Peppers

My family has a long tradition of entertaining. My grandmother’s home was always the gathering spot for the extended family to come. When she passed away the gatherings were done at my parent’s home. Now that they have downsized into an apartment the gatherings are at my home. This is fine with me. I love getting things ready for a house full of guests. We have family gatherings as well as gatherings for friends. I have learned that it is important to keep in mind the likes and dislikes so guests.

My family loves spicy food. My mother never thought a dish was complete if it did not contain hot peppers. The majority of her dishes had that extra kick to them that you can only get from the use of hot peppers. When my husband first joined the family he needed to adjust to the spicy flavors in mom’s cooking. He developed a taste for the spiciness and so we began using the hot peppers and other savory spices in our cooking.

We were planning a dinner for his family. We were celebrating the birth of his brother’s first grand daughter. The father of the baby is from India, so he appreciates spicy foods. We decided that we would have a few spicy dishes on the buffet. I made a shrimp dish with hot peppers and tomatoes over rice. The dish turned out very well and looked very colorful. I also made a chicken dish that was a more traditional recipe and several salads. My mother-in-law does not like spicy food in any way. She thinks ketchup is too spicy. I did not get a chance to explain to her about the hot peppers in the shrimp. She took a bite and started choking. Her eyes were watering and she left the table with a very red face. She can be quite dramatic. She needed to lay down in a dark room to get over the trauma. The funny thing was that my father-in-law ate two helpings of the shrimp and told me that I would have to give my mother-in-law the recipe. Everyone else enjoyed all the food we served.

I did learn my lesson to serve more common foods around my husband’s mother. She is the kind of person that looks for things to complain about and often creates an issue if she cannot find one. I do not have to provide her with ammunition. She told one of her neighbors that she is certain her airway was closed off for several minutes due to the intensity of the hot peppers.

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