FROM THE LABORATORIES OF HABANEROS OF TEXAS:

1) Capsaicin (the active ingredient in habanero and all hot peppers) is not soluble in water, therefore trying to rid one's mouth of that burning sensation by drinking water is almost fruitless. Capsaicin, however, is soluble in oil and alcohol. Milk, therefore is an excellent chaser since it contains oil (fat).

2) H.O.T. Powder makes an excellent additive to the common "picante" sauce. Some H.O.T. Heads buy "Pace" off the shelf and add a teaspoon full of H.O.T. powder. As in the original H.O.T. Sauce, let it sit overnight to reconstitute the H.O.T. Powder.

3) Add a pinch of H.O.T. Powder to a pot of beans and let them cook awhile. WOW, what a punch!!

HEALING PEPPERS:

From an article in "Prevention's Best Healing Remedies"

Many of our favorite culinary combustibles - steaming tacos, blistering burritos, and atomic enchiladas - call for peppers: fresh peppers and dried peppers, large and small peppers, peppers of all shades of red, green, and yellow, peppers with one ingredient in common: capsaicin.

Capsaicin is the stuff that makes hot chili hot - or, sometimes H-O-T! Capsaicin is so hot, in fact, it can be detected by the tongue even when it is diluted to 1 part in 11 million. This scorching stuff isn't just a shortcut to heartburn, however. A diet of capsaicin-rich foods can break up sinus and chest congestion, and may help ward off infections too.

A HEALING TORRENT:

What happens when you take a bite of something really, really hot? "Basically, it stimulates glands in your nose, which then starts running," says Gordon Rafael, M.D., associate clinical professor of medicine at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. "Your eyes tear and you sweat. You salivate to get what's hot out of your mouth."

Essentially, all of that wheezing, gasping, and blowing can help reduce cold and flu congestion almost immediately. In fact, the pepper principle does some of the same things for your stuffy head that a hot bowl of chicken soup - or an over-the-counter expectorant - might do, Dr. Rafael says.

There's another benefit to courting the chili burn, according to Dr. Rafael. The resulting nasal Niagara falls contains the antibacterial compounds lactophenin and lysozyme. "These things being secreted are fairly potent, anti-infectant chemicals that serve as a first-line defense," he says. "so eating some of those spicy foods may help you get over colds, and they can help keep your nose clear," Dr Rafael concludes.

And to think, we here at Habaneros Of Texas thought we were selling delicious H.O.T. seasoning for food. Now we know it is actually medicine. Maybe we should put it in one of those bottles you can't get the top off of and jack up the price a zillion percent. However for the present time, our packaging and prices will remain the same. You can find this wonder product at http://www.hotexas.com, your one stop shop for food and medicine.

Next month's issue of "H.O.T. Tips" will include a H.O.T. dip for making cold, leftover meat into a culinary delight. Look for it!

This one is so simple yet sooooooo good I have to let you have it. The other day I stood in front of the fridge wondering what to snack on when I spied some cold roast beef. I have always liked to dip cold meat in a little mayonnaise. As I reached for the jar, suddenly, one of those moments in time, one of those inspired flashes...you might call it a "H.O.T." flash hit me and I grabbed the ever-present jar of H.O.T. sauce. Combining equal parts of mayonnaise and H.O.T. sauce produced a most marvelous culinary delight. We'll call it "H.O.T. Dip".

No kiddin', this stuff is really great!!

Try it, you'll like it. It will really light up your snack life.

H.O.T. Diet Tips

If you are slim and trim and have no trouble staying that way or you do not like spicy-hot foods, please excuse the e-intrusion. However, if you love H.O.T. Sauce and fight the battle of the bulge as half of us do, these tips are for you.

Part of dieting is fooling the body (namely the stomach) that it is satisfied when you have eaten reasonably. One way to do this is to add H.O.T. stuff to your meals and snacks. A half pint of cottage cheese with a couple of teaspoons of H.O.T. Sauce (made according to the world-famous recipe) will fool the stomach into believing it has had an exciting banquet when, in fact, only a scant few calories have been consumed. Try using the H.O.T. cottage cheese as a dip for raw veggies or low-fat chips. 

You can use H.O.T. sauce and H.O.T. powder in almost any dish to add to the stomach's experience without adding to the calories and therefore to the "bulges". Try this for a few months and see if it works for you as it has for me, making dieting more fun and effective.

If you have a H.O.T. tip you would like to add to this page, kindly Click here to email your HOT Tip and we will consider its inclusion, after we try it, of course.

P.S. There are two kinds of people in the world. H.O.T. heads and those who are Not H.O.T. heads, or for short, NotHeads. Are you a H.O.T. HEAD or a NOT-HEAD ?