What a Day!

A couple of interesting things have happened today, so I'll try to go in order.


First, I see a strange phone # pop up on my cell phone this afternoon at work.  Being that I do not answer #'s that I do not recognize, I didn't answer and hit "reject".  The  phone immediately rang again from the same #.  I did recognize that the # was from Bremen, so I snatched the phone up, worrying that something had happened to Steven.  It was Steven, calling from a gas station in Bremen.  The first thing he said was "Mom, I have an emergency!" and my heart fell and I got sick to my stomach, immediately worrying that he'd been in an accident.  Long story short, he managed to lock his keys in the car.  I told him I'd get Clydie or Brian to come get him, but that they'd have to come to the hospital to see me since I have the other set of keys.


I didn't even think to ask Steven what gas station he was stranded at, so while I was waiting on Brian to come get my keys, I Googled it and found the one he called from.  Brian came and got my keys, and we both had a good laugh about Steven's first "emergency".


While I'd been on the phone with Steven, he blurted out that he got the job he'd gone to interview for.  Seems the hiring manager was real pleased that Steven didn't have any job experience - Clydie and I both told him that was because the hiring manager knew they'd be able to train him their way, without him bringing any previous work habits into play.  (he got a server position at Cracker Barrel)


And the last interesting thing for today.....


Tonight for dinner, we had this luscious chicken Lombardy, homemade mac & cheese, and some peas.  Brian decides he wants a pepper for dinner, and I get to choose whether it's a jalapeno or a Carolina Reaper.  I chose the Reaper. 


But here's a little history on the Reaper - when I bought a pepper plant a few months ago, it was labeled Carolina Reaper.  A couple of weeks later, I went back and they had a plant that wasn't labeled, other than being in the box that said "Reaper, Scorpion, & Ghost peppers".  I knew the plant didn't look like a Ghost, so I assumed it was the Scorpion.  The one that was labeled Reaper already had some peppers on it that ripened quickly for us to try.  While it was hot, it really wasn't nearly as hot as I expected it to be.


Fast forward to this 'mystery' pepper - we were still thinking this was a Scorpion of some kind, but after looking at many photos on the internet, we determined that the original pepper that was labeled "Reaper", was in fact a Trinidad Scorpion pepper, and this "mystery" pepper is the real Reaper.  Some of you may know that the Reaper is considered to be one of the hottest peppers - in the world!  Scorpions are up there, as well, but I was really that impressed with it back when I tried it, as far as heat goes.  It did have a good flavor to it, but it wasn't as hot as I expected.


So tonight, I take a small piece of the Reaper (and when I say small, I mean about the size of a black eyed pea, split in half lengthwise) and bunched it up with some of the mac & cheese.  Holy shitballs that MoFo was HOT!!!  I have NEVER had a pepper nearly this hot - not even the HOT salsa Brian made this past weekend (that had Reapers, Scorpions, Habaneros, Serranos, Jalapenos, and Cowhorns in it) compared to the heat in this tiny bite!  There was an almost immediate request for a glass of milk, which Steven dragged his ass getting.  I had the "hot pepper lurch" 3-4 times (where your stomach lurches/jumps in protest to the fire I just consumed) in waiting for Steven to get the milk.  Then I rushed him to get me a piece of loaf bread to try to tame the heat.  It took a while, but my mouth finally settled down.


I do not believe I will ever, and I mean EVER, eat another Reaper.  EVER!!!!


Brian ate maybe a half teaspoon of chopped up Reaper, and his entire head turned as red as a radish, and he had tears watering up and was covered in sweat.  I thought he was gonna finish off the pepper, but nope, he stored it away for another day (or another batch of salsa).   He had Steven touch his tongue to the blade of the knife, and Steven was suffering from the heat!  Even just that little bit on the knife blade was enough to have him gulping tea and sipping on milk, too.  LOL