HOT SAUCE

My husband and I love to cook for our family and for guests. Most evenings when we get home from work and the children get home from school we gather in the kitchen and make dinner. When the children were younger they would do there home work at the counter so we could answer any questions that they had. Now that they are older they are asked to help out with the cooking tasks as well as setting the table. This has been part of the routine since the children were infants, so they do not complain about being involved.

Our oldest son, who is a senior in high school this year, enjoys cooking. He is involved in football in the fall so he misses the preparation of dinner. It was nice to hear him say that he missed the time with the family. One of the first nights after the football season was over he asked if he could make dinner for us. He had been watching the food channel and had seen a recipe he wanted to try. He asked the day before so I bought the ingredients that he needed on my way home from work. It was a southwestern recipe, which is one of his favorite cuisines. I set the table and chopped the ingredients for the salad as he prepared the main dish. The recipe called for hot sauce to be mixed in with the meat. We all like spicy food so I did not think anything of having the hot sauce in the recipe. I had thought the jar we had at home was close to empty so I picked up a new bottle of hot sauce at the store. My husband came home and we visited with the kids while our oldest cooked.

The dish included seasoned beef, refried beans, rice and homemade chili gravy to pour over the top. The kitchen smelled wonderful. Soon he was putting everything into serving bowls and we sat down to eat. Our middle son that loves everything extra spicy grabbed the bottle of hot sauce to have at the table. We said grace and began passing the wonderful smelling dinner. Our middle son poured extra hot sauce on his helping and took a big mouthful. His eyes welled up and his face turned bright red. It took him several minutes before he could speak. At first we thought he was giving his brother a hard time, and then we realized that he was not joking. I tasted the food and thought that it was spicy, but very good. My husband looked at the bottle of hot sauce. I had bought the extra extra hot. Our middle son recovered after a piece of bread and a glass of water. I do not think he will ever use hot sauce again without first reading the label.