Being a fan of cooking myself, I have run into this very same problem. Thankfully, the wonderful world of chemistry provided me with a solution which I will relay here, even though it's quite off-topic. The acid can get really into your skin, I /think/ because it mixes with your natural oils. Since I deal with hot peppers often (salsa is fun to make!), I've found that washing your hands once with soap and water, then covering them with a thin layer of baking soda, then rinsing them again, ensures that you will never be in riduculous amounts of burning pain if you for some reason need to start poking at your cornea. ;) The baking soda will neutralize those wonderful pepper acids lickety-split. Just so this post isn't COMPLETELY off-topic, I will bring up something I've curious about. Steve, I've noticed that you spend time carefully describing meals throughout your books, especially in the Khaavren Romances. As opposed to just saying 'they ate a meal of meat and bread', we get these savoury images of roasted kethna wrapped in warm flour pastries with an assortment of sauteed mushrooms. Have you, or has anyone, ever come up with recipes for some of these delicious meals? ____________________________________ Mark Porter Putting the 'Fun' back in Fundamentalist Dogma