the seeds) and the seeds out, because these are supposed to be where the heat is in the pepper.

Now mind you, I've cut many a pepper, but have never needed to wear gloves. Yes, I've gotten that burning sensation you can get from hot spices, but never too bad for me to worry about it. This time however was different. Very different. I had noticed that my fingers had that same slight burning to them that they get when handling spicy foods. I just thought that was all that was going to happen. I was wrong. Very wrong.
I got the peppers stuffed, cheesed and put them in the oven at 350F. I was headed back to my computer to let them cook for about 15 - 20 minutes, when I realized my fingers (thumb, index finger, and middle finger all on both hands) were still burning after I had washed them pretty well with dish soap. Thinking maybe I had just gotten them covered in the hot portion of the chili peppers or maybe it was from the spices I had put on the meat and it would subside, I decided to continue putting my attention back to the computer.

After typing a few words, the burning got a lot worse. So what does one do when they have burning fingers? Put their fingers in cool water. This helped for all of 5 minutes (at which time it just continued to burn/got worse from the water), so I tried white vinegar which didn't work at all (I still swear it just got worse). I decided to ask the hubby to see if he could find something online that might be able to help with chili pepper burns.

He found a few sites that had some ideas such as cool water, wash with soap, dilute bleach in water and soak hands (tried all but the bleach idea). Then he saw one that said that because chili pepper burns were from the oil in the pepper to use rubbing alcohol (cuts the oil) to wipe down the affected area then soak fingers in milk. This sorta worked... until the milk heated up from my hands being in there. I kept going back and forth with this for about 45 minutes, yet the burning didn't stop.

A friend of ours that we talk to online luckily came on (she's an EMT), and told the hubby that I needed to run luke warm (cold water can make you blister instead) water over my fingers for about 15 minutes then wash hands with dish soap really well. I tried this, but 15 minutes wasn't enough. I wound up with my hands under the water for about an hour (at least) and the luke warm water just didn't seem to cool the burn. Finally the hubby did his daily call to his mother. She said she had the same thing happen to her before, and had tried all the same type of remedies, and had dealt with it for 12 hours before she decided to try honey, which worked though she had to leave it on for a good amount of time.

I was eager to try anything so out came the honey bottle. The hubby proceeded to squeeze the sticky liquid over my finger. It actually was helping! It still burned but it did cool it slightly. I decided to run water over my fingers until they started to feel like the heat was cooking the honey. I then put some more on my fingers and I realized that my fingers were a lot better. It had finally started to subside after about 15 minutes of the honey on my fingers. Needless to say I learned my lesson, unless it's a bell pepper, I will be using gloves while playing with my peppers! ( I also was told , by a nice woman who saw my message on Foodbuzz about the burning fingers, that mayonnaise is supposed to work also.)


As to the stuffed chili peppers, they tasted awesome! They had a smokey heat to them, and a great flavor. Was it worth the pain? Not really, but at least I learned something very important that was a lesson worth the pain: When playing with fire (chili peppers) wear protection (gloves)!

Sauteed Tofu and Brown rice Stir fry

Tofu is definitely an "acquired taste" to a lot of people. Meaning they don't like it much or choose to not eat it because they believe it has no flavor. Well they can be sort of right about the no flavor thing. Tofu is one of those rare foods that instead of having it's own unique taste, it takes on the taste of the foods cooked with it. Rice can also be the same way, very plain unless you work with it. The thing about both of these ingredients are that they are very good for you, but you have to take in to account to add a few things to get them to have the right flavor you're looking for.

I've been known to cut up tofu and let it soak in chicken/beef/vegtable broth, to give it some more flavor. I also try to season it quite a bit more than usual (I don't use as many spices in any other food, at least I don't think I do :) ) and use sesame seed oil (much more flavor than your regular cooking oil, not to mention it smells wonderful) to cook it in when I choose to try to crisp it up a bit. Now when I say spice I should probably say season instead. Spice tends to make people think of two things, either "hot" or in the case of my husband (and all the other people out there that enjoy it) Dune ("He who controls the Spice, controls the universe!"). I felt the need before I moved on to clarify that I didn't use hot spices (though I really really wanted to), or ones that aren't considered hot when cooked.

Brown rice is great in so many ways (not processed as much as say white rice) but the flavor is pretty dull. Make sure to rinse your rice till it the water is clear and not cloudy, not only does this get rid of starch and other little bits that you don't want to eat but it makes the rice taste much better. I like to take some oil or butter and add it to the pan for the rice then add the rice to it and let it get a little brown. When you do this you MUST watch it and stir frequently as it burns easily and will stick. A nutty aroma tells you when it's ready for you to do the next part, either put more flavor in it or add water. I used garlic salt, chicken bullion and ginger powder in mine to give it a wonderful, yet light smell and taste to it. When you add this continue to stir it into the rice for a minute or so longer. Add your water (rice is usually 1 1/2 cups water to every cup of rice, if you don't like to use a measuring cup or don't have one I go with the "about an inch above the rice" method), bring to a boil and cover (reduce heat to low).


