Dehydrating Jalapenos - Learning My Lesson

My jalapeno plants went insane this year. I planted two Mammoth Jalapeno plants and ended up with probably four to five gallons of jalapenos that my family doesn't even eat. We gave two gallons to my Korean mother-in-law who said they weren't hot enough. We gave one gallon to @rockchickjen's husband, @hangrydwarf who said he almost cried while eating some. To each their own I suppose!


The other two gallons we decided to dehydrate for seasoning. What fun THAT was.





I halved each pepper, scooped the seeds and veiny things out, then halved them again. I arranged the peppers on my dehydrating trays so none of the touched. This whole time, I experienced no burning on my hands or my eyes or anywhere.






I kept the stems and seeds and such for the chickens...they aren't laying anyway so it isn't like it's going to change the taste of their eggs. Maybe this will set fire to their asses and MAKE them lay!!! Hahaha!






I gave what was left to my MIL to devour at her will...probably raw.








SOOOOOO...
I did all that at about 2pm. I washed my hands several times after that in both Dawn dish soap and regular hand soap. I used the bathroom, cleaned the kitchen...lots of things that involve getting my hands wet and soapy. It wasn't until I had a shower and shampooed my hair that my hand began to tingle. By the time I was out of the shower and dressed...my hands were on fire. They didn't get red, they didn't get swollen, but they felt like I had just stuck them in hot coals. Hot Pepper Hand Syndrome. I Googled it. I slathered my hands in vegetable oil, olive oil, coconut oil. I even used a good amount of lavender oil and lemon oil. Nothing helped. I went to bed with my hands in plastic bags with cool cloths.


The next morning my hands were fine. I will never again handle hot peppers bare handed. I felt really, really dumb.





About 18 hours, and several tray rotations later...almost all the peppers were dry.





I tried grinding them in my little food processor, but it just made a little powder and a lot of noise.








So after all that I filled...half a jar. Half a jar of peppers to be used in fajitas, chilies, and whatever else requires a kick. I'm going to use them basically in place of crushed red pepper or whatever.

Next time I will remember the gloves.