Hi C-Hs, I thought you might like to hear about my latest adventure in the kitchen. Our office had a cookout last week and everybody was asked to bring something. I was specifically asked to bring salsa and chips. I made three batches of salsa with three different heat levels - Fairly Mild, Pretty Darn Spicy, and Fiery Hot. The Fairly Mild used NM green and red chiles from my garden. The Pretty Darn Spicy added green and red serranos to the mix. As you may imagine my Fiery Hot included habaneros, Endorphin Rush hot sauce, and a dash of Pure Cap (we have some guys who love to prove how tough they are). I was very careful in the kitchen while I was making the salsas. We've had several unpleasant situations where my non-CH family found hot stuff where it shouldn't be, so I cleaned up very carefully. Unfortunately, our dishwasher was not working so I had to wash everything by hand in hot soapy water. The salsa was a hit at the cookout and the small amount of leftover Fiery Hot went home with one of my co-workers. This weekend I decided to make some oatmeal raisin cookies. I mixed up the cookie dough and popped the first batch into the oven. As usual, the house filled with the smell of freshly baked cookies and the family was there to taste them when the first batch came out of the oven. When they were cool enough to eat we each grabbed one and stood there with happy smiles on our faces. As we finished our cookies my wife looked at me with a puzzled look in her eyes which quickly became an accusing look. "Did you put chiles in those cookies?!!" I replied that I very specifically did NOT put any chiles in the cookies, but that I, too, had noticed a definite "zing" to the cookies. We looked at each other, then looked at the bowl of cookie dough. There it sat, in the same plastic bowl which I had used to mix my Fiery Hot salsa. In the past I had always washed my salsa-preparation dishes in the dishwasher, which must have had the right kind of detergent to remove the "hot stuff" from the dishes. Apparently the dish soap I used when I washed the dishes by hand didn't remove the capsaicin from the plastic of the bowl. So, now I have a double batch of oatmeal raisin Chile-Head cookies which I'm enjoying with a co-worker who is also a C-H. By the way, I did make another batch of oatmeal raisin cookies for the family, using a stainless steel bowl this time. You can bet I'll be VERY careful how I clean up the next time I make salsa. -- Mike (C-H #36, hab seed intact) Carpe Capsicum! (My words, not NASA's)