Hot Sauce Connoisseur

Several years ago when Stewart returned from the border of Mexico in Texas as a Spanish-speaking missionary, he had embraced most Tex-Mex foods. He especially loved spicy things and could eat Tabasco sauce almost every night. I, on the other, hand, having been also in Texas, speaking very little Spanish, had grown up a Wisconsin Farmer's Daughter (O.K., it was a hobby farm, but it flows better with the song), and loved many Tex-Mex foods, but had a milder tongue. I was still taking baby steps, and thought I had made great leaps when I learned to make fajitas (without hot sauce). Well, Stewart had started a Tabasco collection in our fridge, taking up at least half a row on a shelf. He loves his little hot sauce babies, including his fiery hot ones, and has specific names for each bottle.

Stu: Could you get the salsa verde for me?
Me: The little green one?
Stu: That's the one!

Stu: Do we have any habanero?
Me: Ahh, let me check (I have to read the labels, forgetting if habanero is extra spicy).

So recently my sixth-grade ELL students and I had a belated Christmas party. It was late January, but we had missed our planned Christmas party due to a snow day on the last day before break. The students and I brought snacks and games. One of my Latina girls brought Ruffles chips and a big bottle of hot sauce. The other African and Latino/a students are all excited about her hot sauce and start pouring it all over their crackers and chips while talking about how they love hot sauce and spicy foods, too, and all about jalapenos, and different chile peppers they like, and how their parents brew up homemade hot sauce with home-grown firey vegetables. They know I have a milder tongue, but they see me smiling at them, and say I really need to try some of her hot sauce. Is it spicy? They don't think so. Ha! I have a few past experiences receiving a fire-burned tongue because of hot sauce..... I put just one minute drop on my chip (and I make sure the bottle drips very slowly) and prepare for the RED HOT tears as I take a bite.... No pain. It's pretty good. I smile, and say, "I liked it!" This girl says, "We eat hot sauce all the time and put it on everything, even fruit." Fruit? Wow. I know I've been sheltered... Maybe I will try that sometime....