Biological warfare of the culinary kind

In the Eighties, when we aging hippies brewed our own beer (in the bathtub, which might have been slightly illegal) and grew our own organic vegetables, I was determined to make my own garam masala, which is an Indian blend of spices that can be mild or incendiary, depending on what you toast in your little cast iron skillet. OK. Here's a tip: Don't do it. You can toast cinnamon and cardamom and even cloves without too much fallout, but when you get to the big guns of cayenne and other peppers, all hell breaks loose when the spice hits the heat. Kids were dropping like flies, and even the houseplants wilted. I survived probably due to my previous exposure to tear gas. That's another story for another time, however...