Jalapeno juice is not an acceptable substitute for eye drops.

So on the menu for tonight's dinner was:
          stuffed chicken breasts with broccoli & cheese
          twice baked potato casserole (Thanks Jim and Traci for the inspiration!)
          corn muffins

We were rockin' and rollin' with the cooking in the kitchen.  The times to cook things were lining up, and all of the dishes were coming together really well.  I had not originally planned on cooking corn muffins but they looked good when I was reviewing our items from the pantry.  As I was scooping the corn muffin mix into the muffin tins I was like holy jeez I should add some of our freshly picked jalapenos to some of this batter for mine and Corry's muffins. 

I quickly scooped out the seeds and chopped them up into small bits, scraped them into the bowl and scooped the remaining muffins into the tin.  I was moving the tin over by the oven to get in line to be cooked in roughly 10 minutes and something in my eye started itching.  Without even thinking about the fact that I had not yet washed my hands I moved my fingers up and itched the corner of my eyelid. 

HOLY JEEZ!!!  I have had a lot of bad ideas in my life, but they all suddenly pale in comparison to the utter horror and stabbing red hot poker-like pain that was radiating from my right eye.  I instantly freak out because I am wearing contacts and I know from a million years in science class that all a contact lens does is hold the offensive liquid closer to your eyeball.  I'm screaming for my husband (where is the camera to be recording this for YouTube when you need it?) and luckily he comes to help me.  I get my contact out, rinse out my eye for what seems like years, and changed into my glasses.  I had always heard don't go to the bathroom or rub your face until you wash your hands after cutting hot peppers like that but have never experienced it until tonight.   

It has been more than 30 minutes since I stopped rinsing my eye and it still feels like I have an awful sunburn on the outside and inside of my eye.  Please God tell me this is going to get better...

On the bright side, we had an excellent meal despite the burned eye situation.   

My mouth is on fire!

My husband had to work late tonight for his job and I get home later than most Americans, I think, from work which stinks especially considering that I leave my house in the mornings around 5:30am.   Because of this we decided that Chicken Express was going to make an appearance for dinner. Bad, I know, but still so good.  I must confess -  I am super excited (sarcastically) about cooking when I get home from an 11 hour workday and a 1.5hour commute each way.  Pretty much the only thing I am excited about after work is seeing my family, vegging out on the sofa and convincing my husband that I am not going to fall asleep watching television.  We have been together since 2007 and I would say that on average I fall asleep watching television at night at least 3-4 nights a week... for some reason he doesn't just leave me there.  I'm not going to lie that if I had to gripe to someone to get off the sofa and go to bed everyday for 5+ years, that I would be sleeping alone and they would be on the sofa!!

 

For all those who aren't swooning right now about our dinner, or those who live under a rock and are unfamiliar, Chicken Express is a fast food chicken place with awesome sweet tea (unsweet now for us), chicken and sides.  Up until today I had a love/hate relationship with their chicken tenders, okra, yeast rolls, and jalapeno poppers.  Now it's more of a straight-up hatred.  They have changed their recipe or started using only the seeds in their poppers or something.  Normally you got one really hot one in a batch and the rest just have the awesome flavor of cheddar cheese and jalapenos without the insane heat.  That was refreshing because you could get the heat but still taste the rest of your dinner.  The last time we ate there all four of them were BURNING hot.  I do not appreciate spicy foods to begin with, and especially not hot enough food where I feel like smoke is coming out of my mouth.  I like the taste of jalapenos and I like to cook with jalapenos but that's where I draw the line.  I don't need to cry while eating my food and I don't need to have my tongue burned off in order to feel like I had an awesome eating experience. 

Now, after five of them, I think that my tongue has been singed and is potentially going to crumble to ash in about five minutes.  Not a good feeling.  Now that we know this little piece of information, will we continue to order them?  In all honesty, yes, because they are awesome.  If I could figure out how to make these at home, we wouldn't eat there nearly as often and I would still have some feeling in my tongue. 

-Sara