Instructions: Hot, hot, hot: Fresh chili peppers can burn you. Wear gloves if youre handling a lot of them. Be careful not to touch your eyes, nose or mouth. To tame the heat of peppers, remove the seeds and the ribs inside the pepper.

Milk is antidote: If you get more heat than you can handle in a dish, dont drink water. It spreads the capsaicin. Instead, drink milk or east a dairy product, like yogurt.

Go slow: Add chilies to a dish slowly. Remember: You can always make it hotter. But you cant take the heat out if you add too much.

Using chilies

New Mexican chili powder: Chili powder found in most markets is a mixture that can include several spices. New Mexican chili powder is simply ground chilies. The peppers used are very dark red, almost purple, and the flavor is hot and smoky.

Chipotle: Smoked jalapeno peppers, chipotles are sold dried in Mexican markets or canned in a spicy sauce called adobo. If you need only one or two chipotles, the remainder of the canned version can be frozen for months. Tabasco has added a new chipotle sauce to its line. Say it "chee-POHT-lay."

Habanero: Lantern-shaped and usually yellow or orange, habaneros are extremely hot. If you cant stand the heat, substitute a jalapeno, or use only half the habanero. There are a number of habanero-spiked sauces on the market, including a new pepper sauce from Tabasco.

Pimento: Smoked paprika from Spain. Its very different from the sweet paprika of Hungary - hotter and smoky. Use it in deviled eggs and to zip up potato salad.

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