Serrano Peppers! Burn!

Last week, I wanted to celebrate being with Ryan and Jeni. It was just another day, but they are so much fun to be around.
I went to a Mexican market to look for a dessert and bought two slices of Pastel de Tres Leches (Trans: Three Milk Cake). While there I saw some fresh cactus and decided to teach them how to make cactus and eggs.

The serrano pepper has better flavor than the jalapeno pepper; but in Nashville, these peppers have been mild, like bell peppers--not hot at all.
So, I bought a handfull of serrano peppers, some ripe tomatoes, an onion and decided to make some fresh blended hot sauce.
This was going to be fun cooking cactus. I took all to Jen's and asked Ryan to wash the already cut cactus. I asked Jen to de-vein the serrano pepper. She was doing this so carefully with a knife. Impatiently, I just picked up the serrano, popped it open with my index finger, like I had done with jalapenos so many times before, then proceeded to de-vein and tear out the seeds and membrane that carry the heat in the chile. I have to admit I was smarting off. Hey, I did remember to wash my hands; but had forgotten how the serrano oil was so much more potent than pickled jalapeno.
All of a sudden I started sneezing. It was the fumes of the chile at hand. I accused them both of spilling some black pepper. I had just grabbed my nose while sneezing when all of a sudden my skin under my nose on my top lip began to BURN. I had itched my eyebrow and now it was BURNING. I was on fire!!! Jen gave me some Neosporin for my face that helped. I washed my hands many times after that. Silly me!
Whew that was over! .. or that's what I thought. That night, when I got home and took off my one contact, I accidentally touched my eye with my index de-veiner finger. BURN!!! It was not over! I hopped and screamed. I washed my hands again, and again and finally took a shower! The next morning, I reluctantly opened my contact case, cleaned it and slowly moved it near my eye and thought I could smell the oil or maybe I just remembered the pain and decided to throw it ALL away...contact case and all in the trash! Whew! Finally gone. Go Nashville! Now we have HOT serranos!