03 April 2010

Hot Soup! MMMM, MMMM, blechhh, cough OW!


That pot o' goodness, above, was a big batch of soup.* It was my dinner.

I'll call it Tired 'N' Lazy Soup. Because I was real tired when I got home...and feeling lazy. So it was some broth and noodles from the pantry, some fresh carrot, and (alas) canned peas and corn. Ordinarily those ingredients, left all alone, would have filled the belly but bored the tastebuds. I have a big jar of bay leaves on top of my Chinese Medicine Cabinet, and they always add some oomph to basic broth. A nice leaf in the pot, I say, along with a few white peppercorns. Nosing around in the fridge, I spied a serrano chili pepper lounging in the vegetable bin. Yeah, man, just the thing. So I minced up the pepper and put that in the broth.

Looks innocent, yes?

Now, I wasn't expecting this to be a culinary masterpiece, and that was the case. It did what it was supposed to do, which was feed me without a lot of fuss.

But remember that bay leaf?

I finished the soup, and was ladling it up, when I snagged the bay leaf to get it out of the pot. Bay leaves (as many of you already know) are meant to flavor food, not be the food. This I know, but somewhere between the stove and the sink I forgot...without thinking I stuck the leaf in my mouth and for who knows why I bit down on it

Oh good lawd...talk about bitter. My mouth twisted up like it had just discovered the King of the Lemons. Blechhh, erk...I quickly spit it out. I was licking my lips and scraping my tongue like a golden retriever with a mouthful of Jif. Fortunately, the soup and a glass of beer removed the taste of alimony from my mouth.

So dinner was over, I'm cleaning up. Full belly and time to relax! I went to the bathroom to wash up. On the way there, something ended up in the corner of my eye. I reached up with a fingertip to try and dislodge it.

Remember that serrano pepper?

I hadn't washed my hands after cutting up the pepper. The capsaicin was still on my fingers. It quickly made its way into my eye.

Ow. OW. OW! Jay-zus, that hurt! I looked like Popeye as I staggered into the bathroom.

After my eye stopped burning, I made a beeline for the couch, staying far away from the leftover soup. It sat there on the counter, staring at me...I think it even laughed...


*Really? Gee, thanks, Captain Obvious, for illuminating that for us!

14 comments:

  1. LOL, I am sorry for laughing at your pain, but it is a funny story and I have done similar things in the past. Not the pepper in the eye though, wow, that must really hurt !
    The kitchen is a dangerous place.. Take-Out is safer. :)

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  2. Wow. That soup looked . . . hmmm. well, not quite so dangerous? now, this is from a girl who is lucky enough to have her indian parents visiting her for two days straight and just had chicken curry, goat stew, chicken tandoori - all washed down with homemade roti and basmati rice. I will commisserate with you next week when my fam is living on kraft mac and cheese, ok?
    Kiran aka measureTHISgirl/MasalaChica

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  3. Youch! I've had jalapeno and serrano juice in my eyes before. And elsewhere . . . Speaking of elsewhere, two words: Icy Hot. Youch!

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  4. Could have been worse, you could have went to the bathroom first.

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  5. Captain cracked me up. Now I forgot what I was going to write...

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  6. Great post! Funny on many levels, mainly, I'm thinking, because I'm grateful to be just an observer here, and not you!

    Aye, Capnt!

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  7. Been there with the hot stuff in the eye before and YES... OWTCHIE!

    Hubby makes soup for himself sometimes and uses the cheap packages of noodles, you know, the ones all the college kids live off of. Top Ramen. They come with little spice packets to make the broth, and he adds his own veggies.

    This method of cooking soup saves his eyes.

    Di
    The Blue Ridge Gal

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  8. I love me soup to! An old staple diet for the Irish of course, on either side of that potato business obviously!

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  9. I don't want to laugh... but... yikes!

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  10. I think Captain Dumbass has the bright side covered.

    Happy Easter!

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  11. Dinner safety: goggles and rubber gloves.

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  12. Nice peas in that soup. I watch out for bay leaves, peppers and ginger root.

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  13. Next time, take the time to put disposable gloves on when working with peppers. Save you a lot of owies!

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  14. I was going to say what Captain Dumbass said but he said it first. So I won't.

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