Do NOT take the lid off no matter how tempting it is (I've also read that putting the lid on at an angle to allow steam out, then when there are holes in the rice from water drips put the lid on tight and down to low heat works well, but I personally do not do this... blame my mother for making sure to say "Do NOT take the lid off!" :P ). I am lucky and have a glass lid for the pan I use to cook rice in, which means I can tell usually when my rice is done by looking at it and seeing drip holes in the rice from the water. When this occurs leave it on the low heat for about 15 minutes longer, turn off the stove then and fluff your rice. You can add many things at this point (green onion, chopped nuts, etc).
Tofu on the other hand is of course different. I choose to fry mine lightly till it had a golden color to it. Using extra firm tofu place it on a couple of napkins and using another couple, pat it dry of the liquid from the package. I cut mine into cubes, but the shape doesn't matter as long as they are similar in size so they cook evenly. Heat up a pan at medium heat and add sesame seed oil (doesn't need too much 1-2 tablespoons should be plenty) and because I like sesame seeds, add them into the oil just before adding your tofu. Cook this till there is a golden color to it and add in chopped up fresh ginger ( I used a piece about the size of both my thumbs together), chopped green onions, and about 3 cloves of minced (or pressed with a garlic press) garlic. Let saute for a few more minutes then add in your veggies (zucchini and shredded carrots for me this time). Now I'd suggest adding in soy sauce to this mixture, but I waited till after I took my pictures to add mine because I loved the colors of the food with out it.

Spoon your stir fry onto the rice and add an Asian hot sauce or more soy sauce on top. I also would suggest if you like hot peppers, dice some up and add it to the stir fry, I personally couldn't do that unless I wanted and even larger battle about food than I already got about the soy sauce "burning" someones tongue/neck (someone, being the little one). I'm still thinking it's because he didn't want to eat the tofu cause it wasn't in his range of things that are normal, even though I make plenty of things with it that he doesn't even know it's in :). The hubby loved it and I loved it, considering taste buds at the age of 9 don't know what is good all the time, I'd still say this dinner was a success (at least for 2 out of the 3 of us anyways :) )!

Onion Rings and another Burger

Over Labor day weekend I decided it was time for another hamburger. I didn't want french fries and I didn't have any eggplant to make eggplant fries, but I did have a few good sized onions. Onion rings were what I decided to make since I haven't done it in quite some time and both the hubby and myself love them.
Onion rings are pretty simple to make but time consuming if you don't have enough counter space or a deep fryer. I use my regular saute pan and put in about a half inch to an inch and a half of oil (I used olive oil). As for the onions, get them ready before you get your oil heating up. Slice two good sized onions in half inch slices (make sure to separate them) and take out the little pieces in the middle that aren't really rings cause they are too compact, set them aside for another dish or something else that is in need of chopped onion. Take about four cups of all purpose(wheat or white works) flour (more or less depending on how many you are going to make.) and salt and pepper it to your liking, making sure to mix it well.

Now this is where most people divide the flour, but I choose not to. I used my casserole dish to hold the flour, put the slices into the flour, coating them evenly and set into a bowl. Crack an egg into another bowl and add water to it (about the same amount of water as egg) and mix well. Using your hands take a few onion rings at a time and place them in the egg/water mixture then using a fork (my genius mother suggested this from when she made my eggplant fries) take the onion rings out of the egg and put them back into the flour you used previously to do the first coat. Make sure to coat the onions well and they are ready for the hot oil!
The oil should only need to be at medium low to medium heat, hotter than that will cause it to smoke and burn. Add the onion rings to the oil, watch them and flip when they get a beautiful golden color on one side. When they are done place them on a plate with napkins/paper towels to soak up excess oil and let cool a bit before serving.

I also said I made a hamburger. Well that is pretty simple as I used lean ground beef, mixed with salt, pepper, paprika, and a few drops of liquid smoke to season it. Cook them as I suggested on my other hamburger post, except instead of adding in the cheese I decided to let it melt on top as I finished them off. I also used wonderful homemade hamburger buns that I found over at Our Best Bites. They have a recipe for French Bread, Hoggies, and Buns. I didn't do any changing except for using half all purpose wheat flour & half regular all purpose flour as well as substituting the vegetable oil for extra virgin olive oil (it was all I had at the time).

They turned out perfect, I think I will be using this recipe for hamburgers and quite a few other sandwiches from now on (unless of course I find yet another that I like)!

Home fries with Zucchini and Tomatoes

One of the things I used to do before times were a little tighter and my family and I decided to try to cut back on costs (as many people do, whether it's because of the recession or because you just want to save a little more on food costs) was go out to breakfast. I miss quite a few things from restaurant breakfasts, but one of the things I enjoyed were home fries.

For those whom don't know what home fries (or cottage fries) are, they are the alternative to hash browns, and from my experience have more things incorporated with them than the latter that make them more appealing to me. They are usually a side dish used with any of the usual breakfast foods (eggs, pancakes, etc).

Well I decided to make some for the hubby and myself (the little one like his corn flakes/Shreddies too much and potatoes too little for me to change the breakfast harmony that we have). I also decided since zucchini is still in abundance at the store (and quite cheap I may add) along with some tomato chunks to my version of home fries.

For the potatoes, cut three of them in half and then length wise in half again (quarters) then cut each quarter into half inch chunks. I tend to soak my potatoes in cool water before I cook them to get more of the starch out, and I've heard the longer you let them soak (at least rinse) the more it cuts down on it (and a few other things which aren't so appetizing).

While you let the potatoes soak, cut your zucchini in quarter inch circles, quartering the circles and putting them to the side. Cut some roma tomatoes into chunks about the same size at the zucchini and set them to the side as well. Dice a small or medium sized onion and mince 3 cloves of garlic, setting them to the side as well.

When you feel you've had enough potato soaking, get a pan of water boiling and par boil your potatoes just till when you put a fork into one it doesn't give that "crunch" a raw potato has. Drain well and get a pan heated up at medium heat and some olive oil. When the oil is shimmery add in the onions and garlic, letting them soften before adding the potatoes to the pan. Cook these till they have gotten a nice golden brown color on each side. Toss in the zucchini, letting them get a more vibrant green then add in your tomatoes. These only need a couple of minutes of cooking to get them where you want them :).
Make some toast or a couple of eggs and you have a healthy breakfast for two!