My object is a garlic press - in particular, a garlic press that wasn't mine, but was my friend's press. She gave me the job of squishing the garlic with the garlic press for a pork tenderloin dinner and I felt honored to have a job and do something useful, and then I used it improperly, I think, and broke it. I'm not sure I used it improperly, it might have just broken, maybe it had had it's life as a garlic press and it wouldn't have mattered who was using it, it would have broken at that moment. I like to think that. But I sense I did something wrong maybe, or used it improperly, because it just all felt wrong from the beginning the way I was trying to use it and then I forced it. Anyway, it went in the garbage, I believe.
She and her husband did not make a big deal out of it. In fact, they complemented me on how well I ended up cutting the garlic without the press. And it wasn't overdone how they were complementing me. it was like really, it seemed, not a big deal at all that I had just broken their garlic press. But I felt like a bit of jerk. It was metal and plastic I believe. By now--this happened in early January in Massachussetts (I can never spell that state)--I should have certainly sent them a new one, but I haven't.
This is all extraordinary, I believe.
Every time I use my own garlic press, like tonight, I feel guilty about it. Not super guilty. But just a little, and I think how nice it would be to send them a garlic press. I'd wrap it in tissue paper or on a bed of cottonish material and put it into a flat box, like it was piece of jewelry. I can imagine it would be a fun package to get in the mail. Slightly heavy if it is a nice metal one. And they would pick up the package and they would wonder, before opening it: What is it? What could it be? So your project is becoming a confessional for me and I'm realizing I'm soon going to have to go to the store, I'm going to have to find a good kitchen store, and buy a new one and send it to them. the garlic press I broke had a kind of square or trapezoidal end, silvery metal. And a pink handle that was metal, but maybe with a pink plastic or rubberlike coating on the handle. Hard to know really. It wasn't as sturdy certainly as the one I have at home, and I think that I might have expected it to be like the one I have, and you can't just assume things like that.
This is where it leads when you assume like I did, and now look, look at me, I'm a gosh darn mess about the whole thing.
Garlic presses are difficult to clean out, but they are a good tool. I've always chopped garlic but then i saw my friend make fish one night with the garlic press and it seemed like such and easy and good idea. Your fingers don't end up smelling like garlic if your with people and you're trying to make a fair impression. My parents have one that cleans out easily. And that is the kind that i would send to my friends if I ever do get around to doing it. My friends probably already bought a new one, but it wouldn't hurt to have two in the event that someone uses one of the presses improperly and breaks it. They'll have a back up.