Jalapeno does NOT go well with contact lenses

Yes, it's true, and unfortunately I would know. I tried a new slow cooker recipe today - refried beans without the refry. I found it on the Internet and it sounded pretty yummy. It has to simmer all day, so this morning right after breakfast I started throwing everything together. One of the ingredients is jalapeno pepper, so I cleaned and chopped one up and threw it in the slow cooker. Knowing that they can be hot, I was careful to thoroughly wash my hands and went about the rest of my morning. I exercised, picked up a few toys, went to the bathroom a couple times, of course washing my hands after each time. It wasn't until I was getting ready to take a shower and put in my contact lenses that I ran into problems. Immediately after I put the first contact in, my eye started burning excessively. I'm not talking a little bit of lotion on the contact burn, I mean, burning so bad that I almost couldn't keep my eye open long enough to get the contact out. I stood there puzzled for a moment, trying to figure out what in the world could have possibly caused my contact to burn like that. Then it dawned on me: the jalapeno. So I stuck my contact back in the case with some solution and decided to jump in the shower and wash my hands really good again. After I got out, I was hoping that I would be able to put my contacts in, but no, same problem.

So I did what any girl in my situation would do, I called my mommy. She used to wear contacts, so I thought she might have some motherly advice that would help me out of my predicament. She had more than advice; she had insight. After I told my mother the story, her response was, "You know, something like that happened to me once," and she proceeded to tell me about the time that she had spent all day canning homemade salsa. That night she took her contacts out without a thought and the next morning when she put them in again, she had the same problem. We decided that I shouldn't try to put them in for a couple days until the jalapeno had a chance to wash off my hands. I think I'm going to scrub my hands with some baking soda to help neutralize the jalapeno. Then, I am going to soak my contact in milk for a while and then wash it with my contact solution and let it soak in that for a while. Hopefully that will take care of the burning. Until then, I am wearing my glasses, blah. I think I want corrective eye surgery sooner rather than later.

The moral of the story is, if you are handling jalapeno peppers, either wear gloves or wash your hands with baking soda afterward so as not to inadvertently burn your eyes.

In case anyone was wondering, the refried beans turned out awesome. We wrapped them up with cheese in whole wheat tortillas, topped with salsa and had a fresh green salad on the side. It was a scrumptious, healthy dinner.